Applications, Benefits And Ethics Of 3D Printing Technology Essay.

Discuss about the 3D Printing Technology Application.

The 3D printing is a manufacturing process in which CAD data get employed to create 3D parts in layers during manufacturing. It is an essential technology because it gives direct manufacturing where design goes through a computer to the printer and in the end is the acquisition of the physical product.  

The process of printing with the use of 3D technology begins with a digital file derived from software called the computer-aided design (CAD). It is then, exported as a triangulated surfaces and vertices in a language called the standard tessellation language (STL) file and sliced into many 2-D layers and set for building. The 3D printer reads the 2-D layers as building blocks which it put them one on top of the other, thus forming a three-dimensional object.  The design files get divided into small parts before they are printed. The determination of the size of every layer is based on technology, material, and resolution required at the end.

The technology of 3D is growing very fast and is getting popularity owing to its application in many areas. Additionally, the technology comes with its many benefits amid its effectiveness in use and application, the cost as well as its flexibility.

It is with this that the report examines the different application of 3D printing technology stating the particular area applied, the advantages as well as disadvantages in view of the social and ethical considerations. In the end, a conclusion is made and recommendation put forward for adoption.

This is an evolving area in application of 3D printing.  Bio-printing is now taking the center stage. The technology uses 3D printing with the application of specialized ink made from nanocellulose alginate for printing organs and tissues. As per Knight & Przyborski (2015), 3D printing poses great prospects in solving the organs and tissue shortage that is looming in the transplant of human organs as well as tissues. Bio-printing which is permitted by the use of 3D technology allows the production of human tissues and organs. Even though there still a lot to be done and tested for it to be applicable, Wu & Hsu (2015), points out that this is applicable and working in animals and currently bone muscle and cartilage can be printed.  According to Müller et al (2013), tissue engineering is giving hope with that aim of bridging the gap that exists between the shortage of organs and transplant. The technology of printing human organs uses rapid prototyping (RP) technology. The technology is able to print things like cells, biomaterials, as well as cell-laden biomaterials thus coming up with 3D structures inform of tissues (Müller et al., 2013).

How 3D Printing Works

Even though there might arise ethical and legal issues in the generation of human tissues and organs, the logic behind bio-printing if established to be reliable and safe will eradicate transplant’s wait time and permit the replacement of human organs (Chia & Wu, 2015).

The 3D printed "Bionic Skin" created is a stretchable, electronic texture, which enables robots to increase material sensation. The 3D printer enables making and delivering four separate body parts; that is meant to fit the patient missing part and utilizes sensation of the body for coordination. A sensor fastened to the skin senses the person's muscle developments, which can be used to control the hand and open and close the fingers. The experts in the field of medicine trust the procedure can help more than 30 million individuals around the world (Knight & Przyborski, 2015).

The modest pieces of biomedical designing are indistinguishable to the samples of tissue from genuine human livers, and they are built from real human cells. At Organovo, researchers are printing this body parts as opposed to growing them which is a breakthrough in research as far as body parts are in consideration (Chia & Wu, 2015).

There is the reduction in the lead time. In the past, the time employed in manufacturing design was prone to taking a lot of time and hence the lead time was longer. Presently, the 3D printing has transformed everything and the manner of doing a thing in the manufacturing industry.  Today, 3D printing design phase and re-printing are feasible and affordable overnight. The use of technologies such as Fused Deposition Modeling, Laser Sintering, Direct as well as Metal Laser Sintering allows the creation of a final product in a period of one to two days. Prior to the emergence of this technology, the creation and conception of an idea were involving and costly. In addition, there was no room for re-prototype for making multiple design adjustments (Attaran, 2017).

In the use of 3D printing, there is design freedom. Generally, fashioners and architects have depended intensely on the assembling procedure to manage the end design plan. The ordinary assembling forms like CNC machining have constraints on assembly standards, manufacturability, and general practicality. Going outside the normal design practices for conventional manufacturing forms brings about augmented cost and work. Nevertheless, adhering to past design guidelines brings in hindered advancement development (Chia & Wu, 2015).

An example of the freedom of using 3D printing is seen from NASA. The NASA Marshall Space Flight Center changed a section already containing many sections and, with the use of 3D printing, combined the entire plan into one ceaseless unit. The scale, as well as the distribution of housing, has changed owing to the emergence of technology. It has seen the demand for consumer needs in the manufacturing sector increasing. The 3D printing technology creates relieve in meeting the demand and the customers’ needs when the housing is taken into consideration get met. The design of housing gets customized in design process until it meets the customers’ requirements. Through the use of 3D printing, many housing alternatives get presented. This gathers for the different type of people based on class and requirements (Ford & Despeisse, 2016). Ford & Despeisse (2016) established that the 3D printing comes along with benefits. There is the creation of industrial sustainability as well as making housing affordable.  The options that deem impossible in normal circumstances in the housing sector become possible with the use of 3D printing. This is because the performance in manufacturing and housing is improved owing to the fact that the lead time, integrations and wastage of materials gets reduced. This is going to make housing cheap and affordable to many people (Attaran, 2017).

Applications of 3D Printing Technology

The 3D printing as opposed to robotics food manufacturing get used to revolutionize the manufacture of food in which the integration of digital gastronomy and 3D printing get utilized in customizing food shapes,  flavor, color, nutrition, and texture (Chia & Wu, 2015). With the technology, the client’s desire and need get manufactured with controlling the amount of printing content The solutions provided by 3D printing enable control of food nutrition, allow the creation of new food products and reshape the food supply chain(Rayna, Striukov & Darlington, 2015). In the rural areas, the technology will be handy owing to the provision of balanced food thereby helping the people get a complete meal that is healthy. It has paved way for endless possibilities of healthy living both to the urban and the rural population (Müller et al., 2013).

There is the creation of products based on the client’s need. By using 3D printing innovation, producing of products has turned out to be less demanding as compared to earlier time. Presently, anybody can make any item they need, utilizing only a 3D printer and the coveted material. This has made readily modified items, as it enables one to make own product design in 3D, and print. The design of housing gets customized in design process until it meets the customers’ requirements. Through the use of 3D printing, many housing alternatives get presented. This gathers for the different type of people based on class and requirements (Vermeulen, et al., 2017).

With the advent of 3D innovation, there is the creation of stuff in quite a short moment. The technology encourages quick prototyping, which implies, it sets aside extremely short time for design plans to get changed so that it fits into the particular models. This is faster and easier thereby saving time and encourages production of products in large numbers with no compromise of quality. Additive manufacturing has led to the paths that were impossible to designers and specialists since it does not depend on the same plan and assembling needs from conventional assembling. In using 3D printing, difficult plans are consistently executed while keeping quality in ways that was unmanageable by means of older assembling process (Castaneda et al., 2017).

It is apparent that the cost of putting up the 3D printing is high, however, the cost less when contrasted with long-term use and benefits incurred. In the conventional manufacturing, the cost of labor and design of a product is high. Whereas with the use of 3D printing, the labor cost gets reduced drastically as well as a reduction in prototyping time and design time. This makes the technology more efficient and effective as opposed to the older technology (Castaneda et al., 2016).

Bio-Printing and Tissue Engineering

 The 3D printing diminishes fabricating/generation costs through an assortment of advances that get categorized into Zero tooling, zero-cost, decreased work. These three points give the best advantages in shorter lead times, which also identify with cost saving (Ford & Despeisse, 2016).

Additionally, the 3D printing manufactures parts from bottom to up and no need for any tooling to execute challenging designs. By doing away with tooling, 3D printing lessens the cost and work of building apparatuses. Also, 3D printing authorizes plans for the more extensive scope of geometric capacities (Castaneda et al., 2016).

Moreover, 3D printing cuts on the cost of the interior, features used to access are executed without expanded work, time or configuration finagling. 3D printing additionally decreases work by merging different part sections into one single unit. Disposing assembling is an immense cost saver. 3D printing further decreases work through mechanization. Setting up a section for fabrication is robotized with some manual communication to perfect part introduction or strengthen creation. Different from machining, 3D printing computerizes the formation of line by line data to fabricate a section one layer at any given moment ((Ford & Despeisse, 2016).

Large-scale manufacturing offers rise to the issue of capacity. Since little scale creation does not cost higher when utilizing 3D printing innovation, the requirement for large-scale manufacturing is disposed of and the expenses of capacity are discarded (Ford & Despeisse, 2016).

One of the best breakthroughs accomplished by 3D printing development is in the field of bio-printing and organ substitution to be specific, where an extensive number of people fail every year for the need of donor organs. This development of making human organs using 3D printing is not far away and there will be the ability to make complex human organs, for instance, the heart and the cerebrum, using tissue from the organ recipient (Chia & Wu, 2015).

The energy consumption in 3D printing is high. In the use of mass production, 3D technology is prone to consume a large amount of energy as opposed to small-scale production.  Additionally, the 3D technology is expensive. The mechanical grade of 3D printers is as yet costly, which makes the underlying costs of utilizing the innovation high (Ford & Despeisse, 2016).

While 3D printing is a leap forward in terms of additive manufacturing, materials that can be utilized are restricted and scarce, and some are still being worked on. For instance, plastic is the material of choice for the 3D printing which is not durable. On the other hand, the byproduct of plastic gets disposed in landfills adversely influencing the environment. Besides, plastic confines the kind of items that can be made from the material (Rayna, Striukov & Darlington, 2015).

Revolutionizing Manufacturing with 3D Printing

The 3D printers utilized produce possibly poisonous discharges and cancer-causing particles. The 3D personal computers could radiate substantial quantities of ultrafine particles and some perilous unpredictable natural mixes amid printing. Produced radiations are like consuming a cigarette, and may settle in the circulatory system or lungs posturing wellbeing dangers including disease and different sicknesses (Ford & Despeisse, 2016).

Conclusion

In looking are many ventures, there are many merits that come with 3D printing. By using 3D printing innovation, producing of products has turned out to be less demanding as compared to earlier time. Presently, anybody can make any item they need, utilizing only a 3D printer. 3D printing poses great prospects in solving the organs and tissue shortage that is looming in the transplant of human organs as well as tissues. The 3D printing technology creates relieve in meeting the demand and the customers’ needs when the housing is taken into consideration. The design of housing gets customized in design process until it meets the customers’ requirements. The 3D printer enables making and delivering four separate body parts; that is meant to fit the patient missing part and utilizes sensation of the body for coordination. The 3D printing has transformed everything and the manner of doing things in the manufacturing industry.  Today, 3D printing design phase and re-printing are feasible and affordable within a short period of time. The 3D printing has revolutionized the manufacture of food in which the integration of digital gastronomy and 3D printing get utilized in customizing food shapes, flavor, color, nutrition, and texture.

Nevertheless, it will not displace conventional assembling very quickly. It is yet a growing innovation that has few disadvantages that need consideration when selecting a product improvement method. The designer as well as manufacturers needs to put in consideration as a procedure to take the place of conventional assembling. It can take the most advantage of its abilities to improve on the item design as well as fabricating new products that cannot be created.

Despite the fact that there are disadvantages of 3D printing technology, there are numerous advantages outweighing on the demerits. The 3D technology is feasible and offers prospects for the organization. As a result, there is the need for the organization to specialize in three areas of 3D technology in curving a niche in the technology market.

The first one is specializing in 3D printing technology for the development of human tissue and organs as well as the Bionic section of the creation of body parts. The reason is that there are shortages in the donation of body parts and this technology will get embraced by many people within the region and globally.

Customized Food Production with 3D Printing

Secondly, venturing into 3D technology for prototyping, innovation, and housing as this reduces the cost of production and manufacturing. Alongside this, specializing in 3D printing technology that facilitates the creation of cheap and affordable houses to meet high housing demand.

The third is specialization in 3D printers for the creation of nutritious food which will be advantageous to the rural people without balanced healthy meals. This presents a huge market for the product. The use of 3D printing technology is faster, easy and produces a whole meal within a short time.

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