What 3D printing really can (and can't) do.

What 3D Printing Really Can (and Can’t) Do

November 9, 2013    By Alex Morris in Printing Technology

We quite often see reports about 3D printing, not just in the tech outlets but in mainstream news channels. It’s promoted the notion we’ve crossed a factories will soon close down and that everything is going to be 3D printed. But it doesn’t stop there. We might even be about to make shops and delivery services redundant because everything we need, from a new top to a piping hot pizza, will be downloadable and printable.
The thing is, there’s actually a slim chance such a scenario might come into being. Any tech commentator should have Harry Warner’s “Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?” quote (said in response to the advent of talkie movies) pinned to their bathroom walls. However, the technology used in this distant future will probably be as alien to today’s 3D printing technology as a wind-up cine camera would appear next to a modern digital model.
In other words, something fundamental will have to change before this perceived printing utopia can be reached. And realistically, to make anything, you’d need a printer loaded with the entire periodic table of the elements and some nifty means of focusing energy and arranging atoms (and probably one or two other bits, such as a USB cable). The technology available today is, to put it mildly, still in the Stone Age, laying down single homogeneous materials or sculpting away unwanted material from blocks, powders, and gels. Here’s what else goes on in this intriguing printing world.

Strength and Elegance

When building fan blades for jet engines or deadly blades for Samurai swords, such relatively loose bonds simply won’t do. The techniques for creating high-tensile materials are extremely specialist and have been honed (and continue to be honed) for generations. Similarly, making a mug out of clay is only half the process – at minimum it needs to be fired, but a spot of glazing helps too. These are examples of structural and chemical changes that can’t be reproduced by the blunt tools that make up the 3D printing technology of today.
But let’s not be too pessimistic. Wind-up cine cameras did indeed lead to the modern wonders we have today (although some would debate whether the quality of the work produced has similarly improved). And people did want to hear actors talk. Even Keanu Reeves. What was crucial was that the potential of the technology was recognised and moving pictures were seen as useful enough to stick with even though the technology was (in retrospect) primitive. That’s why it’s important that for all the limitations of current 3D printing, we have to stick with it, make sure we go on developing the technology and grow a sense of reality about its limitations and possibilities.
At present, 3D printing can probably be safely divided into two types – the high-end industrial/scientific/medical applications and the hobbyist and small business solutions. Needless to say, apart from the technology itself, the main dividing factor is price. The machines currently at the top of the game are truly remarkable pieces of kit, and have manufactured to at least prototype level object as diverse and useful as aircraft parts and internal organs.
Often, what needs to change is the look of an object to take into account the new method of construction. We’ve probably all seen the 3D printed gun that was doing the rounds on the news channels earlier this month. You may have noticed it resembled a gun from a 1960s sci-fi flick. Sure, it was no less deadly (when it worked), but its unique look was an engineering rather than an aesthetic decision. Steel a few millimetres thick is capable of withstanding the explosive pressures created inside a gun, but plastic, especially plastic shaped in a 3D printer, needs to be closer to an inch thick to absorb it. And this principle applies to all objects manufactured by 3D printing. Anything we’re used to seeing and feeling in the modern world might have to look quite different if we ever permanently switch manufacturing methods. Load-bearing, pressure-taking, or heat-absorbing objects can’t be copied if the material it’s made of changes.

A World Where Everything is Free?

A crucial “can’t-do” in 3D printing exists outside the technological realm. We’re talking copyright. A regular theme we see in articles about this new technology is that we’ll soon be able to print off our very own versions of existing objects – the examples used often being exclusive branded goods. Well hold on a minute. Aren’t there intellectual property laws to protect against such blatant copying? The answer’s yes, of course. And they’ll apply to things made by 3D printers just as they do for the knock-off Rolexes and Chanel sunglasses sold by blokes in pubs.
For sure, they might be a little harder to police, because the design data will no doubt spread like wildfire over the internet – and the cops might be busier tracking down guns – but it will remain illegal. Intellectual property ownership is a vital element in a creative company’s value, and its importance to a national economy shouldn’t be underestimated.

Tiptoeing Towards Ubiquity?

For the most part, 3D printing is currently more than proving itself to be an excellent way of making relatively low stress machine components as well as models, trinkets and ornaments. Its use as a prototyping tool – at least for the visual appearance of objects, perhaps with a little hand-finishing – is beyond doubt.
But most importantly importantly, the technology is allowing people to design objects at their desks and either print them off themselves or send their designs to professional companies to print them. It’s perhaps this feature of allowing people with no machining, manufacturing, or modelling capabilities to try their hand at creating things that will dominate the technology’s story as the printers get more sophisticated

About the author:

I'm a writer for Office Kitten and Cartridge Save here in Manchester. I've been a writer for over a decade with business, cultural, entertainment, and technology articles being published for numerous publications and websites. I'm also a creative writer with a novel and a blog to my name, although I also take great interest in music, films, and culture in general to my name, although I also take great interest in music, film, and culture in general.

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