Ten years ago nobody was aware of 3D printing. Now we can make almost anything that you can imagine with the help of this device. Moreover, continuous improvements are taking place. What is even more important is that the cost of 3D printing is dropping dramatically. We already know that with the help of 3D printing we can build a house. Previously, it was extremely expensive to do so but nowadays, the cheapest model of a 3D printer that can build a private house costs 13,000 USD.
Do you realize the potential now? With such a low cost, the implications of these 3D printers are enormous. Companies may buy them and lease them out to businesses. What about implementation for low-income countries? What if you go beyond building a house and try to build roads with the help of 3D printers? According to the World Bank, the median price for a 1 km road constriction is around 1 million USD.
Would you like your government spend this money in other areas? Or to lower down taxes? Maybe British taxpayers might like this news considering that their government plans to spend £15 billion on roads by 2020.
An innovative Spanish manufacturer bringing affordable 3D printers to homes and offices in Europe is BQ. The company touts providing consumers with affordable 3D printers with large print capacity, exceptional safety features and sleek aesthetic design. Beyond 3D printing, BQ is also a key player in European smartphone, tablet and e-reader manufacturing markets.
José Imedio, Engineer at BQ
The team recently visited the IE Talent Forum where they brought a working 3D printer to demonstrate its function. I was lucky enough to meet an Engineer and a Sales Manager from the BQ team who graciously showed us how the machine worked and discussed their plans for launching two more 3D printers in the near future. They even gave me the printed model after it had fully printed during the forum:
Our very own 3D printed Venus de Milo
BQ has accessible 3D printers available from as low as 249.90 €.
Based on what I saw, these resembled more easy-bake ovens than what I imagined a real 3D printer would look like. What would you print with your very own home 3D printer?
Do you believe that 3D printers are still cool? We already
heard so much about it, and many of us have even witnessed 3D printing in real
life, so we might conclude that 3D printers used
to be a great innovation, but now, they are just another thing we use.
My friends already wrote about different applications of 3D
printers, how cool they are: saving life by creating human organs, and even saving
the day by printing toilet paper (sounds weird? You have to read our previous
blogs).
Even Kanye West is afraid that 3D printers will ruin the textile market the
same way the Internet ruined the music industry.
So again, is it 3D printing still thrilling?
Well I say, DEFINITELY YES. Let me try and explain why by
comparing the current 3D printers to the development of mobile phones. The
early mobile phones were big and clumsy, crazy expensive (only a few
businessmen with cigars stuck in their mouths could afford them), and perceived
as highly innovative. Then, a few years passed and suddenly phones became
smaller, prices went down, and they became an integral part of our lives.
Some may say that at this point, mobile phones were just
another thing we buy. I, on the other hand, claim at this point people started
asking themselves what else can we do with this thing that every 10-year-old
has in their back pocket? This question led to a massive wave of innovations
such as early games (snake J)
and apps (remember ringtone editors?). These days we have smartphones with an endless stream of applications. Can you imagine your life today without a
smartphone?
So now let’s go back to 3D printers. In my view, 3D printers
today are like the early generations of mobile phones. The printers are slow,
expensive, big, and we don’t really know what to do with them. BUT now is the
time when we should ask ourselves: “what else can we do with this thing?” and that
is why 3D-printers are going to be way cooler.
Kanye West may like robots but he doesn’t feel the same way about 3D printing. In a recent episode of Keeping up with the Kardashians, Kanye West exposed his fears of 3D printing during a tour of a digital art and design afterschool program, Tumo Center for Creative Technologies, in Armenia with wife, Kim Kardashian West.
While visiting a 3D printing lab, Kanye admitted, "This is what I'm afraid of here, 3D printing, because the internet destroyed the music industry and now this is what we're afraid of right now with the textile industry."
As a musical artist and self-proclaimed designer, West’s fears are not entirely unwarranted. With the rapid technological advancements of 3D printing, machines will become increasingly mainstream and intricate designs could be reproduced with the press of a button. But we aren’t anywhere near that threat right now.
West’s tour guide and administrator at the school conceded that his concern was somewhat justified but pointed out that there are several benefits to 3D printing that outweigh West’s out-of-touch reservations and noted the complexities involved in replicating designer clothing or shoes. 3D printing can be used to manufacture simple, single-material products that aren’t readily available to consumers but more intricately designed products like Kanye is referring to would be extremely difficult and expensive to replicate.
It is quite possible that future designs could be stolen and illegally reproduced using 3D printing but we shouldn’t let that stop us from developing this technology into something that could greatly benefit society in so many other ways. Patent laws will evolve to address the challenges Kanye West anticipates regarding the technology. Also, the technology could have major positive effects on the fashion industry, contrary to Kanye West’s beliefs. It could help small designers to lower manufacturing costs and easily personalize orders. 3D printing is improving our lives through quickly generated products and modeling and prototypes in medicine, international development, business and manufacturing. And we certainly shouldn’t let it stop us from using it for educational and creative design purposes at Tumo.
Do you agree with Kanye that 3D printing could destroy the fashion industry or do you think the benefits outweigh the potential risks?
Take a look at how students at Tumo are using 3D printing for stop-motion animation:
Medicine is an area where the use of 3D printing is bringing very
satisfactory outcomes on face and knee surgeries.
One particular application of 3D technology
related to face surgery is helping to make incredible improvements.
Typically, this kind of surgery can last up to 24 hours (if a transplant
is involved) and the results are not always satisfactory. New
developments in 3D printing improve the outcome because:
1) 3D models of the skull of the patient allows doctors to practice
simulated situations that reduce time of operation and
2) It is much easier to follow the recovery of the patient due to the
vast amount of information contained in the 3D image.
An example of a successful surgery using 3D printing is the little girl
Violet Pietrok, born with frontonasal dysplasia (malformation of the face and
head).
(Before and after reconstructive surgery)
Another interesting applications
of 3D printing is related to knee injuries. Millions of individuals have knee
problems due to cartilage wearing away. What about implanting 3D printed
artificial cartilage in the knee? The United States has already started experimenting
with this. Knee cartilage regenerated with 3D printed scaffold
If we focus on the future, in a few years it seems that most, if
not all body parts will be able to be reconstructed using 3D printing. It is
already estimated that in 10 years there will be a 3D heart available. How much
longer will we be able to live? 20-30 years more? It also raises the question
of whether organ donations will still be necessary anymore (the waiting list
for kidneys is so long that many people die before having the transplant). In
my opinion, we will become a little bit like “Robocop” but I do not have
doubts that it will be for the better.
What are your thoughts on the impact that 3D printing will have on the human
body?
Written by: Ramon Avial
