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Three-Dimensional Printing

Introduction

Three-dimensional printing or “additive manufacturing” is a process of creating tangible materials and products starting with a digital image or model using additive layering. Three-dimensional printing is projected to revolutionize the way we live as it can be used for various fields including medical, industrial design, construction, automotive, aerospace, education, etc. This paper will discuss how and where three-dimensional printing is currently used and how it is projected to be used in the future, the security aspects of it, as well as ethical and social implications.

Current Use

In an article from Forbes, “What Can 3D Printing Do?”, Amit Chowdhry states three-dimensional printing is currently used in medicine to print organs from a patient’s own cells, in the automotive industry to print parts for a vehicle, and in the aerospace industry to contrast rocket engine injectors. Three-dimensional printers can print anything from organs out of living cells to food to weapons to shoes. As a developing society who is constantly in need of resources and services, this technological advancement is providing us with materials and parts to build houses, cars, etc. According to the video by Mashable, “What is 3D Printing and How Does It Work?”, these objects are printed by first creating or choosing a blueprint of the desired object, then the printer receives the data and pulls the material through a tube, melts it, and deposits it to a plate to cool. The printer then forms thin layers until the structure is fully formed, where an individual will then shave or add it to another part to create the finished product. This process is fairly easy as the individual puts little to no work into the manufacturing and the product is created without flaws that would be usually be made by human error.

Three-dimensional printing is also beginning to be utilized in education. Currently, three-dimensional printing is usually used in technical, design, and engineering curriculum to make students projects come to life where as before students would just discuss the creation or partner with outside companies to create the product. As a physical education major, you might think that I would have no use of three-dimensional printing for my field but this is not the case. As physical educators, we are at a constant battle with our administration to give us the funding needed to provide our students with adequate and safe equipment because the cost is so high. With three-dimensional printing being more affordable and making materials more readily available, we as educators could print a sufficient amount of equipment for our students without breaking the budget. For instance, bicycles for students with disabilities can run around $600 or more. Because three-dimensional printing can create this bicycle at a much more affordable cost, administration would provide the funding for this adapted physical education need. Even though there is not a report of something of this nature being done, it is completely possible at this current time if we integrated three-dimensional printing into the education world more.

Ethical and Social Implications

Three-dimensional printing has many advantages including that it will generate little to no waste in creating products, it will provide advanced technology that cannot be formed by man such as organs and tissue, it will also allow for more affordable material to construct goods for small and large businesses. The negative impact that three-dimensional printing may have includes manufacturers losing their jobs due to less demand for their services. Three-dimensional printing may steal a few manufacturers jobs, but these individuals can be easily turned over as maintenance employees who work on the three-dimensional printers. Ethical concerns that three-dimensional printing raises in volve individuals access to health care, how the materials will be tested for safety and efficacy, and if these advances should be utilized as they are beyond human capabilities and what we know as “normal.” Because additive manufacturing is set to have many advances in the medical field, we must consider how these products will be tested. Will people donate their deceased bodies, will animals be tested, or will people volunteer to be tested on? This is not a barrier that cannot be resolved, however, it is a hot topic in the three-dimensional printing world because individuals do not know what is the appropriate way to test their products without making large controversies. Another issue particularly with the medical advances with additive manufacturing is what is “normal” and whether or not it is playing “God.” We as humans fear the thought of creating things that are beyond our abilities such as creating organs and tissues out of living cells. This concern has been around since the beginning of technology and we as humans generally adjust to the idea of it simply because its advances helps make lives easier, helps people live longer, and assists in many other drastic ways.

Future use

The future of three-dimensional printing has no limits as long as there are blueprints for the printer. Materials are predicted to have better structure and more flexibility. For example, “researchers at Duke University are currently working on how to develop three-dimensional printed gel that imitate human cartilage when dried” (McEleney.2017). Everything, especially metal, that is produced through three-dimensional printing is expected to become more affordable and more readily available. In fields such as aerospace and automotive industries, three-dimensional printing is expected to produce more tools, parts, and fixtures that facilitate the manufacturing process. This will replace the current, costly, manufacturing process that involves parts, tools, and fixtures getting made through a subtractive process from a block of metal. Another aspect that is expected to change about three-dimensional printers is the need for an individual to hand finish the object to have the desired product because currently when an item is printed it is required for someone to finish shaping the object and/or add different pars to the product.

One major advancement that three-dimensional printing is expected to have an influence on is our environment. In a statistic from the United States Environmental Protection Agency, we generate about 250 million tons of trash in the US alone, which is about to be significantly reduced by the year 2050. Inventors are currently working on a way to utilize ground up plastic and metal waste to use as a filament for three-dimensional printers. This technological advancement will not only reuse wastes, it will simply generate less waste because there will be little to no scraps since the object being created has specific blueprints that the printer must follow. Three-dimensional printing means the ability to print things in the comfort of your own business, home, or nearby facility, which then reduces the need for transporting/delivering items, therefore reducing the use of fossil fuels. Think about how much fuel is used for shipping trucks, planes, and cargo ships that are used every day to deliver materials, now think about how much pollution this generates. If we as humans could print items in our own personal space we would cut back the costs on transportation and fuel, cut back on time, and cut back on destroying the environment.

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