Every year in December american magazine The Economist publishes the collection of predictions about what could be possible in the upcoming year in the sphere of science and technologies. The predictions are gathered among famous poiticians, economists and scientists.
The predictions about 3d-printers are also in the list. It seems that this year 3d-printer is really going to become an affordable thing for everyone who needs it's accomplishment.
People can prepare themself to be ready to impress friends with high-tech wizardry in 2008. Consider shopping for a three-dimensional printer will become an outstanding example of such an advance. As far as 3d-printers were well-established in sophisticated design studios and industrial duties, the price of basic 3D printers is likely to go under $5,000 in 2008. This opens them to home use.
Wizardry is the right word, for a 3D printer can really create any three-dimensional object, no matter how complicated, that you can design in a computer. Chain-mail, the coats of interlinking rings that were worn by knights of old, provides a beautiful example. You might think that to make chain-mail you would need a lot of rings, which you then join painstakingly to neighbouring rings, up and down, left and right. That’s how medieval armourers made them. A 3D printer can just print chain-mail, already all linked up; it emerges from the printer almost ready to wear.
The underlying process is quite simple. Objects are built up inside the printer (commercial models are about the size of a domestic fridge), thin layer upon thin layer as a printer makes repeated passes, following a sliced-up blueprint provided by the computer. The 3D form grows upwards, at a rate of about 5cm (2 inches) an hour, until it is done.
Different manufacturers have different approaches. Two leading companies, Z Corp and 3D Systems, offer a choice between powder and polymer as the material from which the object emerges. In either case, an inkjet printer creates the shape of the object, either by adding a glue to the powder, or by pumping out fine drops of polymer that are then cured by an ultra-violet lamp.
Add a 3D scanner and you can reproduce real objects, including your own head. The scan takes a few seconds. Then just wait as a copy of your head gradually grows inside the printer.
More serious uses for high-end machines include making models of buildings for architects, drug molecules for pharmaceutical companies and shoes for fashion companies. Extremely specialised machines can even print in titanium, using powdered titanium and an electron beam, making it possible to create usable one-off parts for aeroplanes and F1 racing cars. There is talk of machines that will print from powdered gold and shake up the jewellery-design business.
But the real fun will come as ordinary folk at home feel free to let their creativity run wild. If you can imagine it, you can make it.
