What Are The Benefits of 3D Printing?
With 3D printing, designers can quickly turn concepts into 3D models or prototypes (aka "rapid prototyping") and enable rapid design changes. It enables manufacturers to produce products on demand rather than in large batches, improving inventory management and reducing warehouse space. People in remote areas can make objects that they cannot access.
From a practical point of view, 3D printing saves money and materials compared to subtractive techniques because very little raw material is wasted. It promises to change the nature of manufacturing, eventually letting consumers download files to print even complex 3D objects — such as electronic devices — in their own homes.
What Can 3D Printers Do?
Designers use 3D printers to quickly create product models and prototypes, but they are also increasingly used to manufacture final products. Items made with 3 d printer include shoe designs, furniture, wax castings for jewelry, tools, tripods, gifts and novelties, and toys. The automotive and aerospace industries use 3-d printers to make parts. Artists can create sculptures and architects can make models of their projects. Archaeologists are using 3D printers to reconstruct models of fragile artifacts, including some destroyed by ISIS in recent years. Likewise, paleontologists and their students can reproduce dinosaur bones and other fossils.
Who Invented 3D Printing?
The first 3D printer to use stereolithography was created by Charles W. Hull in the mid-1980s. Lithography has traditionally been an expensive commercial technology, with 3d printer price in the five or even six figures, but in recent years there have been desktop professional photocuring machines worth thousands of dollars, starting at much lower prices than Shanda. consumption system.
In 1986, Hull founded 3D Systems, a company that today sells 3 d printers using a variety of technologies. They range from entry-level kits to advanced commercial systems, and 3D Systems also offers an on-demand parts service, primarily for commercial users.
