Trends Improving in 3DPrinting

by Steve Ellis

3D printing is a young technology, butit is developing fast and steadily

working its way into themanufacturing industry. It has the

same potential for revolutionizing theeconomy that the assembly line had

about a century ago, so every businessneeds to pay attention to new

developments.

It also has the potential torevolutionize the world of medicine by

printing out new body parts fortransplants, which is a sign that

everyone should keep an eye on 3Dprinting to see what the future holds.

Biofabrication

It’s a sad truth that most medicalorganizations have more people that

need organs than people who candonate them. This problem leads to agreat deal of pain and suffering, but

it’s one that 3D printing has thepotential to solve.

Scientists have been constructing bodyparts for experiments for a few yearsnow, but organized efforts to advancethe field and turn it into a viable tool

for treatment have been lacking.

The Queensland University ofTechnology in Brisbane, Australia has

recently decided to change that. Theuniversity is building a biofabricationroom that should be able to print boneand other human tissues on demand.

The university does expect to run intosome difficulties with the project, and

it will be some time before they canprint every organ that a patient mightneed. Even so, this room represents a

giant step forward that might beenough to solve those problems and

put an end to transplant waiting lists.

Printing Silk

Spider silk is one of the strongestmaterials known to mankind, but it’s

very difficult to harvest it. Spiders canonly produce enough silk to make their

webs, which is rarely enough forindustrial applications. Spider farms

do exist that can harvest spider silk forsome scientific uses, but the material is

still very rare and expensive.

Some scientists might have tried tosolve that problem by breeding a

better spider, but 3D printing turnedout to be an easier method.

Approximately one year ago, a team atMIT managed to print spider webs.

A young company called Spidey Tekhas taken that technology and turnedit into a viable industrial process. The

method is extremely young, so it’simpossible to know what sort of

impact this will have on themanufacturing industry, but it’s likely

to be significant.

The company recently patented adrone that is made out of spider silk,

something that never would have beenpossible without the new 3D printing

process.

Spider silk is almost one hundredtimes stronger than carbon fiber,

which has recently become a commonadditive in 3D printers. That strength

will likely cause the silk to replacecarbon fiber in many uses in the nearfuture, which could revolutionize the3D printing process in addition to its

potential for other industries.

That will only make 3D printingspread faster, so it’s a sure sign that

the technology is here to stay.