Lean, mean printing machine: 3D Printers don’t stop at guns and fancy lamps.

Online communication has been revolutionised in recent decades with the creation of smartphones and tablets, however we don’t live in a paperless society yet. Just as communication is changing the world of printing technology is also advancing and adapting to suit the needs of the modern world. 3D printers are not only revolutionising the world of print, they are impacting on other industries in an extremely positive way.

Medicine:

While the modern printing machine offers the ability to create your own replacement screws, shelf parts, door knobs and even a custom chess set at home using a 3D printer like the Replicator or the Cubify 3D printer, which has the potential to shake up the global production models. 3D printing is much more than a simple way to solve your overflowing bookshelf problem as the new technology is genuinely changing peoples lives through the field of medicine.

Rapid Prototyping is a new form of 3D printing technology; the technology builds up objects from resins, plastics and metals layer-by-layer. This eventually develops into a ceramic extrusion paste that can be used in a 3D printer. This form of printing technology has been developed by researchers at the University of the West of England in Bristol.

This form of technology can’t come soon enough for the medical world and the importance of this printing machine can’t be underestimated. Dentistry has already been revolutionised, digitised intra-oral scans can now be made of patients’ teeth to fabricate crowns. The scans are uploaded to computers and emailed to labs so the new porcelain bridges can be printed out.

The 3D printing machine is also greatly affecting advances in the production of prosthetic limbs; with 3D printing limbs that perfectly mirror the symmetry and function of a person’s natural limb can be fashioned.

Examples:

Lower Jaw:

A 3D printing machine in the Netherlands gave one 83-year-old woman her bite back after a lower jaw implant was fabricated from the machine. Made of titanium the lower jaw implant was made for the 83-year-old patient in the Netherlands after she had suffered from a bone infection. Just one day after surgery the patient had unrestricted mandibular movement. 

3D printed ‘Magic Arms’ 

Two-year-old Emma was born with the congenital disorder arthrogryposis multiplex congenita (AMC). The disease causes a person’s joints to become locked in a single position; in Emma’s case it was her arms. As a 25-pound girl other prosthetics made of metal are too heavy. However, doctors sought out a 3D printer from Stratasys and created custom moulded parts and a lightweight vest for Emma. The two-year-old who couldn’t lift her arms is now able to feed herself, play and colour thanks to this 3D lean, mean printing machine.   

Wonder Teen

Easton LeChappelle is a 17-year-old high school student from Colorado, who with access to free online resources and the boom in inexpensive 3D printers developed a functional prosthetic arm and hand. He began at 14 building a robotic hand using Lego and learning about electronics through sites like Instructables. The project earned him third place at the 2011 Colorado State science fair where he met a 7-year-old girl who was wearing a state of the art prosthetic costing $80,000. LeChappelle set out on a mission to build an inexpensive alternative, using his friend’s 3D printing machine (Printrbot) he made an arm to go with an open source hand, the total cost minus the cost of the printer was about $250 – cue jaws dropping around the world simultaneously. Below LeChappelle meets Barack Obama at the annual White House Science Fair and presents his arm at a TED conference; he is also working with the Robonaut team at NASA’s Johnson Space Centre. 

3D printers are proving that print is far from a dead technology, with ingenuity there can only be further advancements for industries on a global scale. Maybe one day 3D printers will be standard office equipment and you will be able to print the parts for your new desk chair or even your lunch. The future is bright for 3D printing, it’s wonderful that this technology is able to help people and change their lives for the better; this technology wouldn’t exist without the original invention of the printer and the determination of people to innovate.