3D printing is the new revolution
TAP into techie conversation, and it’s all about 3D printing. Suddenly there are 3D printers everywhere, and they’re affordable and increasingly sought after by entrepreneurs in every sphere of industry.
“3D printers are ideal for making prototypes, for everything from jewellery and dentures to models for buildings and machine parts. People are finding a multitude of uses for them,” says Andre Dreyer of BuildVolume, an online store selling 3D printers and scanners.
The term 3D printing is the common term for “additive manufacturing”, a series of processes used to create a threedimensional object.
The object is formed by successive layers of plastic resin (though other materials like steel or titanium can be used), essentially thinly sliced crosssections of the eventual object.
Whatever design you can think of, be it a miniature Eiffel Tower or a Pokémon figurine, a 3D printer can print the mould of it.
“It’s just a matter of sending a software file to the machine, which scans out each layer as defined by that file,” explains Dreyer. “You can make very complex geometric shapes that you couldn’t do in a traditional manufacturing process.”
While the technology for designing 3D objects and using 3D printers to create them has been around for more than three decades – used mainly in the industrial parts and medical industry to make prototypes – the maturation of design software, the affordability of 3D printers and availability of 3D scanners has made it accessible to ordinary consumers.
DionWired, for instance, sells an XYZ 3D printer which retails for R9 990, and is soon bringing out the Da Vinci 1.0 AiO, which can scan and replicate objects up to 15cm high, which will retail at R14 990.
At the higher end are 3D printers like the Ultimaker²+, Makerbot, Zortrax M200 and Form2, which range from R37 500 to R84 995. A significant differentiator between these models is the size of object you can build in them. For instance, a MakerBot Replicator Z18, which is selling on Takealot.com for R133 000, can build an object of up to 30cm in width and depth, and up to 45cm in height.
In the healthcare industry, meanwhile, 3D printing is revolutionising prosthetics production and care. “The technology is already being used for things like hip and knee replacements,” says Rick Robinson, global co-head of life sciences and healthcare at the Norton Rose Fulbright legal firm.
“Dental technicians are using them to design highly customised dental implants, bridges, crowns and dentures, and healthcare companies can make very accurately moulded shells for hearing aids.”
Doctors in The Netherlands were the first to carry out a transplant with a 3D-printed skull, which was made from plastic, in 2014, and in Sudan, 3D printers have been used to replace limbs for children injured in war.
The future, says Robinson, is “bioprinting” – layering cells to form human tissue or organs.
“Producing skin for grafting, or an artificial heart or liver, is not far off. Already in development is the ability of a 3D printer to use real bone tissue that can be made into a bone part that can be implanted,” says Robinson.
For now, the buzz around 3D printing is mostly among entrepreneurs in the manufacturing and artisan fields, whose ideas take on a whole new dimension with a realistic model.
“If you think about it, the possibilities are endless. Boeing, for one, is already using 3D printing to produce parts for its aircraft, because a composite part is far superior to one that is manufactured from several pieces. We are only beginning to see the variety of applications of a 3D printer,” says Robinson.
Cape Town-based Rabbit, a boutique engineering and design studio, is currently printing rare fossils for educational purposes, and 3D scans and prints actors’ faces, so that they can be digitalised for animated film.
“3D printing has been identified by world economists as the fourth industrial revolution, and a huge potential job creator in the future,” says Harry Ravelo, managing director of Rabbit.