3D-printimine: üks 21. sajandi kõige revolutsioonilisemaid nanofacturing tehnoloogiaid

When you first heard the words "3D Printing", did you imagine a super futuristic technology that often appears in science fiction movies? However, believe it or not, 3D Printing has been around for almost 40 years.

Kolmemõõtmeline (3D) printimine on lisatootmisprotsess, mille käigus luuakse digitaalsest disainist füüsiline objekt. Protsess toimib õhukesed materjalikihid vedela või pulbrilise plasti, metalli või tsemendi kujul ja seejärel kihid kokku sulatades.

Siin on kiire 3D-printimise ajaskaala 1940ndatest tänapäevani.

1940. aastad: kontseptsioon

In fact, 3D Printing has existed in concept since 1945 - Murray Leinster explained the term in his 1945 short story Things Pass By, "But this constructor is both efficient and flexible. I feed magnetronic plastics — the stuff they make houses and ships of nowadays — into this moving arm. It makes drawings in the air following drawings it scans with photo-cells. But plastic comes out of the end of the drawing arm and hardens as it comes ... following drawings only."

1980ndad: sünd

The first documented iterations of 3D printing can be traced back to the early 1980s in Japan. In 1981, Dr. Hideo Kodama at the Nagoya Municipal Industrial Research Institute published details concerning a "rapid prototyping" technique. This research was the first piece of literature to describe the layer-by-layer approach so intrinsic to 3D Printing. His research involved printing photopolymers using a method which preceded stereolithography, and also spoke about cross-sectional slices of layers which lay on top of each other to form the 3D object. However, Dr. Kodama didn't fulfill the patent application before his deadline and was never granted the patent.

A few years later, a trio of French engineers Alain Le Méhauté, Olivier de Witte, and Jean Claude Andréwas was seeking to create a rapid prototyping machine. Instead of resin, they sought to create a system that cured liquid monomers into solids by using a laser. They filed a patent for the stereolithography process, but abandoned due to a lack of business perspective.

It was Chuck Hull who actually built the first 3D printer. He submitted the first patent for stereolithography (SLA) in 1986, founded the 3D Systems Corporation, and in 1988, released the SLA-1, their first commercial product. This machine made it possible to fabricate complex parts, layer by layer, in a fraction of the time it would normally take. Hull went on to file more than 60 patents around the technology, becoming the godfather of the rapid prototyping movement and inventing the STL file format that's still in use today.

SLA wasn't the only additive manufacturing process being explored during this time. In 1988, at the University of Texas, Carl Deckard brought a patent for the SLS technology, another 3D printing technique in which powder grains are fused together locally by a laser. In the meantime, Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) was also patented by Scott Crump. The method involved melting a polymer filament and depositing it onto a substrate, layer by layer, to create a 3D object.

1990.–2000. aastad: kasv

1990. aastatel hakkasid paljud ettevõtted ja idufirmad esile kerkima ja katsetama erinevaid lisandite valmistamise tehnoloogiaid. Selle aja jooksul olid masinad väga erinevad nendest, mida praegu kasutame. Neid oli raske kasutada, need olid kallid ja paljud lõplikud väljatrükid nõudsid palju järel{1}}töötlust.

2004. aastal asutas Ühendkuningriigi Bathi ülikooli masinaehituse vanemlektor dr Adrian Bowyer RepRapi projekti. See oli avatud-lähtekoodiga projekt, mille eesmärk oli luua 3D-printer, mis suudaks printida enamiku oma osadest. Selle idee oli 3D-printimise demokratiseerimine, tehes selle tehnoloogia kättesaadavaks inimestele üle kogu maailma.

2009. aastal langesid FDM-i patendid avalikku omandisse, avades tee laiale innovatsioonilainele FDM-i 3D-printerite vallas, lauaarvuti 3D-printerite hinna langusele ja sellest tulenevalt, kuna tehnoloogia oli kättesaadavam, suurenes nähtavus.

3D-printimine kohe: Prime

Täna hakkasid 3D-printerite hinnad langema, muutes need laiemale avalikkusele kättesaadavaks. Koos hindade langemisega tõusis ka printimise kvaliteet ja lihtsus.

3D Printing is used in a variety of fields. Scientists at the University of Southampton flew the world's first 3D-printed unmanned aircraft; the makers of a 3D-printed car reached up to 200 mpg with a hybrid gas/electric engine; and a start-up specializing in building ecological living structures came up with a robot-made habitat suitable for living on Mars.

3D-printimise läbimurded toimuvad kiiremini kui kunagi varem. Selle tohutu mõju ja suur potentsiaal muudab meie elu.