3-D printing taking over all facets of daily life

New York – Three-dimensional printers are letting doctors in Minnesota make simulated body parts in a hospital and a Brooklyn start-up creates rocket engines designed to put satellites into orbit, executives said at a General Electric (GE) event.

The unusual locations for additive printing, highlighted at the first such event GE has organised, showed how quickly the technology is moving beyond plastic prototypes to everyday industrial use.

Companies are now printing titanium engine parts, customising dashboards of high-end cars, turning out jewellery and developing rocket engines.

General Motors (GM) said it is working with design software company Autodesk to make lightweight 3D-printed parts that could help GM add alternative-fuel vehicles to the company’s product line-up. GE, which makes metal 3D printers as well as parts, and has invested more than $3-billion (R37-billion) in the business, is promoting the technology to show its possibilities and spur broader use.

“People are in the very, very beginning stage of understanding the potential,” GE chief executive John Flannery said.

At the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, doctors work directly with engineers to print medical devices tailored to patients, said radiologist Jonathan Morris. –