From history, processes, and technologies, this article explores the highlights of 3D printing and rapid prototyping; while also focusing on the difference between professional and consumer printing.
The development of 3D printing technologies has long been defined as THIRD INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION. To date, 3D Printing is carried out only by Designers or, in any case, with appropriate skills and knowledge, people who, at the end of a cognitive path that encapsulates a set of capacities to acquire through it, are able to program a 3D printer in such a way as to obtain the part desired by the customer or by himself. So the question arises spontaneously: why is this spoken of Third Industrial Revolution? In the future, 3D printing is expected to become an easy-to-use process not only for “jobseekers” but also for people who are not part of the manufacturing industry. There is also a lot of talk about the solutions and the aids that the use of technology could bring to the third world by printing food, useful also for air-space missions. Not to mention applications in the building industry with the printing of homes or modules to be assembled with on-site materials, cutting logistical costs, labor, and construction times. In the medical field tangible developments have been in the field of orthopedics for prosthesis and orthodontic creation with the production of supports and masks; As for the field of organic tissue production, there have been several practical cases, but the scope is still under development. In the long-term future, we expect a scenario where each of us will have a 3D printer in the house to print everything: clothes, food, consumer items, spare parts for home appliances and cars and much more.
And what do you think?
