3D printers can use materials to make hollow objects The printer works for many hours Then the computer tells the printer to stop A model of a human face sits on the printer bed
A 3D printer is similar to an inkjet printer which many people use at home school and work Inkjet printers deposit ink on flat pieces of paper This is printing in two dimensions 2D A 3D printer deposits material too But it builds objects in three dimensions You can hold the printed object in your hand A 3D printer does not use ink It uses plastic metal or other materials The technical ADDING VERSUS SUBTRACTING AM is a relatively new process The traditional way to make things is subtractive manufacturing Material is removed from an object until the desired shape appears This may involve sawing grinding or carving It creates a lot of waste AM builds the object in the desired shape It produces little or no waste That can make AM less expensive and better for the environment name for 3D printing is additive manufacturing AM That’s because 3D printing makes objects by adding material layer by layer
Engineers can use prototypes to look at models of larger objects that they want to create RAPID PROTOTYPES Engineers developed 3D printing in the 1980s and early 1990s At first 3D printing was used to quickly
create prototypes In fact the technology was originally called rapid prototyping A prototype is similar to a rough draft of an object Engineers and designers use prototypes to test their designs They can make sure all of the pieces work correctly before creating thousands of copies of the object Prototypes can be made in hours using 3D printing Before that it could take days or even longer to make them by hand The first 3D printers made objects that weren’t very strong They did not last a long time They were only temporary Then engineers began to develop ways to print better materials Now 3D printers can make machine parts and much more 3D PRINTERS AT WORK Most 3D printers are industrial This means they are used in factories They print parts for machines such as trucks and airplanes These printers can print an object as large as a car or as small as the head of a pin
