Just as computers revolutionised the manufacturing industry a few decades ago, 3D printers are all set to have a similar impact.

Desktop 3D printing manufacturing technology can be done at home, the office, a hospital or a school, bringing manufacturing to non-manufacturers the way PCs brought computing to non-traditional environments.

At the same time, 3D printing, is being applied in a number of industries today, including aerospace and defence, automotive and healthcare. 3D printing services are being used to create such things as topographical models, lighter airplane parts, aerodynamic car bodies and custom prosthetic devices as the accuracy of these machines has improved. In the future, it may be possible for the military to print replacement parts right on the battlefield instead of having to rely on limited spares and supply chains.

In the future, there is scope for the way business operates as 3Dprinters will most likely attain new features and properties that can increase their accuracy and efficiency. This might revolutionize the way products are manufactured, completely changing the face of the factory floor.

in a matter of hours. It is a method of manufacturing which is known as ‘additive manufacturing’, due to the fact that instead of removing material to create a part, the process adds material in successive patterns to create the desired shape. The main areas of use include prototyping, making specialized parts, hobbies and home use, for engineering parts for the human body.

There are different types of 3D printing:

FDM (Fusion Deposit Modelling):

It is an additive manufacturing technology commonly used for modelling, prototyping and production applications.

SLA (Stereo lithography):

It is an additive manufacturing process which employs a vat of liquid ultraviolet curable photopolymer "resin" and an ultraviolet laser to build parts' layers one at a time. For each layer, the laser beam traces a cross section of the path pattern on the surface the liquid resin. Exposure to the UV laser light cures and solidifies the pattern traced on the resin and joins it to the layer below. 

SLS (Selective Laser Sintering):

It is an additive manufacturing technique that uses a high power laser (a carbon dioxide laser) to fuse small particles of plastic, metal (directed metal laser sintering), ceramic, or glass powders into a mass that has a desired 3 Dimensional shape.

It has a lot applications like biomedical engineering, aerospace and automobile engineering, construction and architecture, product prototyping. It has wide applications in designing too.

The technology for printing physical 3D parts from digital data was first patented by Charles Hull in 1984. He called this Stereo Lithography. While this technique became popular by the end of the 1980s, other similar technologies had been envisioned.

The model to be produced by the 3D printer is built up layer by layer. A layer of powder is deposited in the model tray , and the print head applies resin in the shape of the model. This layer dries instantaneously. The model tray moves down a layer and then applies another layer of powder. This sequence occurs one layer at a time.

There are 4 types of 3D printing Technologies:

Stereo Lithography:

Stereo lithographic 3D printers position a porous platform just below the surface of a vat of liquid photo curable polymer. A UV laser then traces the first layer of an object on the surface of this liquid, causing a very thin layer of photopolymer to form and harden. The perforated platform is then lowered and another slice is traced out and hardened by the laser. Consecutive slices are created, until a complete object has been printed and can be removed from the vat of photopolymer, drained of excess liquid, and cured.

Fused Deposition Modelling:

Hot thermoplastic is extruded from a temperature controlled print head to produce fairly sized objects extremely accurately.

Selective Laser Sintering:

This builds objects by using a laser to selectively fuse together successive layers of a cocktail of powdered wax, ceramic, metal, nylon or one of a range of other materials.

Multi - Jet Modelling:

This again builds up objects from successive layers of powder, with an inkjet-like print head used to spray on a binder solution that glues only the required granules together.

3D Printing Uses

1. Product formation is currently the main use of 3D printing technology. These machines allow designers and engineers to test out ideas for products cheaply before committing to expensive manufacturing processes.

2. In the medical field, surgeons use 3D printing machines to print body parts for reference before complex surgeries. Other machines are used to construct bone grafts for patients who have suffered traumatic injuries.

3. Architects need to create mockups of their designs. 3D printing allows them to come up with these mockups in a short period of time and with a higher degree of accuracy.

4. 3D printing allows artists to create objects that would be incredibly difficult, costly, or time intensive using traditional processes.

Sounds too good to be true right?

Well you can stop imagining, because 3D printing is a reality.

Did a small and specifically shaped piece of plastic from your coffee machine break>

Now you can replace it yourself at home.

Lose a limb? Prosthetic body parts can now be printed out.

You can even print a gun!.

A Japanese scientist submitted a patent for Rapid Prototyping technologies. This tech was designed to create prototypes faster and had the first usage of 3D printing.

printing cars and firearms.

Even though we're only halfway through the decade, scientists have already printed aircraft, and even jaws!

The only challenge we face right now is the cost of the raw materials used for 3D printing,once we overcome that we can build anything right from a bionic arm to a spacecraft.

Military and defence

Organ Printing

Aerospace

Manufacturing ( Small Products)

Building Buildings

Automobiles

People have printed musical instruments from 3D printers. Infact, there's an orchestra which uses 3D printed instruments! how COOL is THAT?

Hence 3D printing is used to come up with prototypes of products and the products are then mass produced in factories.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVbNugu_-1I

A very useful youtube channel you can checkout to know more about 3D printing is called "3D Printing Nerd"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihR9SX7dgRo&spfreload=10

THE PEOPLE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE ARTICLE ARE:

William Koff Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, Office of Innovation

Paul Gustafson Director, Leading Edge Forum Technology Program

ANSWER: Yes/No

QUESTION: What do you understand by it?

ANSWER: 3D printing is a technology used to build prototypes of products and helps us in visualising our ideas.

QUESTION: If I gave you a 3D printer for a day with unlimited refill, what would you build with it?

ANSWER:( this question would help us in realising where the real market for 3D printing is, with the answers given we can plan to scale up in that area of 3D printing. It would really help manufacturers by letting them know where the real market is and they can customise their products accordingly.)

QUESTION: Now that you're familiar with this technology, what do you think it has for us in the future?

ANSWER: (this answer will also help us in analysing people's aspirations for a revolutionary technology like 3D printing.)

http://3dprinting.com/what-is-3d-printing/

An informative video on the ins and outs of 3D Printing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTHqPB0s8BY

The Future of 3D Printing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaLGg2WPhK4

The majority of my data was obtained on the internet, by referring to articles on leading websites in the IT industry such as hbr.org and smithsonianmag.org

The 3-D Printing Revolution (Richard D'Aveni). Retrieved October 2, 2015, from Harvard Business Studies Website.,

https://hbr.org/2015/05/the-3-d-printing-revolution

3D Printing is Changing the Way We Think (TJ McCue). Retrieved October 2, 2015, from Harvard Business Studies Website.,

https://hbr.org/2015/07/3d-printing-is-changing-the-way-we-think

I procured my article from NICSU website, and the person responsible for putting together my article is 

Gaurav Tyagi, 

Technical Director/DIO, NIC-Muzaffarnagar, UP

Answer: This answer helps us comprehend the public opinion on 3D printing.

2. What would you print with a printer?

Answer: By figuring out what a person is inclined to printing, commercial 3D printers can be marketed to the public with popular products in mind.

3. Would you buy a 3D printer and regularly use it?

Answer: While most people would say no due to the low cost efficiency of 3D printers, using this question, one can find out the types of people in the general public who would be interetsed in buying a 3D manufacturing printer.

http://www.csc.com/innovation/insights/92142-3d_printing_and_the_future_of_manufacturing

A company named Stratasys

http://www.stratasys.com/industries/automotive

An article from one of the micro sites of Pennsylvania State University.

http://sites.psu.edu/rclperdue/2015/02/11/the-amazing-technology-behind-3d-printers/

Article on Purdue Universities

I got the data relevant to my article by referring to articles written on the websites of Purdue and other such universities. My other sources of references include science blogs, articles on Forbes and Wikipedia.

A: Additive manufacturing

Q: What industries has 3D Printing hadd an effect on?

A : Aerospace, Defense, Medicine, Automobile etc.

Q: How would 3D printing help speed up processes in industries?

A : Product Prototyping becomes much simpler with a 3D Printer. It helps product designers to look at a physical design and analyse it. This reduces the time and cost it takes to build a sample of a design.

Q:

Skirt – Extra material printed around the base of an object (separated by several mm's), typically to prime the extruder and test the leveling and distance to the print bed. If the skirt is not adhering to the print bed properly, the print can be aborted and the z-axis height or print-bed heater can be adjusted. In advanced operations, skirts can also be made more than one layer thick, which can be useful to shield an object from drafts while it is being printed.

Brim – Extra material printed touching the base of an object on the first layer to increase the surface area of the bottom layer, to promote adheasion to the print bed. Typically used for small objects or tall vertical objects. The brim must be removed by cutting or filing after printing is complete.

Kapton Tape – A high temperature tape that adheres well to ABS plastic. Glass print beds are typically covered with Kapton tape to ensure that the first layer of an ABS plastic print will remain adhered. It is also used to tape temperature sensors (thermocouples) to the hot end.

2. Bowden Tube – Used to convey filament from the cold end to the hot end of the extruder if they are separated. If the hot end of the extruder is on a moving platform, reducing the mass that needs to move can increase the speed at which the platform can lay down material. For this reason some machines use a Bowden tube to connect the (moving) hot end to a (stationary) cold end that is not mounted on the moving platform, reducing moving mass and inertia that must be overcome for changes in direction.

3. Thermocouple – A temperature sensor typically used on both the hot end (nozzle) of the 3D printer and a heated print bed so that the electronics can maintain a consistent temperature.

4. Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) – A trademarked term used by the Stratasys Corporation, equivalent to Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) which describes the process of manufacturing an object by melting a filament of material and laying down molten material which immediately solidifies (fusing to previous layers) under programmatic control. Objects are built up layer by layer.

2 Limit Switch – Physical (or optical) switches mounted on each axis (X,Y,Z) to determine when a carriage has reached it's maximum safe travel distance. In some cases they are mounted on both ends (detecting the minimum and maximum travel locations) while in other cases they are only mounted on one end (typically the zero point on that axis). During machine startup the carriages are moved until they trigger the limit switches to “zero” the machine. On some machines the limit switch on the Z axis is adjustable, allowing the user to exactly specify the distance of the nozzle from the print bed.

3. Carriage – A movable platform typically mounted with bearings on linear rails or smooth rods that is moved back and forth in a specific dimension (X-carriage, Y-carriage) under the control of stepper motors using belts or threaded rods. The various carriages of a 3D printer allow three dimensional positioning of the nozzle relative to the print bed. In many cases the print bed is mounted on a carriage so that it can move relative to the nozzle which then only needs to move in two dimensions. The Z dimension is typically vertical (changes between layers) while the X and Y dimension are typically in the horizontal plane.

4.ABS – Acrylonitrile Butadlene Styrene (ABS) plastic is a commonly used printing material. It is more flexible and less brittle than PLA, has a high melting temperature, and produces more fumes than PLA. It is soluble in Acetone (Fingernail Polish Remover) which is sometimes used to smooth finished prints. Typical extrusion temperatures range from 200-230 C.