Editor’s Note
This article provides a foundational overview of 3D printing, explaining its additive manufacturing process and its utility in rapid prototyping and product development.
3D printing is a process of creating objects based on additive manufacturing, which involves the superposition of successive layers of material based on a design created by a computer using a CAD program. 3D printers offer product developers the ability to print parts and assemblies made from different materials with different physical and mechanical properties, often with a simple assembly process. Advanced 3D printing technologies can even offer models that can serve as product prototypes.
Although it also experienced a downturn during the pandemic due to the slowdown of all corporate business, in 2022 the 3D printing business regained momentum and closed the year with global revenues of $16.75 billion and a total of 3.69 million units sold worldwide.
For the coming years, an increase of more than 23% in revenue ($60 billion in 2027) and 29% in units is foreseeable. Multiple industries are betting on 3D technology for the development and creation of products and prototypes, among which the sectors of architecture, aerospace, automotive, design, education, energy, entertainment, industry, jewelry, medicine and healthcare, and robotics stand out.
3D printers are machines capable of creating parts, figures, and objects with volume (height, width, and length) starting from a design previously created by a computer with a CAD program. This type of machine emerged with the idea of converting digital files into real prototypes. Commonly, it has been used in the creation of parts or components in sectors such as architecture and industrial design. Currently, its use is expanding to the manufacture of all kinds of objects, models for casting, complicated parts, food, medical prostheses, car and airplane prototypes, and all kinds of industrial products.
The history of 3D printing begins in 1974 when the first equipment and materials based on additive manufacturing began to be developed. Two years later, Hideo Kodama invented two additive manufacturing methods based on a three-dimensional plastic model with a polymer. Already in 1984, the Frenchmen Olivier de Witte and Jean Claude André presented their patent on the stereolithography process, just three weeks before Chuck Hull did the same with his own patent. After the French project was abandoned “for lack of business perspective,” Hull had a free path to develop the stereolithography model, a printing process that allows a 3D object to be created from digital data. The technology is used to create a 3D model from an image and allows users to test a design before investing in the manufacture of the final model.
1992: First SLA (stereolithographic) type 3D printing machine, which consists of a UV laser solidifying a photopolymer, a liquid with viscosity and color similar to honey, which builds three-dimensional parts layer by layer.
1999: First organ implanted in humans to enlarge the urinary bladder using a synthetic coating based on their own cells.
2002: Miniature 3D kidney, completely functional and with the ability to filter blood and produce dilute urine in an animal.
2008: First person to walk on a prosthetic leg.
Fused Deposition Modeling (FFF)
Stereolithography (SLA)
Powder Bed Fusion (PBF)
Digital Light Processing (DLP)
Selective Laser Sintering (SLS)
Material Jetting (MJ)
Binder Jetting (BJ)
Ability to produce complex designs
Customization of objects
Cost reduction
Democratization of technology
Design
Creation
File Slicing
Exporting the file with the G-code extension
Printing the 3D object
What materials are used for printing
Recycling of printed materials, environmental impact
What to use 3D printing for
Advantages of 3D printing
Disadvantages of 3D printing
Education
Entertainment
Jewelry
Medicine
Robotics
