Revolutionizing Industries: 3D Printing's Unleashed Potential in Custom Creations and Innovation

This summer, the ice cream you ate, the glass you drunk your summer red wine from or even the beach bar you went to had been created by 3D printing. 3D printing technology consists of volume printing in three dimensions using computer-aided design (CAD) techniques to create objects of different sizes, shapes, textures, and colors. It was invented in the 1980s by three groups of researchers in Japan, Europe, and the United States, where the technology was patented.

Its ink is filaments of different materials that build up layer by layer, printing one on top of the other and adding more height to the model created, which is sometimes referred to as "additive manufacturing". There are different types of technologies, which differ in robustness, speed, capacity, quality, and versatility of filaments.

The printing process follows several steps. First, the filament is loaded into the printer through an extruder (loader) and heated until it melts in a fuser (hot melt glue gun).? Once ready, it is ejected through the tip to print in layers. The loader is connected to a three-dimensional system, which allows it to move in three different axes for 3D printing. The printer needs designs made by computer with CAD software. Nowadays, there are many repositories on the Internet with designs of 3D parts and objects that anyone can access. Something like the Pinterest image gallery model.

The great advantage of 3D printers is the immediacy with which they create objects. This speed makes it possible to shorten time to market, eliminate unnecessary production machinery and reduce space for stock storage. During the pandemic, they have proven to be very useful for the rapid creation of medical equipment. Another advantage is the customizability of the objects that are created, which can be individualized and tailored as designs can be easily edited. According to 3D Natives' analysis, in the last year, the adoption of this technology increased sevenfold, with the United States, Great Britain, Germany and France being the countries where it is most widely used. In 2020 alone, more than 2 million units were sold and more than 15 million are expected to be sold by 2028.

For example, when the dental company Invisalign started using 3D printers 5 years ago, it was able to print 175,000 braces per day - more than many of its competitors in a whole year. Crowns, implants, and oral bridges are also custom printed.

The food industry has started to use this technology to create designer confectionery in pastries or decorations for beverages. There is even a printer, called mycusini, that we can have in our kitchen, like a thermomix, to create customized chocolates. Another enthusiast of this technology is the company Barilla, which launched a pasta printing contest with incredible shapes using 3D printing.

The construction sector has 3D printers for concrete. For example, the company New Story capable of building 100 houses in 8 months and now an NGO has built a community of 3D printed houses in Mexico. In biomedicine, it is being used both to print biological tissue to create organs and to manufacture prostheses. The European Space Agency - ESA is analyzing how to use this technique to build a lunar village in 2030, printing concrete blocks in just one hour.

L'Oréal , one of the pioneers in the use of this technology, started using it more than 25 years ago. At first it printed sophisticated packaging for perfumes and now it even prints skin so that the smell of perfumes can be tested on real fabric.

The initial obstacles to the adoption of this technology are disappearing printers have become cheaper, printing speed has increased and there are more and more regulatory advantages. The FDA agency in the United States has defined guidelines for 3D printing in the use of medical devices, for example.

3D printers can build an ever-increasing variety of things, from clothing accessories to buildings, cars, bio-textiles, and food. This innovation is breaking into small and large businesses, changing the processes of manufacturing, and selling our homes, our food, or the clothes we wear. 3D printing will radically change our habits and economic dynamics.?

Published in El Mundo / Actualidad Economica on Aug 9, 2021

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