School children are able to visualize complex molecular structures, biological structures, history lessons, art lessons all created by the 3D printer. A child would not know how the leaning tower of Pisa looks nor will he know the Sphinx of ancient Egypt until he can see and touch the miniature version of it. Transforming the classroom from the traditional text book to lessons where you can touch and see will be a revolution in the Education sector.
Museums preserve priceless artifacts to ensure the future generation will get to see them and learn from them – however some exhibits are too fragile to be exposed to the public. To counter this the Smithsonian Museum has 3D scanned thousands of their restricted exhibits and 3D printed them so that the public can see them.
Engineers spend insane amounts of money to get a prototype done from metal workshops and most of those products don’t meet their specification. Imagine the possibilities of designing your own cogwheel, propeller blade and getting it 3D printed just the way you want it! Once the final product is ready, it can be easily converted to a mold, thereby reducing the cost of wasting material to create the perfect mold. Engineers are able to innovate and iterate at every stage. It is hard to create concentric spheres – where one sphere is inside another sphere without using 3D printing technology. Modern jet engines are manufactured specifically using 3D printers (These are done using metal printers that are not available in our country).
We have the carbon fiber filament that is ideal if you want to 3D print a drone or its propellers. People who are into electronics design the housing for their devices can use 3D printing because it offers filaments ranging from PETG, ABS and PLA. Depending on the skill of the designer – you can print the most complex of structures – in the material you desire.
3D printing technology has enabled architects to make miniature models of the buildings they design reducing the need for their clients to visualize them on a computer screen. Clients can even see how their homes are lit by placing a light source in different angles. One fine example was the Colombo Port City project that modelled using 3D printers. We have printed home interiors to the highest precision that you can see the staircase, bathrooms, windows and doors clearly. The finished product is so good you can even give it to your kids to play as a doll house.
For starters you can download the 3D model of the Lotus Towers (Sri Lanka’s tallest building) from the internet and print as we have done here. You can find many designs from the sites such thingiverse.com, 3dfilemarket.com
We have come across furniture designers who are unable to create a new product without spending heavily on the first drafts of the designs. One of the common issues is the designer draws the model, but the manufacturer gets it wrong. To avoid this confusion – the designer can 3D print the chair (miniature model) and show it to the carpenter. 3D printing makes this job easy and allows the designer to make fine adjustments on their designs.
Companies that manufacture containers, cups, bottles use 3D printing to see the whether the container can hold the right amount of volume while maintaining its structure. These are a few of their applications where 3D printing is involved in rapid prototyping. By creating functional prototypes you are able to test the form, strength before sending it for mass production. Having an accurate representation of the final product is a smart and cost effective way to production.
In the field of medicine 3D printers play a role when it comes to creating patient matched or patient specific devices. By 3D scanning the patient’s body – doctors are able to customize their devices. Manufacturing cost is high for umbilical chord clamps for local hospitals in Haiti therefore instruments such as those are 3D printed.
Recent developments are made to produce perforated plaster casts which is customized to the patient’s arm and gives better comfort compared to the enclosed plaster cast. 3D printing is used to develop external prostheses for patients. A global community called e-Nable is working in partnership with Prosthetists and 3D Printers to create 3D printed prosthetics for children in developing countries. For kids in war torn locations and who are suffering from amputated limbs, 3D printed customized prosthetics reduced the cost significantly and are easy to manufacture within the country.
3D printing has made a breakthrough in organ printing – scientists are able to 3D print a mold of the ear, nose and create them by pouring a gel containing cartilage. Also discoveries were made print organs directly from the printer by using a combination of alginate, smooth muscle cells, and valve interstitial cells. This creates the possibility of people generating their own organs for a transplant using their own cells without looking donors. Thereby improving the chances of survival when a transplant is required.
Consecutive layers are added in this manner.
Fashion designing has taken a serious boost from 3D printing – designers spend more time designing their work and less time in creating it. Materials such as polyamide, nylon is used to create the most intricate designs. The filaments have a wide range of colors and you can order it directly from us and our printers are capable of handling other brands of filaments.
The world’s first 3D printed wedding dress was done in Sri Lanka. The applications are infinite – 3D printing allows you to print prototypes of ornaments, jewelry ranging from bracelets to earrings. Specially designed fabrics are available over the web which have special breathable properties. Since the 3D printer can go to accuracies of 40 microns – you make significant improvements to your Fashion Design.
To create your favorite action figure, design toys based on movies, comics 3D printing is the ideal tool for you. As long as you can design it using a 3D software (3D Max, Maya, Autodesk etc.) you can make it come to life using our 3D printers. For many creative designs there are sites such as thingiverse.com to help you get started. If you’re a comic book geek and you want to design your costume for the upcoming comic con, Google it and get it 3D printed. If not modify it or create a whole new one. The Iron Man suite, Predator mask are few of the examples where 3D printing is used in the film industry. 3D printing allows the user to obtain the perfect fit for the costume.
Stop motion films such as “Coraline” have also used 3D printing since it gives the artist a better understanding of the character rather than seeing it through a computer screen. To get different emotions of the character hundreds of faces were 3D printed – significantly reducing the cost and time used to making it out of hand.
