CHAPTER 1

THE CONCEPT OF 3D PRINTING

Introduction

A lot of people don't know that 3D printers have been around for a

lot of years and there has been a huge rise in both 3D printers and the ways people use them. 3D Printing technology is already changing the way we produce objects from tools to toys to clothing to even body parts. There are a lot of areas where 3D printing is making a big difference, like in the arts, prototyping new products, making sense of abstract ideas, the manufacturing and construction industry, bioprinting, etc. This chapter will focus on the basics of the 3D Printer, what a 3D printer is, how 3D printing allows us to make almost anything from nothing, how 3D printing works, the types of 3D printers, the future of 3d printers, and what purpose do 3D printers serve.

First and foremost, let's look at how things were previously created. There are different ways we make things:

• One way of making things is called Subtractive Manufacturing: In subtractive manufacturing, you take a lump of material like wood, metal, or stone and cut away some parts of it to make the thing we want. That is, you remove or subtract the material you don't need to create something which could be carving a wooden chair from a tree or making a statue from some stone.

• Another way of making stuff is called Forming. In this method, you take a block of material and apply a force to change its shape. An example is Wallace and Gromit made by shaping or forming plasticine.

• Another way to make things is called Casting: This is where you take a solid material, make it into a liquid, and you pour it into a mold. An example is chocolate bunnies and Easter eggs.

• Lastly is the Additive Manufacturing and this is where you have nothing to begin with. You just keep adding materials layers by layer anywhere you want until an object is created.

What is 3D Printing?

3D Printing is part of addictive manufacturing where an object is created by adding materials layer by layer. 3D printing is simple to understand. To make something, you start with nothing and build it up one layer of material at a time until you have finished it. Examples of the process can be found all around us for example, people making brick walls for a long time and so on.

In other words, 3D printing is a process in which a physical object is made from a digital design. The process starts by laying down very thin layers of material, like liquid or powdered plastic, metal, or cement. Then, the layers are melted together to make one big piece of material.

Alternatively, 3d printing can be described as the method of creating solid three-dimensional items from a digital file, which is also known as additive manufacturing. Layering materials such as plastic, composite, or biomaterial in a 3D printer produce a wide variety of shapes, sizes, rigidities, and colors.

Note the following about 3D Printing

• Since 3D printing technology has been used, it has made manufacturing more efficient. In the long run, it could have a huge impact on both the manufacturing, logistics, and inventory management industries, especially if it can be used in mass production processes.

• If you want to make a lot of things with 3D printing, the speed isn't fast enough right now. However, the technology has been used to cut down on the time it takes to make prototypes of parts and devices, as well as the tools needed to make them so that they can be made faster. People who make things on a smaller scale like this are very happy about this because it cuts down on their costs and the time to market, which is the time from when a product is thought up to when people can buy it.

• Additive manufacturing allows designers to create complex parts for machines, airplanes, cars, etc at a fraction of the cost and time of standard, like forging, molding, and sculpting.

• People are using new technologies and techniques to make things with 3D printing right now. However, there are some important technological and business-environment changes that came together to make consumer 3D printing more affordable and consumer-friendly bringing additive manufacturing to homes and businesses.

• The common material used in 3D Printing is plastic, but the use of some other materials allows for the creation of some products beyond tools and toys.

How 3D Printing Works

• Step 1: Create a blueprint of the object you want to print. That is, starts by making a drawing of the thing you want on your computer.
• Step 2: Use modeling software like blenders to create your design, or you can visit some websites like Thingiverse, Shapeways, etc, to find objects that others have 3D modeled.
• Step 3: After the design, send it to the printer.
• Step 4: The computer will make a special kind of file that is sent to the 3d printer. The 3D printer will thereafter read that file, and print the object layer by layer to make the thing you want.
• Then the 3D object will be created through layering where the printer will add one layer of the object at a time till a structure is fully formed.

3D Printing Process

This is the core of all 3D printing and everybody follows this procedure to 3d print. In a more detailed way, follow these processes:

• First, always start with a 3D CAD model (a three-dimensional model) on the computer of the object you want to print.
• Then, export that model as an.STL file (Stereolithography file)
• From there, we can import that STL file into our slicing software
• From the slicing software, we can edit the layers, the tool path, the temperature, the color, and how fast you want to print.

• Then, send that code that the slicer makes in a G-code file off to the 3d printer.
• Click Print and the printer creates the object that we made in the CAD model or downloads it online and create a three-dimensional object.

Note: There are other types of the 3D printing process.

There are many different ways to make things with 3D printing, such as:

• Extrusion: When you make something with extrusion, you wind a plastic filament or metal wire around an extrusion nozzle and then unwrap it. This gives the material to the nozzle. The materials that are used are thermoplastic, eutectic metals, edible materials, metal alloy, and more.

• Granular: Selective melting is done in a...