3D Printing

The year 2015 saw 3D printing continue its march into every dimension of our lives. With new materials, new methods, and new applications, the young field is revolutionizing prototyping and manufacturing, and changing the worlds of design, medicine, construction, and, of course, hobbying.What were the key developments of the year that brought us closer to 3D utopia? Brian Federal gave us his favorites. Federal is a filmmaker out of North Carolina, and a “3D printing evangelist” as he describes himself. He’s currently producing a feature length documentary called “3D Printing Revolution.” Here’s what wowed him in 2015.

1) The Printing Welder
The size of most 3D printed objects is constrained by the size of the 3D printer they’re printed in. A group of Dutch manufacturers stumbled on this little fact when they were looking for a way to 3D print furniture. So they invented their own method. “The innovation is a robotic arm with a print head that extrudes metal strong enough to support structure,” says Federal. Working with Autodesk and the Heijmans construction company, they’ve managed to print a model of a bridge that will eventually span a canal in Amsterdam. “This is a small step into the much broader field of Construction Automation.”

2) Speed Printing
The vast majority of 3D printing technologies use a layer-by-layer strategy (hence the word “additive.”) For the user, the method has some serious disadvantages. Chief among the complaints is the eons it takes to complete a job. But the building-up tactic also limits potential materials, increases that chance of introducing flaws, and reduces an object’s ultimate strength. Carbon3D’s CEO Joseph DeSimone wants to change all that. Inspired by a morphing bad guy who rises from a molten puddle in “Terminator 2,” their “Continuous Liquid Interface Production” approach creates monolithic forms out a pool of polymer. And it happens to be 25 to 100 times faster than other printers on the market, with the potential, according to DeSimone, to be 1000 times faster. “Securing a tap from The Ford Motor Company, and $100,000,000 in Google Ventures cash, these guys are set to deliver a broad spectrum of innovation,” says Federal. “This is a company to watch.”

3) Prints in Space
A rocket engine is no game-piece to be sold on Etsy. But that doesn’t mean you can’t 3D print one—or most of one. In fact, doing so gives you the option to test and retest more quickly and cheaply than any other manufacturing technique. Test and retest is just what Elon Musk and his engineers at SpaceX have been doing for years with their 3D printed SuperDraco rocket engine. This year the rocket finally got off the ground. “The innovation of a new, primarily 3D printed, reusable rocket is exponentially delivering new opportunities in space travel, mining, and colonization,” says Federal.

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