In the light of thousands of new innovations coming up every day, 3D printing technology has surely established its presence in the world with major companies like NASA and McLauren using it exclusively. Well, what is this 3D printing and how is it affecting our society? Let’s answer these questions in the following article. 

Introduction

The name suggests it all, it’s just printing stuff in 3D. A special machine is responsible for the same, which takes a specific material, for example, plastic, and using layer by layer system makes a 3-dimensional solid object. This is the basic working of the same in layman’s terms, other than this these printers can vary in sizes, quality, and even the material of the substance. 

Due to this being a very convenient and cost-effective method, 3D printing is bringing a drastic change in a lot of industries lately. Companies have begun to print everything from fully functioning cars to meals in restaurants. This also showed its practical versatility by helping to tackle some of the unprecedented challenges in the face of covid-19. Scientists have even experimented with printing different body parts with the same.

Space-related use

As stated, NASA and several other space companies have started to use 3D printing exclusively. They use it to make their rocket parts, rover mechanics, and everything we can think of. Not only this, they believe that 3D printing will singlehandedly open the doors for their travel to Mars.

Construction use

On the face, this technology might look like something which is very fragile and not long-lasting. You may be surprised to hear that this is even used in the construction of houses and several other buildings. Rather, it arguably provides a better finish to the houses and buildings than the finishing that we would get from the traditional methods. 

Healthcare use

One other major use of this technology has been to make human organs for people who need them. This has been tried a lot of times and it is on the right track to working one day. Just think about it, we can just make a spare heart for anyone, a kidney or maybe even a pair of lungs! This will be a lot easier to do, instead of finding donors. Not only this, think about the number of lives that can be saved due to the timely delivery of these organs to the needy. Apart from this use, 3D printing has also helped a ton in providing aid with packaging, injections, masks, and whatnot in the healthcare industry.

Drawbacks

Even with all these benefits, 3D printing might not be effective for our day-to-day things just yet. It can help a lot in different factories and industries, although using it for daily life is not possible. Though this can be strongly considered in the next few decades to come. 

Another drawback is that sometimes mass production of some industry goods might be easier and faster with the traditional methods. The traditional methods can even be more cost-effective and detailed in specific spheres. Thus we cannot use this technology blindly anywhere we want just yet.

Conclusion

In conclusion, 3D printing is one of the major breakthroughs which will alter the secondary sector as a whole. We just have to wait a bit for this to become perfect and to ensure we can use this technology to the best of our abilities. 

References-

3dprinting.com/what-is-3d-printing/

hubs.com/guides/3d-printing/

makerbot.com/stories/design/top-5-3d-printing-applications/

techbriefs.com/component/content/article/tb/stories/blog/35871

twi-global.com/technical-knowledge/faqs/what-is-3d-printing/pros-and-cons