3D printing is a rapidly growing field with exciting new products coming out every single year and with more and more people tuning in to the amazing world of 3D printing. What makes it so amazing? First of all, the possibility of transferring your imagination to physical reality, as well as the option to be more independent from mass production, when it comes to various household items, etc. Nowadays, 3D printing is a solid part of industrial manufacturing, medicine, especially dental models and other types of personalized prosthetics, even art and design. Before we try to contemplate the future of this genius device, let’s see how it functions and where are its weak points as of today.
How does it work?
In short, what a 3D printer does, is produce any kind of shape from a certain material, using the principle of additive manufacturing (for FDM printers), or UV light curing of resin (for SLA and MSLA printers). Regardless of the printing process differences, all these printers use CAD (computer-aided design) as a guide and slicing software, to prepare the 3D model for printing in layers. 3D printers vary in price range, precision, accuracy, the overall stability of structure and range of materials they can use.
What to expect?
- Competition
The open market economy creates natural competition, which creates a better product. Nowadays, there’s a significant rise in 3D printer manufacturers, and they are getting more and more ingenious, improving on their printers year after year.
- Filament development
It seems that there are plenty of different filaments as it is, but development of new filament types is always on the table, as it gives more range to the printer and lifts the roof off the imagination.
- Design tools
As of today, there are many glitches in the programs that make 3D printing possible. The design software has to be as immaculate as possible to allow cleaner prints and better results in general. We hope that soon there are going to be new solutions to old problems and we can finally find a better way to produce 3D designs.
- Collaborations
The key to success in the field of 3D printing is undoubtedly collaboration with other companies and fields to grow together. Collaboration with various science labs, factories, various businesses and funds.
3D printing is becoming more and more prepared to take the manufacturing world by storm, despite of the obvious disadvantages, which can be fixed with a certain degree of determination, research and perseverance. Science and technology are constantly moving forward, giving us the choice of being either a passive bystander or an active participant in making history. So don’t stop educating yourself on the tech news, and you will see the results soon enough!
