3d
printing
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W
e normally use printers to print words, pictures etc. on papers in our day to day
life. But, have you ever imagined how amazing it would be if you can get printed
whatever the things in your mind that can be touched by your own hands? Yes, it is
possible now because of the technology called “3D Printing”.
What is 3D Printing?
In simply saying, 3D Printing is a manufacturing
process which is also called as Additive
Manufacturing or Free Form Fabrication.
There are a variety of manufacturing methods
we are using to manufacture products such
as Machining, Forming, Welding, Carpentry
etc. In those methods what we do is remove
unwanted materials by machining parts,
joining things together or deforming the shape
of the objects by applying a force or some other technique. In 3D printing, we add material
continuously to produce a usable product. There are different technologies and materials you
can print with, but all are based on the same principle; a digital model is turned into a three-
dimensional solid object by adding material layer by layer.
It seems like this is a new concept, but it has been around for more than 30 years.
The first 3D printing process was invented by Chuck Hull in 1983 called ‘stereolithography’. In
his patent, he defined stereolithography as ‘a method and apparatus for making solid objects
by successively “printing” thin layers of the ultraviolet curable material one on top of the
other’. Even though this patent stated as curable liquid materials, after Hull founded the
company ‘3D Systems’, he soon realized his technique was not limited to only liquids so that
the definition was expanded to ‘any material capable of solidification or capable of altering
its physical state’. With this, he built the foundation of what we now know today as additive
manufacturing (AM) - or 3D printing.
Earlier AM was used to pre-product visualization models in the form of rapid prototyping
but most recently it is being used to fabricate end-use products in Aircraft, Dental Restorations,
Medical Implants, Automobiles and even Fashion Products.
How does it Work?
Every 3D print process starts as a digital 3D design file. Think of it as a blueprint for a physical
object. It is unable to print without a design file because it is like trying to print a document
on a sheet of paper without a text file.
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University of Peradeniya GAUGE Magazine