Three Cool Examples of 3-D Printing

Every year, there are more and more stories about the next big technology. Usually, it's a new gizmo or technique that will make the world into a Star Trek-style post-scarcity paradise. It rarely works out that way, but 3-D printing might finally be the real deal. The basic idea of 3-D printing is that a user sends a design to a suitably equipped $2,000 to $10,000 printer that uses the design as a template for the line-by-line scanning of a fluid medium with a laser and "prints" the object. The recipient will then have a precise replica of the original design without paying shipping costs, hiring carpenters or machinists, or stockpiling expensive spare parts for the inevitable repairs.

Of course, all of this overlooks the best part of 3-D printing—it's really cool. Watching a laser beam fire into a clear resin dozens of times per second to produce a full-size model of whatever you need is enough to make you feel like you're living in the future. As a manufacturing worker, the future will be in your hands before you know it. The details of 3-D printing manufacturing are constantly being simplified, and the cost of the 3-D printing manufacturing process is dropping. This will put 3-D printing in your workshop within just a few years. Once you have it, feel free to try one of these cool projects.

Ivan Sentch of Auckland, New Zealand, has printed the components for an Aston Martin DB4. When he started the project in early 2013, Mr. Sentch had no experience with 3-D printing. Working from his shop and using specs he downloaded from the Internet, he spent the next several months printing out the components of the sports car. He expects assembly to take a while longer, but the process is well underway—and quite a bit cheaper than purchase and shipping costs.

The techniques for 3-D printing are also helping theoretical mathematicians with higher-dimensional modeling. Often, a mathematician attempts to render a topology that's described in an equation by drawing a picture of the surface it describes. This process is somewhat limited, as it's usually done in two dimensions. With 3-D printing, however, it is possible to render 3-D models of 4-D surfaces. One attempt produced a 3-D representation of a 4-D dodecahedron. Its creators swear it's useful for teaching, but that doesn't make it less cool.

It isn't all good fun, however. The Austrian Interior Ministry recently test fired a gun that was produced via 3-D printing, which authorities say violates Austria's strict gun laws. With 3-D printing, it's possible to download any gun design you want, print it, and assemble a weapon that couldn't legally be sold to you. The implications have yet to be worked out legally, but the proponents of open-source weapons clearly appreciate being able to print a weapon of their own design for less money than it would cost to buy one.

As the cost of 3-D printing drops, you can expect to see more and more applications for the process cropping up across the manufacturing sector. Indeed, it's possible that even the concept of a "manufacturing sector" will have to be modified as consumers start 3-D printing goods in their own garages. Either way, it's here to stay, and it is very cool indeed.

(Photo courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net)