How do 3D printers work and where are they used
- Recently, India’s first 3D-printed post office was virtually inaugurated by the Union Minister in Bengaluru’s Cambridge Layout.
- Its construction was completed in just 43 days — two days ahead of the deadline.
- Multinational company Larsen & Toubro Limited built the post office with technological support from IIT Madras.
3D Printing
- Also known as additive manufacturing, it is a process that uses computer-created design to make three-dimensional objects layer by layer.
- It is an additive process, in which layers of a material like plastic, composites or bio-materials are built up to construct objects that range in shape, size, rigidity and colour.
- Invented in the 1980s, 3D printing burst into the mainstream around the 2010s.
How is 3D printing done?
- A personal computer connected to a 3D printer is used to design a 3D model of the required object on computer-aid design (CAD) software.
- After pressing ‘print’, the 3D printer does the rest of the job.
- They construct the desired object by using a layering method from the bottom to up by piling on layer after layer.
- Here, a nozzle moves back and forth while dispensing a wax or plastic-like polymer layer-by-layer, waiting for that layer to dry, then adding the next level.
- It acts generally the same as a traditional inkjet printer in the direct 3D printing process.
- These machines are capable of printing anything from ordinary objects like a ball or a spoon to complex moving parts like hinges and wheels.
- It could print a whole bike – handlebars, saddle, frame, wheels, brakes, pedals and chain – ready assembled, without using any tools.
Examples of 3D printing
- It is being used in a host of different industries like healthcare, automobile and aerospace.
- Recently, aerospace manufacturing company Relativity Space launched a test rocket made entirely from 3D-printed parts.
- However, it suffered a failure.
- At the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, the healthcare industry used 3D printers to make much-needed medical equipment.
- It included swabs, face shields, and masks, as well as the parts to fix their ventilators.