Have you ever known about 3D printing technology? Maybe some of us know and have heard of it. Actually, this technology has been around for a long time and is very popular in all parts of the world! This technology also has many benefits for life. Nowadays, it gets even more sophisticated in removing human errors in 3D printing. You may visit https://www.marketwatch.com/press-release/how-3d-laser-scanning-is-changing-the-market-2020-02-15 and read the info about it.
So, what exactly is this 3D printing technology? How is the process? Let’s discuss further:
3D printing is a technology that was first created in the 1980s. First created by Chuck Hull from 3D Systems Corp. Since then 3D printers have continued to develop and are widely used.
3D printing is a printing technology using a special printing machine so that the results obtained are in 3D. The printing machine has a special sophistication, which is able to print objects, which are exactly the same as the soft file image, in 3D (no longer limited to printing images on paper only).
The results of 3D printing are used in prototyping (models) and industry widely, such as in architecture, automotive, military, medical industry, fashion, geographic information systems to biotech (human body tissue replacement).
For example, in making shoes made by one of the world’s leading brands, the soles have started using 3D printing, which of course is highly customizable according to the user’s shoes.
Usually, to make 3D printing, some commonly used materials are Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) and Polylactic acid or Polylactide (PLA). Both of these materials come from the thermoplastic group which has the property of being easily formed when heated and becomes solid again when cooled. The advantage of thermoplastic material is that it can be recycled or reprocessed repeatedly so that it is more environmentally friendly. For mixed materials (for making highway trajectories, for example) there is also actual, but still under development. This limitation applies also to product coloring. Whatever color is in the picture, the printed product will only have one color according to the material in the printer. Therefore, when you want to apply a variety of colors to one product, it is necessary to manually paint using an airbrush paint or other coloring substances.