The new revolution: 3D printing

Melbourne Herald Sun, Thursday February 28, 2013 

You know the knob that broke on your stove? Or maybe that missing queen from your ivory chess set? How about you just print yourself new ones?

Yes, print, once you're scanned or designed the replacement piece. This is the next big wave of computer hardware that has started spilling onto the world stage: the 3D printer.

Extrusion printers have been around for over a decade, in engineering and architectural offices. But for the most part they have been expensive industrial machines. Now the prices have started to fall - and it's possible to obtain a good one for $2000, some for even less.

Build you own Eiffel Tower - on your desktop

Right now these printers have gone to the technically minded, the hobbyists, the designers, and you might be thinking, "Why would I ever want one in my home or office?" But then you don't have to cast your mind too far back to recall thinking the same thing about computers or laser printers.

Some pundits have started muttering about "the new industrial revolution", but think about it. The internet gives you world-wide access to any item's picture and often its design. Your scanner can copy anything, given the right software, and there are already laser 3D scanners on the market. Your computer can handle incredibly powerful CAD design programs. You already have almost everything you need.

The 3D printer is not so different from the ink-jet you have now. Instead of ejecting ink, this deposits drops of melted plastic, layer after layer after layer, building up a three dimensional structure. It is microscopically accurate. You can print an interlinked  set of cogs that work straight out of the machine.

In the workplace they have become the quick way to recreate a missing part. No more awaiting delivery from Dusseldorf or Tokyo. Especially for those times when one broken piece can only be replaced by ordering a whole sub-section of the machine. Forget it, just print the part yourself.

In past years, working with manufacturing companies, I can remember the long delays and huge expense of preparing the prototypes, moulds, and dies. Now, with some practised skill, much of this development work can be done on the desk.

Of course, like all new technology this will also become a lawyer's picnic. Who holds the patent on a stove knob? What's the value of a statue if you can punch out a copy in minutes?

Nothing I've discussed so far has been particularly revolutionary. So how about human livers and kidneys? Part of the development work powering ahead is "bio printing". This uses an ink made of living cell structures and builds them - as with the plastics - into human tissue. They have already succeeded with simple parts like cartilage and bones.

But in a decade it may be possible to recreate functional organs. Research is well under way on regenerative medicine, with printers producing experimental skin, heart valves, knee cartilage  and bone implants. And on the non-medical side, a start-up called Modern Meadow is using bio printing technology to develop a way to print meat.

Don't know if you can print the pepper and mustard

Does this mean that one day we'll be able to read the menu and then go on to eat it? All right, don't be flippant. But it does make one's sense of wonder continue to boggle - is this where it's all leading?

But if you think about our insanely expanding world population rate, and the heedless destructiveness of our management of this planet, maybe in future the only way to feed the billions is going to be by printing their food.

ray@ebeatty.com