What Are the Applications of 3D Printing?

3D printing has a wide range of applications, including healthcare, education, architecture, and industrial manufacturing. In order to make it easier for everyone to understand the related knowledge of 3D printing, we provide some science popularization here.

To facilitate a better understanding of 3D printing among individuals, we offer informative and accessible resources that demystify the concepts and applications of this technology. Through our science popularization efforts, we aim to empower individuals with the knowledge needed to explore practical prototype solutions and leverage the full potential of 3D printing in various fields, such as healthcare, education, architecture, and industrial manufacturing.

1. What is 3D printing?

The common way of printing is to put paper into a printer and print out what you want. We call this type of printing 2D printing.

To achieve 2D printing, we need to connect to a computer, and then use a 2D printer device with carbon powder or ink to print out on paper.

However, 3D printing is different. It also needs to be connected to a computer and the 3D printing device, but it does not print with carbon powder or ink. It is a technology that uses digital models as the basis and stacks various solid materials layer by layer into the 3D printer to realize manufacturing.

Let's take a simple example to help everyone understand.

We need to print a toy. First, we need to draw the digital model of this toy in the computer, and then find the relevant solid materials to put into the 3D printer and print it out.

According to the printed objects, the type of 3D printer is also different. There are 3D printers for printing toys and printers for the medical industry.

2. The principle of 3D printing

The principle of 3D printing is different depending on the materials used, such as metal materials (stainless steel, solder), plastic materials, food materials, etc.

The principle of 3D printing varies based on the specific materials employed, like protomold plastics or metal prototyping. Each material has its own printing process, whether it is through melting and extrusion for plastic materials or sintering and layering for metal materials. Understanding these principles is crucial for utilizing the appropriate techniques and achieving optimal results in 3D printing applications.

The most common one is the "Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM)" technology. Simply put, it melts various materials through the heating of the 3D printer, and then sprays them out through the "heating nozzle" of the 3D printer.

3. The advantages of 3D printing

With 3D printing, many industries can quickly produce and manufacture products, thereby achieving the effect of saving time and cost.

How should we understand this?

For example, Adidas needs to produce a pair of shoes. Surely, it requires many processes, and each process needs to spend a certain amount of time and cost. But now, it can directly use a 3D printer to print, which greatly saves time and cost, thus achieving mass production.

Based on the above knowledge, we know that the 3D printing technology can be applied to various industries, not limited to industrial manufacturing and healthcare industries. It can be said that as long as there is a need for a field or industry, 3D printing technology can be involved.