The Positive Opportunities of 3-D Printing

At the beginning of May, news swept the world of a fully operational 3D-printed plastic gun. The creator, Cody Wilson of Texas USA, built the invention using his company’s $8,000 3D printer. Questionably, Cody plans to publish the blueprints for his design online. As the Undetectable Firearms Act of 1988 stands, it is illegal in the US to make a firearm that is undetectable by a walk-through metal detector. To avoid his gun creation being perceived as a crime, he inserted a 6oz piece of steel into the body of the gun, making it legal.

Although undoubtedly a success for 3D printing technology, we can’t help but think that the printed gun casts a cloud over 3D printing. Rather that look at the benefits of 3D printing, the focus has been on the advantage crime could be given if something like this was available to the masses.

However, Premier prefer to focus on the positive opportunities new technology provides, and it seems the world is in a race to create something spectacular with 3D printing. The Dutch and Italians are looking to create buildings using a material similar to sandstone rather than using plastic. The American comedy scene has also taken an interest to the technology as a 3D printer recently featured on the notoriously geeky sit-com The Big Bang Theory.

It is the development at the University of California Berkeley that has really caught our eye. Three graduates have installed a ‘Dreambox’, the world’s first 3D printer vending machine. Only for the use of graduates, researchers and PHD students, the machine can print from the Dreambox store or their own design via uploading it.

Printing a variety of objects no larger than a loaf of bread, items can cost around $15 with the users being able to pay via PayPal. Printing firearms is strictly forbidden and the Dreambox is unable to print the complex parts for a gun. However the most popular items are figurines from video games and TV shows.

The Dreambox took just over a month to build and costs almost $10,000,a current major downside to such radical technology. We looking forward to further developments in 3D printing, as it will become more accessible as security fears are allayed and the financial burden slowly eases over time.