Ways 3D printing is making the world a better place

A new generation of prosthetics

“Turning disabilities into superpowers” is the defining vision of UK-based Open Bionics. Their mission is to create “affordable, assistive devices that enhance the human body.”

Their first product was  the Hero Arm, which they describe as “the world's first medically certified 3D-printed bionic arm, with multi-grip functionality and empowering aesthetics.”  It is “a lightweight and affordable myoelectric prosthesis.” 

The company now offers a selection of themed covers for the Hero Arm, including Star Wars BB-8, Marvel Iron Man, Disney Frozen and Deus Ex.  They are “custom-made using innovative 3D-printing and 3D-scanning techniques.” 

Dedication to helping children by providing them with 3D printed hands is also the driving passion behind a group of volunteers who formed e-NABLE. Its members now number in the thousands, and they have made it possible for thousands of children around the world to regain hand function. See the video below:

  

Quick and economical home construction

Another way 3D printing is being used to make the world a better place is by reducing the cost of home construction enough to make new houses accessible to those whose income puts adequate shelter beyond their reach.

One company that has made this its mission is ICON. Its tagline is “We’re changing the way people live.” It set out to apply 3D printing to houses and envisions whole communities set up that way in a kind of 21st-century version of Levitton.

Last year ICON built the Chicon house, described as “the first permitted 3D-printed home built in the United States” in Austin, Texas in 2018. It took a few weeks to print “and sparked the imagination of customers, investors, press, and the SXSW conference community.”

Now it has advanced the technology to the point where it can get a house up in just  a day and at a cost of just $4000 as you can see in this video:

ICON believes that its 3D printing applied to concrete is the solution to low-income housing, both in the USA and abroad. To that end, it has partnered with a charity called New Story that has provided funding for homes in Mexico, Haiti, El Salvador, and Bolivia and for needy households.

“By partnering with ICON in select regions, New Story will be able to see out their vision more efficiently and deliver the promise of a life beyond survival to thousands more,” it reports.

4. Homes on Mars 

Applying 3D printing to home construction also has ramifications for the space program. In planning a mission to Mars, NASA has to deal with the challenge of setting up shelter for the people who will be living on the red planet. To that end, it launched  the 3D-Printed Habitat Challenge

 See the video below:

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10 Surprising Ways 3D Printing Is Being Used Now

Energy savings from 3D printing

3D printing is coming into its own as an integral part of manufacturing.  That's the view of Jack Hornick, an intellectual property attorney and author of 3D Printing Will Rock the World, a suggested textbook for "The 3D Printing Revolution" Coursera course offered by the University of Illinois Champagne-Urbana. I spoke with him about the energy saving potential of 3D printing.

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3 Ways that 3D Printing Saves Energy

3D printing for more efficient factories

"We make your factory run better" is the tagline for the maintenance services offered byATS.  

One of the ways it accomplishes that mission is by providing necessary parts, which it can now do faster, better, and cheaper with 3D printing. I spoke with Mike Waltrip, general manager of Industrial Parts Services at ATS, about the benefits 3D printing brings to his business in particular and manufacturing in general. 

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Making Factories Run Better with 3D Printing

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3D Printing Reshapes Automotive Supply Chain

Lean Thinking for Sustainable Supply Chains

Iot enables JIT

"Fast, good, or cheap; pick two." That used to be the motto for manufacturing, as the

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7e/Manufacturing_equipment_095.jpg

reality was you'd have to compromise on at least one of the three. However, today's technological advances like drones and 3D printing combined with advanced data collection make the inventory strategy of Just-In-Time (JIT) inventory more feasible than ever before. As a result, manufacturers now have the possibility of making their supply chains fast, good, and cheap. "This is nothing less than a paradigm shift in industry: the real manufacturing world is converging with the digital manufacturing world to enable organizations to digitally plan and project the entire lifecycle of products and production facilities," observed Helmuth Ludwig, CEO, Siemens Industry Sector, North America.

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JIT: The Promise of Emerging Tech for Electronics Manufacturing

3D printing for cars: not just for prototyping

Efficient supply chains can be identified by a handful of components: proximity, flexibility, and minimal waste. Now, the automotive industry is hoping to capture some of these same benefits through the use of 3D printing. 

Though it hailed 3D printing as the "third industrial revolution" in 2012, The Economist  cautioned that it "is not yet good enough to make a car." Since then, though, 3D printing, referred to as the additive manufacture in the auto industry, has advanced to the point that car bodies can and have been printed. In future, additive manufacture will likely be an integral part of the car supply chain, and not just at the point of creating models for design or rapid prototyping. 

This past year, Deloitte University Press published a detailed study of the future prospects for car manufacturing in an article titled 3D Opportunity for the Automotive Industry. The value of 3D printing for rapid prototyping and realizing innovative new design has already been established across industries, but it can also be used in manufacturing the end product. That is what has the potential to really transform the supply chain for the car industry.

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3D Printing Reshapes Automotive Supply Chain 

See the carbon fiber body of the Strati car beign printed in this video.

3D printing goes live

Within a generation, we likely will not just hear of things like 3D-printed hearts serving as models, but as real, functioning organs.

The world of 3D printing possibilities keeps expanding, from the purely ornamental to the truly useful. This technology has already made a difference in healthcare with prosthetics and replacements for bones, and even models of patients' hearts that improve the outcome of surgery. In the future, the 3D-printed heart may itself be alive, as researchers have now discovered how to print living tissue.

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It's Alive! The 3D Printing of Living Tissues

Planning a supply chain for space

photo from https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c7/Carina_Nebula_composite_of_visible_and_infrared_light_(captured_by_the_Hubble_Space_Telescope).jpg

The replicator that can produce food, clothes, and other necessities on demand is familiar to all devotees of Star Trek. That device was actually essential for the Enterprise's extended mission, to keep the ship properly equipped without having to pack along whatever the crew might need at some point light years away from a home planet. Though such replicators are still in the realm of science fiction, we are getting closer to the point of extended space trips.

Going back to the moon and maybe even Mars
NASA just finalized a $2.8 billion contract with Boeing Co. to produce the Space Launch System (SLS). SLS is a rocket powerful enough to carry astronauts where no human has gone before. That includes exploration of asteroids, the moon, and, ultimately, Mars. The first test flight is planned for 2017, and the first manned flight for 2021.

While Boeing is working on NASA's rockets, MIT is working on supply chain management that solves the logistical challenges inherent in extended space travel. 

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Space & the Supply Chain

The role 3D printing can play in Canada

According to Nigel Southway, the real transformative power of 3D printing  lies in its potential for engineering more efficient tools of production. Read more in 

3D Printing Might Bring Manufacturing Back to Canada

From the army to the big city, 3D printing can be a real game changer

3D printing has great practical potential for the supply chain, as shown by the US army. Jerry Castanos saw its military application on his tour of duty in Afghanistan. That inspired him to open his own 3D printing business in New York City, 3D Heights, which offers 3D printers, related accessories, and lessons in using them. His goal is to be "the first" successful 3D printing retail store in the city. I spoke to about the confluence of his army experience with supply chain management and the uses for 3D printing.

Car with 3D printed metal body photographed by Ariella Brown at the Javits Center

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Army to Big City: 3D Printing Reshapes the Supply Chain

Highly detailed 3D printing in NY

Photo from Mini 3D Me

There are only four of these 3D printing systems in the world, with two of them in the United States. That one of those two should be in New York is not remarkable. But the fact that it is not in the Big Apple itself, but in Westchester County is somewhat surprising. How did the combination of a Pro Jet 660 3D printer and Artec scanner, which combined carry a 6-figure price tag, end up in Yorktown?  Find out in 

Advanced 3D Printing in New York

More efficient recycling with 3D printing

We generate so much plastic waste today that it has become a serious environmental problem. Some of us do put aside our plastic bottles for recycling, but even that endeavour requires energy consumption just to get the plastic to a recycling centre. Even more energy is needed for the actual recycling. There is a better way to reuse the plastic, and 3D printing makes it possible.Read more in

3D Printing Plastic — Distributed Recyling and Distributing the Benefits

Joshua Pearce holds a DremelFuge chuck made from shredded plastic milk jugs.

3D printing at MAD

My first-hand account of the 3D exhibit at MAD
Living in New York is wonderful for a number of reasons, but high on my list is access to so many great museums. Not only do we have world-famous museums, like the Met and the MoMA, but we have small, specialized museums that offer unique exhibits focused on innovations in art and technology. The Museum of Art and Design’s Out of Hand: Materializing the Postdigital, on view through until July 6th, is definitely worth a visit for anyone interested in digital design and production.

Read more in http://3dprintingindustry.com/2014/03/17/3d-printing-review-mad-exhibition/

Related: http://writewaypro.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-moma-goes-mobile.html

Photoshop in 3D

We may not yet have the Star Trek "replicator," but we're coming pretty close to wonders with recent advances in 3D printing. It's no wonder that Adobe sees this as the right time to introduce 3D printing capabilities to its Creative Cloud."

No longer limited to hobbyists printing out plastic shapes, 3D printing can now be used to produce ceramics and metals, increasing its functionality for engineers as well as artists. TheCES show in early January had 28 exhibitors for 3D printing. This past October, Gartner predicted rapid growth for 3D printers, anticipating that this year "spending will increase 62 percent, reaching $669 million, with enterprise spending of $536 million and consumer spending of $133 million."

That's a substantial enough amount to attract the likes of Adobe, which announced its foray into the 3D printing industry on January 16 with the new release of Photoshop CC.

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3D Printing From Adobe's Cloud

3D printing brings the stars to the blind

Discussions of big data often touch on the challenge of visualization. An even greater challenge, though, is rendering the data into something that is comprehensible to people who have to use senses other than sight.

3D printing brings the stars to the visually impaired by rendering Hubble's images into tactile form.
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Reaching for the Stars With 3D Printing

3D printing really takes off with the help of big data

The only thing holding GE back from fully integrating 3D printing was insufficient data to assure uniform results. "A part is made out of thousands of layers, and each layer is a potential failure mode," Prabhjot Singh, head of the GE lab working on such processes, told MIT Technology Review. "We still don't understand why a part comes out slightly differently on one machine than it does on another, or even on the same machine on a different day."Now GE has come up with a big data solution to that problem.

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Big Data Helps 3D Printing Take Off