Calgary firm gets in on 3-D miracle
Batteries, bicycles and bikinis. Shoes, tools, cars and guitars. More controversially, implements of death and destruction, the necessities of life, even our own twins.
What cannot be printed in a 3-D printer? That’s the real challenge for tech innovators, entrepreneurs and engineers working in the field of “additive layer manufacturing.”
That’s another name for 3-D printing, during which something like a giant ink jet printer lays down multiple layers of material, one over the other, building up a three-dimensional object. The layers are not ink, but anything from coloured plastic to powdered metal to edible gelatin.
3-D printers make things much faster than conventional methods, so they were initially used to produce prototypes for testing. The success of those early implementations led to their finding a place in mainline product manufacturing, and now, the consumer marketplace.
The sky seems a feeble limit on the potential of 3-D printing; in fact, space cannot hold this technology back, as NASA has already proven.
Engineers and rocketmen there worked to turn fine metallic powder into high performance machine parts, then assembled and tested them in a functioning rocket engine.
Maybe it is rocket science, but that doesn’t mean we can’t join in.
EBay is offering custom jewelry online, made to our order on its 3-D printers. Windows is promising support for 3-D printing in its operating system, and office supply firm Staples will soon be selling 3-D printers for about $1,000.
In fact, one Canadian supplier of 3-D technology has dozens of models and more than 150 printing materials from which to choose.
Proto3000 offers one of the first large-scale, multi-material printers. The Objet1000 can print out a complex object that measures more than 1000 X 800 X 500 mm.
3-D printing easily enables what’s called “just in time” manufacturing: the ability to produce a product when needed (so it doesn’t sit in a warehouse somewhere), but it also triggers “just-in-place” manufacturing: rather than shipping, say, a finished car hundreds or thousands of miles, why not just ship some 3-D plans and raw materials?
Medical researchers are using 3-D technology to build up skin grafts for burn victims, even new organs for transplant patients, to be printed when needed.
In such cases, the printer “ink” is an organic compound or specialized gel filled with living human cells. Layer by layer, biological shapes are built up in the required form.
Other unique applications for 3-D biofabrication include making leather and meat. Using a simple cell culture harmlessly gathered in an animal biopsy, real leather and edible meats can be printed.
Canadian researcher and business founder Gabor Forgacs describes a sustainable ecosystem in which cultured leather and meat products are produced without animal slaughter, and with significantly lower requirements for land, water, energy and chemicals.
Magic Maker is a leading 3-D printing and scanning company based here in Calgary; it sees both innovative new products and industries being created in the process. The company shows examples of 3-D cameras, clothes and clones of us as real-world possibilities for printing.