experimental physics
march 2015
jason wang
The Real 3D Printer
image sources
Business Insider
14
3D printing has been in the news quite a lot recently, and for good reason too.
For the first time, ordinary people with access to this device can essentially just download schematics from online and print out any object they want, instead of having to go through companies that specialize in making custom objects. 3D printers can now print out things from small custom designed coffee mugs to entire cars. People in China have even used them to print out entire apartment complexes!
Now that’s impressive. Clearly, 3D printing has already begun to revolutionize the way humans make products.
Nope. Well, at least not in the sense that it’s 3D printing that has been doing this job the entire time. It’s actually sort of a misnomer.
Current 3D printing methods involve layering multiple 2D layers of material on top of each other; essentially,
sources
Science Daily
Wired