3-D PRINTERS
Once all the information relating to a particular object is stored in the computer, a 3D printer will take that data and using specialist software, create a physical (‘real’) version.You may be surprised to learn that the technique used was initially developed in the mid 1980s by Charles Hull, the basic concepts of which are still in use to this day. 3D printers typically print ‘layer’ upon ‘layer’ of the object in question until a fully complete physical version is created.
Today there are several different technologies on the market competing against each other, but they all use the same basic concept described above.
When we think of printing we automatically think of ink and ink-jet printers etc., but if you abandon this limitation and replace the ink with substances such as polymers, plastics and metal then we can literally ‘print’ physical objects as well - but not with an ink-jet printer!!
So you ask, why are they not in common use. Well, ink cartridges are relative cheap to produce, as are the printers that they reside in; and the software and technology has been around for years. If you want to ‘print’ using metal, many different processes are involved. The metal in question has to be processed along with a cocktail of other elements; spread onto a specially designed platform following a set of predefined ‘rules’; fused together usually by some means maybe a laser and so on. Obviously, a printer of this calibre is not going to be cheap and what about the ‘cartridges’ you’d have to feed it with?? We are literally talking in the tens of thousands of pounds!!