3-D PRINITING (Syllabus: GS Paper 3 – Sci & Tech)

Context: Today, an organ can be printed in a laboratory, with perfect specifications matching the patients’ needs and successfully implanted in his body. This is the most recent and best application of 3-Dimensional Printing technology currently in use, though this technology is certainly not limited to the medical field.

Three-dimensional (3D) Printing:

• Origin: It was Charles Hull, a physicist, who patented the ‘stereolithography’ technique, now commonly known as 3D printing, in 1986.
• Also known as: Additive Manufacturing (AM).
• Meaning: It is defined as the technology that constructs a three-dimensional object by adding material layer by layer.
• Working: It uses computer-aided designing (CAD) to make prototypes or working models of objects by laying down successive layers.
• Material used: Almost anything such as plastic, resin, thermoplastic, metal, fibre, or ceramic etc.

• Applications:

o Consumer products (eyewear, footwear, design, furniture)

o Industrial products (manufacturing tools, prototypes, functional end-use parts)

o Healthcare- dental products, prosthetics

o Architectural scale models & maquettes

o Reconstructing fossils

o Replicating ancient artefacts

o Reconstructing evidence in forensic pathology.