It may surprise you to learn that 3D Printing isn’t exactly new. It got its start in the 1980’s in areas such as product development or data visualization. Companies would use 3D printing to create product prototypes before going into full product development. It’s come a long way since it’s early uses in manufacturing and over the course of the last few years, has become very mainstream as the actual technology has become more accessible, affordable and applications more practical.
First, what is 3D Printing? Technically, it would be defined as “the process of making three-dimensional solid objects from a digital file.”[1] In layman terms it’s printing a 3D picture from your computer screen into a 3D tangible object. What’s interesting about 3D printing is that the actual file size doesn’t have to be large. 3D files can range between 2MB-10MB and commercial printing may extend up to 20MB. If you’re dealing with a lot of 3D files, the data storage needs will require a larger hard drive or a NAS server as a storage archive.
As 3D printing has grown in popularity in fields such as design, education, retail and healthcare, we’ve started to hear about some really interesting cases of how it’s been used for the betterment of society.
CNET has this story about surgeons who created a 3D model heart to help perform surgery on a newborn baby. The doctors of Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital of New York-Presbyterian created this model to use as practice before the actual surgery. Doing so allowed the team to dissect and manipulate the model to ascertain what steps needed to be taken to guarantee a successful surgery. Not only was the surgery a success, but it also allowed them to perform the operation in one session versus multiple sessions, which could potentially have endangered the child.
“The baby’s heart had holes, which are not uncommon with CHD, but the heart chambers were also in an unusual formation, rather like a maze. In the past, we had to stop the heart and look inside to decide what to do. With this technique [using a 3D printed model], it was like we had a road map to guide us.” – Dr. Emile Bacha
What about 3D printing people? Related to the CNET article is this one courtesy of Make Use Of discussing the possibility of 3D printing human beings. While this may sound like something from a summer sci-fi blockbuster, Bioprinting Technology[2] is validating that the “future is being made today.”
“If you think about building an airplane, what you do is build individual parts and then assemble. We’re doing the exact same thing with the bioficial heart.”
—Dr. Stuart Williams[3]
3D Bioprinting is the process of using 3D printing technology to generate cell patterns where the cell function is still intact. [4] This is one of the initial steps in overcoming the hurdle of recreating man. Well, one of hundreds of hurdles. Being able to recreate a heart or other organ is one thing, but the complexities of the human body will put 3D printing a fully functional one quite a ways off.
But ponder the possibilities….
3D printing can still be fun to create things like a prosthetic hand like Marvel’s Iron Man (video) or an action figure based on your likeness. We are only beginning to see the full potential of 3D printing where its advances over the next several years will be very exciting to witness. In fact, maybe now we can finally get that jet pack we’ve all been hoping for.
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