Its time for our ink jet printers to move aside and begin to collect dust because there is a new kid in town: 3D printers. 3D printers are not technically “new” technology; they have been used by engineers since the 1980s. However, they are new to everyday consumers, and they threaten to become mainstream in 2014. This technology was mentioned in the President’s 2013 State of the Union speech, and even the cast of “Grey’s Anatomy” has been fighting over their 3D printer to build new life-saving organs. It is a hot topic and technology beginning to permeate news media and our everyday lives.
Our classic printers read information from digital documents and print the formatted text in ink, line by line, onto paper. A 3D printer, however, interprets CAD, or computer aided design, files — similar to a blueprint. These blueprints allow the 3D printers to “print” by building objects up layer-by-layer out of plastic, metal or other materials. This method of manufacturing allows for the elimination of older techniques such as injection molding.
This new technology has the promise to allow anyone to create almost anything wherever and whenever they want. Examples include the production of replacement parts for appliances, tools, medical prosthetics and potentially building biological organs out of organic material. One of the major patents protecting a specific type of 3D printer expired this week. The cost of 3D printers have decreased steadily due to the expiration of such patents on the 3D printers themselves. …