Ladies and gentlemen we have come
to the age of the 3d printer. In the embedded video we see a child amputee patient
receive a 3d printed prosthetic iron man limb. The arm cost just $350 in
materials to make, as noted by Microsoft's The Collective Project, which is
featuring stories of students making positive changes for their communities.
That makes it far cheaper than the $40,000 it traditionally costs to make such
limbs. For those who don’t know what 3d printing is 3dprinting.com defines it
as: “3D printing or additive manufacturing is a process of making three
dimensional solid objects from a digital file. The creation of a 3D printed
object is achieved using additive processes. In an additive process an object
is created by laying down successive layers of material until the entire object
is created. Each of these layers can be seen as a thinly sliced horizontal
cross-section of the eventual object.”
This process
has allowed for people to be able to come up with limitless amounts of
creations. Essentially if someone can design a virtual version of it they can
get a printer to make it. This has led to interesting applications of the
technology. Prosthetics are one; there is also now a push to make replacement
organs to lower the dependency of organ donors. They even now have a specialty
3d printer for making food items.
3d
printing is taking us into the future. 3d printing is becoming more widespread every
day, its rapid adoption since 2011 has it possibly making its way into every consumer’s
home in a matter of years. The materials
it uses are becoming cheaper and cheaper. It’s going to take a major
corporation to take a huge chance on making one that can be adopted by the
common person. Once a company makes it possible for the most user friendly
version of the software where someone can just conceptualize their vision we
will reach a new day. On that day we will be able to create anything we want in
the comfort of our houses. People will be able to make the food they see on TV
without the need of a personal chef.
I find this topic very interesting because it is so close to our future and amazing what we can do with technology. Although the idea of creating bionic arms and human organs with a 3d printer sounds like the solution to our problems, I can only wonder how good a quality the printer prints at. When I read that they could possibly "print" human organs I'm just not sure how I feel about it. But overall, great article choice. It's an interesting topic.
ReplyDeleteI liked your presentation on this in class and actually did some research on it myself. I find it very interesting that we are so close to having this as a thing for everyone. I would love to see this help people that have lost limbs. I am worried about the violence aspect of this though because people would be able to print bombs and guns.
ReplyDeleteAlso another worry would be the quality of the print. However I still think that I would buy one if I had the means.
Seems like a great idea for the future to reduce the amount of paper we will use. the cost of this is the biggest issue
ReplyDeleteI had no idea that 3d printing was such a big deal. It is quite amazing how far science has come to the convenience of the common person and to think that in the next couple of years, within our life time, we could get our hands on something as innovative as this and use it for our own personal needs!
ReplyDelete