At the Movies: 3D Printing

If you haven’t already heard of 3D printing, then we need to fix that right away. If you have heard of 3D printing, this post will probably be fun for you, and will hopefully still include some new information. I have talked about 3D printing here before, and still am hoping that in the renovation of the library where I reside there will included be a small makerspace complete with 3D printer. We wouldn’t be the first medical library to do so! At least one other medical library is currently in the position of deciding which model to purchase.

Would appreciate it if #medlibs or other #librarians whose libraries have #3Dprinter would share what model they have & how used. Thanks!

— Kimberley R. Barker (@KR_Barker) March 14, 2013

What is commonly called 3D printing was probably something you first heard about in the guise of a Star Trek replicator. Actually, it has been a real emerging technology about as long as Star Trek has been around, and was called “additive processing” (or so I’ve learned by watching the TED Talk video of Lisa Harouni and her “Primer on 3D printing”).

Lisa Harouni: A primer on 3D printing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhYvDS7q_V8

The earliest patents on this came out of efforts to print circuit boards, and were instrumental in the rapid decline of the cost of computers. There are now patents for how to print with biological materials instead of simply plastic and metal. Enormous advances. There is a fair amount of talk that this may be the year that 3D printing hits mainstream. Let’s just say that if the President of the United States is talking about it in his State of the Union address, that just might be a very realistic possibility.

President Obama on 3D Printing http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01gJYQEyBWc

3D printing is becoming so ubiquitous that one of the grad students currently working in our library showed me the delightful 3D printed Valentine she received from husband, a box-puzzle that turns into a heart. There are so many amazing, wonderful, and scary things being made right now with 3d printing. Bicycles. Cars. Houses. Guns. Ammo. Jaws. Cartilage. Kidneys. Spaceships. Yes, really. Well, little ones, at least for the spaceship, anyway. We cannot imagine what will be created with 3D printing in the future.

Bicycles. Cars. Houses. Guns. Ammo. Jaws. Cartilage. Kidneys. Spaceships.

Microscale 3D printing of a spaceship: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wThtfAtB5U8

3d Printing – 3d Cloning A Bicycle – YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oChnml1Twy0

Rational automotive design for the human race: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhJCTMkn9Yo
MORE:
Urbee 2 is the 3D printed Car of the Future: http://mashable.com/2013/03/01/urbee-3d-printed-car/
ExtremeTech: The First 3D Printed Car is as Strong as Steel and Half the Weight: http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/149557-the-first-3d-printed-plastic-car-is-as-strong-as-steel-and-half-the-weight

Fully-customized modular solar house is 3D printed prefab. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3R1CBFBxuew

3D Printing Gun Revolution: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8qtJuOFbs4

Breaking Gamechanger: Printable Gun Magazines: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKAaO26FAvA

Printing a Full new 3D Jawbone for Belgian Patient – Worlds First (Europe Innovation): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsEtyhy81nA

3D printer and living “ink” create cartilage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RgI_bcETkM

Anthony Atala: Printing a human kidney: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RMx31GnNXY

What’s next? What’s here?

Can we print a human body? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJrTrIMbk9A

Well, and it isn’t like this doesn’t already happen on campus. In many places, most notably the 3D Lab and the Fab Lab. And has for many years. That last video right above is from UM. Here are some more. And look at the dates. Several of these are from within the past few weeks, but others go back years. We do this.

3D Printing: An Additive Solution: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5ef7stKMe0

expoSItion: 3D printing in the developing world: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThH6x09vZVE

And you know the Cube? As in the sculpture of the cube on Regent’s Plaza, in front of the Fleming Building, the one that spins around? Want one?

Endover Sculpture Puzzle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fM5E__LAK4E

And the newest answer to what 3D printer is in the University Libraries? Right now they are praising the Dimension Elite. I’ve seen several different 3D printers there over the years, from MakerBots on up. I still want something accessible beyond the 3D lab, in a regular campus library, on the main campus, and preferably on the Medical Campus.

Want more videos about 3D printing?

Rapid Prototyping (playlist from UMich): https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL222722191CF566C5

Bad Brad’s Bad Channel: 3d Printing Videos: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7B951A6FDF7D81B9