I stumbled across this video while looking up some stuff online. I saw a 60 Minutes special on this a bit back, but this is really insane. Obviously we know about Shapeways and stuff, but I wonder what this will be like 50 years from now. Watch this video, it's a bit long, but pretty damn cool. Wouldn't mind getting involved in this field. Especially the medical end of it. TEDxHamburg - David F. Flanders - 3D Printing: This Century's most disruptive innovation?! - YouTube
What the rise of 3D printing is going to depend on is materials. Granted, ABS plastic is pretty versatile stuff, but it has a number of limitations (temperature range, strength, tied to oil prices, solubility in various solvents, etc.) that may spell the difference between the maker-bots of the world being a novelty and a useful tool. If the range of 3D printable materials can be expanded (or if, say instead, CNC of ingots of other materials where the leftovers/turnings can be efficiently reprocessed into new ingots), it'll open up new suitable applications for the technology. The technology itself will need to to advance as well, in terms of size limitations, precision and tolerances, potential shapes, accessibility etc. As it is now, we've seen how useful Shapeways can be in giving you just the right little plastic bit to accomplish what you need. We will definitely see this technology become more prevalent in one form or another, whether it's action figures going digital around a maker-bot, or a self-serve kiosk that builds you custom housewares, or something else entirely.
The thing I find most interesting about it is the Skin Printing. Check out this video with Skin Printing for Burn Victims: The Skin Gun - YouTube Not to mention the printing of human organs.
They've already discovered some artificial/synthetic skin substitutes, that could definitely be applicable, given how hard skin grafts can be. Printed skin would be just another method compared to cultured or synthesized, but I could see the printing process coming with it's own sets of problems in terms of infection and rejection, even if it would be a lot faster. I remember reading about a hemostatic powder a few years ago, maybe this skingun could be used as a printable, sealed, sterile dressing that could also aid in healing and reduce scarring though? Printed internal organs, I don't know, it would really depend on the level of complexity the mechanism could impart. I don't see how it could be done effectively right now, at least not compared to, say, culturing something from stem cells or cloning. You could maybe print a type of homogenous organ tissue to replace a diseased or injured section, though, like in an artery or muscle, but even then, I can see a pile of potential issues. Another possible offshoot we could see of 3D printing could be vapor deposition. By controlling the process through seed manipulation and masking, you could potentially produce parts using other materials (such as silicon or diamond).
Check out the second video about skin printing using stem cells. If it is from your own skin, then rejection will most likely decrease. But they don't really talk about that in the video.
Can't see the video (regionally restricted), but looking it up here: Skin cell gun - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (same thing, right?) Looks like this is a stem cell delivery method, but like I said, could have problems with infection. If you're providing a nutrition skin/stem cells to grow with, other things can grow there too, potentially causing an infection (especially if there's even the slightest bit of contamination in the device). The other problem could be harvesting adult stem cells from the host, since there aren't too many of them, and they can be traumatic to harvest (especially on someone who already has serious burns). Might limit how much skin you could actually cover this way, though if stem cells from a donor could be used instead... I like the idea of printing a rudimentary circulatory/nutritional system onto the wound, but it sounds like they're still ironing out a lot of problems in the functioning (damage to the cells during application). Still, could be a useful technology.
The thing that is wild is that we are getting closer and closer to Star Trek with just this. I remember as a kid thinking, wow, look how that just beamed the food, or fixed that guy. Now we are probably not to far from that. My kid will be dealing with all this stuff, either good or bad.
From RADICONS: Staples Announces In-Store 3-D Printing Service | Wired Design | Wired.com They will use paper.
It's already being used in some form for action figures and has been for years. DST uses this for their Star Trek figures. Scott Bakula was on the Daily Show explaining this to Jon Stewart how he was in the scanner and then the printer produced a replica of his head. Stewart joked that he hadn't left the Enterprise Set. But yeah, they've been doing that for a long time. There are more available ones that do far less detail, I actually saw one at a toy/comic show back in September. It was pretty cool and capable of a lot of detail but apparently the more detail the longer it takes.
Funny that I hadn't, until just, though of this as an upscaled CVD technique used to produce microprocessors, logic gates and most other electronic components. Reliable printing of organic material would not be unimaginable in the very near future. This deposition technique is already accurate to the micron (perhaps nano? It's been a while since I wrote my paper on Graphene production) scale.
3D printing was definitely the coolest thing I saw at the Maker Fair. I would love to own one, I can't wait until another 10/15 years when these will be standard in households. I can just really see my children having one in their bedrooms or something. I am going to be so jealous of all the cool things they will have and be able to make with it. I do love the idea of synthetic skin and organ stuff. I really hope they can use these in the medical field.
