This document provides an overview of 3D printing including its history, key technologies like FDM and SLA, applications, limitations, and future possibilities. It discusses how 3D printing allows for personalization and customization through desktop manufacturing. While early 3D printed parts are not as high quality as traditionally manufactured ones, the document outlines how 3D printing could impact fields like construction, medicine, and space exploration through continued technological improvements.

1. 3d printing: History, culture,
future

2. http://www.slideshare.net/
dbgerhard/3dprint-66700445

3. Tea.
Earl Grey.
Hot

4. What is 3d printing?
• Using a general-purpose machine to create a physical object, where
the design of the structure is provided to the machine at build-time.
• Usually, the object is created additively, in a layer-by-layer process.
• Compare to "CNC" (computerized numerical control) which usually
refers to a subtractive process like carving, routing, turning or
cutting.

5. Fab Lab
• Collection of machines to build anything
• 3d printing is one of them
• laser cutters arguably have higher utility and usability
• Circuit miller is arguably more important for making high tech things
• Price of these machines are prohibitive, but dropping
• as patents expire

6. Fab lab machines
• 3d printer
• 2d CNC router (shopbot)
• bench top 3d mill
• laser cutter
• vinyl cutter
• circuit etcher
• engraver
• CNC lathe
• paper printer
• water jet

7. Why do we care about 3d printing?
• Personalization and customization
• you can make a single copy of a thing, which is prohibitive with
traditional manufacturing
• Complexity
• you can make objects with complicated internal structures, which
is difficult with traditional manufacturing

8. Why do we care about 3d printing?
• Rapid prototyping
• Can make a physical instance of a design, and quickly tell if it's
the right size and shape for a job
• Can iteratively refine a design based on real-world performance
• Modelling for traditional manufacturing
• Build a complex shape, and use it as a mold for a more traditional
material process like metalwork

9. Why do we care about 3d printing?
• NRE (Non-recurring engineering) costs
• eg: $100,000 to set up a production line,
each copy after than costs $0 (and a few
seconds of time)
• (idealized, for a small simple part)
• 3d-printing a copy costs $5 (and a half hour
of time)
• Once you are making more than 20,000
copies, traditional manufacturing is cheaper.
• Traditional manufacturing is also far higher
quality and far faster.
$0.00
$2.50
$5.00
$7.50
$10.00
Units (thousands)
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
cost/unit (traditional)
cost/unit (3d print)

10. BONUS ROUND: time to completion
0
12,500
25,000
37,500
50,000
Units (thousands)
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
hours to complete (traditional)
hours to complete (3d print)
• assume 100 hours to set up a
production line, and seconds to
make each device afterward

11. How did we make things before 3d printing?
• Carve the part out of wood or plaster
• Also, carve the internal structure of the part separately
• Cast a series of molds of stronger materials until you have a steel
form for the inside, and a separate steel form for the outside
• Pour molten plastic (metal, whatever), and let cool
• eject the part from the mold
• Alternatives: cornstarch molds for food gels like gummies

12. Injection molding and cornstarch molding

13. What are the limits of 3d printing
• a 3d printed part is not as good as a manufactured part.
• more fragile, lower resolution, more expensive and takes longer to produce
• 3d printing requires specialized equipment and materials
• a 3d printed part requires a 3d design file
• expert knowledge required to produce a design
• but, designs can be shared and modified
• Consumer 3d printing is limited to thermoplastics, and ~10cm3
build area

14. Different kinds of 3d printing
• Selective Laser Sintering (SLS)
• Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM)
or Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF)
• Stereolithography (SLA)
• Powerbed gluejet printing
(3d printing proper)
➡ laser-melted nylon power
➡ melted thermoplastic
filament
➡ Photo-cured acrylic resin
➡ metal power and glue, later
annealed with copper
most consumer printers

15. Know your material
• FDM/FFF printing can use a few different thermoplastic materials
• Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) : Strong, food-safe, lego plastic;
awesome.
• Polylactic acid (PLA): biodegradable; derived from corn, tapioca or other
plants. more brittle, higher melting temperature, harder to work with, not
as strong. more properly called a polyester.
• Specialized thermoplastic materials: ninjaflex, conductive plastic,
chocolate etc.
• All have specific properties that will influence your print

16. Know your printer
• Each printer is different, and fail in different ways
• Know your printer and model custom supports and modifications
• Fit tolerances for connecting parts and external parts

17. Selective Laser Sintering

18. SLS
• PROS
• Precision limited only by confinement
of laser beam
• Non-cintered laser power supports
the rest of the model
• non-flat base, no support needed,
can print movable parts
• Can be coloured by precision dying
of the material layer by layer
• CONS
• Can't print solids with empty space
inside
• you must be able to remove the
excess powder
• Very costly machine
• Very dirty extraction process

19. Selective Laser
Sintering
$1,000,000

21. SLA
• PROS
• Precision limited only by confinement
of laser beam
• Acrylic is a very high quality food-
safe end-product
• Colouring is possible but difficult
• CONS
• Can't print solids with empty space
inside
• you must be able to remove the
excess liquid
• Expensive (but getting cheaper)
• Requires base to build the model to

22. Consumer SLA
$3500

23. Really cheap consumer SLA
• Peachy printer: $100
• Very clever solution
• open source
• $600,000 on kickstarter
• Yorkton!
• ... WHERE ARE THEY NOW

26. FDM
• PROS
• Cheap
• ABS plastic is pretty good. PLA is not
great
• Can print complex internal structures
• Can print in colour, with multiple print
heads
• CONS
• Resolution limited to thickness of
material bead
• requires base to build model on
• Model should have a flat side
• requires support material
• unstable as models get large
• Print heads can clog causing build
failure

27. Consumer FDM
$500-$5000

28. Model Replication
• To replicate a physical model on a 3d printer, there are two ways
• 3d scanning
• Model Measurement
• (third way: find someone online who’s already made one)

29. 3d scanning
• Many commercial products and
maker plans
• Microsoft kinect, makerbot
digitizer, etc

30. 3d scanning
• 3d scanner is expensive
• (but getting cheaper)
• Many layers of postprocessing
required
• (but getting easier)

31. Model Measurement
• Use the right tools
• Calliper, protractor etc
• be precise
• Model as you Measure
• Aim for easy replication
• think construction process
• Find inspiration from existing models

32. Virtual Reality Sculpting
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnqFdSa5p7w

33. Rendering Data

35. 3d modelling software
• Tinkercad
• Blender
• Sketchup
• Zbrush
• Meshmixer, Meshlab, Netfabb

36. Scale
• Consider the smallest discernible element your printer can generate
• Simplify your model to match characteristics of the printer
• Don’t try to print (or even model) anything smaller than 2 mm
• Use the right tool for the job: metal pins and screws are better at
providing mechanical structure than 3d printed plastic

37. Support
• FDM printers layer melted plastic on
each previous layer
• Some things are impossible
• Aim for, at most, 45 degree
overhang, 2.5 cm bridge
• otherwise, add your own removable
support, or tell the software to
calculate support

38. Print Orientation
• Consider the way in which your
model will be printed
• You may choose to separate your
model into more than one piece, to
make support-less printing possible
• The bottom layer of a FDM print is
always flat. Model accordingly
not as good good

39. Model Segmentation

40. 3D printing and social change

41. 3d printing and social change
• traditional NRE means it’s only feasible to make a thing if you can
sell tens of thousands of them, or if you can charge a lot for them
• commodity versus luxury; walmart versus bespoke
• 3d printing means things can exist that are both inexpensive and
non-commodity
• 3d printing has limits, so how does this extend to other things?

42. 3d printing controversies
• Guns or other restricted things
• 3d printer means anyone can make
anything whether or not the
government likes it
• as long as it’s made of plastic and
the size of a loaf of bread
• 3d printed guns are not very good
guns, and people make bombs out
of pots and pipes

43. 3d printing controversies
• Printing Bioproducts
• Printing organs for transplant
• Printing biotoxins and chemical weapons

44. 3d printing controversies
• Information Ownership
• Many corporations are identifiable
by their physical products
• Coke bottles, toys associated
with movies, nike shoes
• Design patents prevent consumer
confusion by disallowing one
company from manufacturing a
product with similar or the same
“trade dressing”

45. 3d printing controversies
• Economics, industry
• What happens to the world
economy when people can print
whatever they need at home?

46. 3D printing and the way forward

47. Space Pizza
• Space is a terrible place
• No Walmart to buy tools or supplies
or pizza
• Raw materials are easier to transport
than manufactured goods
• tools, parts, etc
• 3d printing food makes it more
interesting if you're 6 months to mars

48. Colonization
• Remote Stereolunagraphy
• Autonomous robot that mines lunar
regolith and 3d-prints a base
• Takes a while, but no people or
additional funds necessary

49. printing housing
• 3d printing concrete is
slower and more
expensive than building a
house with traditional
framing, but can be fully
automated

50. Metamaterials
• Microstructure
means solid
materials can
have specific
and targeted
flexibility

51. Metamaterials
• Flexable materials with rigid structure
• Solid materials with flexible structure
• Materials that change shape after printing, re-folding into specific
patterns like proteins
• Micrometamaterials that can manipulate energy to bend light, be
different colours, be invisible

52. foldable 3d prints and CNC
• Special modelling techniques:
flexible and bendable joints, hinges
etc
• flexible materials: ninjaflex
• Thermoformable / hydroformable
materials (also called 4d printing: 3d
plus time)

53. Biomaterials
• Custom drug combinations
• 3d print exact dosages
• 2016 licensed by FDA
• Structural today, tomorrow
compositional
• 3d print bioweapons?

54. Replicating Rapid Prototyper
• 3d printer that prints 3d printers
• Again, probably needs a fab lab
instead of only a 3d printer
• Once we can print motors, circuit
boards etc, this is possible

55. Replicantors
• Common sci fi trope
• Always evil
• Always consume all resources

56. Aside: type III civilization
• Able to harness the power of a
galaxy
• Easiest way to do this is to
launch space-faring self
replicating probes
• Smaller is easier, possibly even
molecular self-replicators
• DNA????

57. Replicants + Biotech = Nanobots
• Self replicating cell-sized robots
• Cure Cancer?
• Destroy Humanity?

58. Luckily, our ineptitude will save us