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Need a part for your car? Just hit the "Print" button...
by Michael Riska
I wish I had a magic box that would build things for me, like the ones they had on Star Trek. Captain Kirk used to stand across the room and bark "Computer! Make me a ham and cheese sandwich!" when he was getting pumped up to go punch some alien bad guys in the face. The "replicator" would make the sandwich, which Kirk would lay into like a rabid badger. Spock would raise an eyebrow, "Computer, please create a straitjacket for the Captain." Any object you could possibly want would be faithfully reproduced by the magic box.
Part of the fun of science fiction is the way it toes the line between possibility and pure fantasy. And while it may never be possible to fly from one planet to another in fifteen minutes the way they did in Star Trek, it is already possible to use a computer and a relatively small machine to custom-make certain objects. In fact, the technology has been around since 1986.
The machine is called a 3D printer, and the most common type works very much like a that standard inkjet job on your desk. But instead of putting down a layer of ink, the 3D printer puts down layer after layer of melted plastic, or another substance, until an actual physical object has been created. Related methods for custom fabrication, like stereolithography and laser sintering, use a laser to melt a powder or harden a resin layer by layer, according to the specific design of the object.
Trashing the old drawing board
This technology has drastically improved the lives of designers and engineers. These poor people used to draw their product designs with paper and pencil. Computers were the first godsend. Instead of dreaming up the newest widget on the drafting table, they suddenly had access to CADD and 3D modeling software. Unfortunately, once the plan was drawn up, the process for creating a physical prototype remained the same: whittle it out of a piece of foam, or shape a prototype out of clay, or send the design to a manufacturer for a limited production run. The computer programs saved time, but you still had to sit on the side of the road eating dust, waiting for the Pony Express to bring back a model that you could show to your clients. Product development was expensive and moved at a glacial pace.
With 3D printing, a digital design can be turned into a physical model by hitting the "print" button and waiting a few hours. That gives the designers something to show their clients much faster than the old way. And that's an important consideration. The earlier you can create a working prototype, the sooner you can have a product in manufacturing and the faster you can start making money off new products. The prototype is a crucial step in the process, because it gives the client a better understanding — a more intuitive grasp — of what they're getting than even the best "3D" model on a computer screen.
This is your brain...
Beyond the prototyping application, 3D printing is showing itself to be useful in all sorts of ways. In combination with 3D scanning technology, 3D printing can be used to create models of objects that are not easily seen with the naked eye. Some Egyptologists already used the method to view a mummy's head without removing the bandages.
Better than that, since they did the scan in the field, they emailed the digital scan information to colleagues in the U.S., who then 3D-printed the model of the head and began studying it.
This kind of "3D email" has the potential to be a very powerful tool for sharing information. A country doctor could email a copy of his patient's diseased spleen to specialists at a foreign clinic. You could email a replica of your new baby to its grandparents so they can start spoiling it before they even see it.
Of course the U.S. Army is in on the action. They're trying to perfect a process for custom-making useable metal parts for their equipment in the field. With a 3D printer on the back of a truck, making replacements for broken or malfunctioning machinery would be a matter of downloading a digital file for the specific piece and "printing" one right there on the spot.
Several publicly traded companies are making good money off this technology — mostly for rapid prototyping applications. 3D Systems Corp. (TDSC:NASDAQ) has high-profile clients like Chrysler, Ford and Mattel. DTM Corp. (DTMC: NASDAQ-SC) is developing a process for metal fabrication using stainless-steel alloys. Stratasys, Inc. (SSYS:NASDAQ) designed a working gunstock for a U.S. Navy carbine.
I'll be Ken and you be Barbie
So far, the only company offering 3D printing services to the public is ToyBuilders.com. ToyBuilders creates custom toys from client designs. Send them a couple photos of yourself and they'll make an action figure in your image. Or design something with your 3D modeling software and they'll bring it to life.
The biggest drawback to 3D printing at the moment has to do with the materials that can be used. The melted plastic inkjet-style printing works very well, but once you start to use other materials, or a mix of materials, the process develops some problems. For instance, if you use two different materials, their different cooling rates will cause the end product to be brittle. The solution to this dilemma may be the creation of a new class of substances that have the properties of conventional materials, but are better suited to the 3D printing process.
Computer! Fetch me a Bud
Eventually, 3D printing technology could change manufacturing itself. This is what its fans really get excited about. As prices come down (the cheap version currently costs US$50,000) and the materials problems are solved, 3D printers could become as common as the normal 2D version is now. Instead of buying an item online and waiting for it to come in the mail, you could buy the design, download it to your printer and have it fabricated for you on the spot. You could design your own wineglasses and have them ready in time for your party.
You could have, really, pretty much anything you could think of. And that's where the sci-fi angle comes in. For now, these machines are mostly sitting in stark, fluorescent-lighted designers' caves and toiling to build plastic car models. But it may not be long before you're sitting on your couch and commanding your magic box to create a cold beer for you. And when that happens, the future we have so eagerly awaited will finally have arrived.
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