3D printing, also referred to as rapid prototyping and additive manufacturing, has changed the way we used to print and opened new channels for creative expression. With the help of a 3D printer, you can create a touchable and usable physical object from a digital image. Liquid material or particles of different raw materials are used for making a physical object that you can hold, touch and use in real life. This technology can make even the impossible possible in the near future. In the following, we have listed five of the most unbelievable things that you can make using a 3D printer.
Clothes:
In the beginning, 3D printers were capable of producing a basic three-dimensional model only. However, at present, they can turn even complex designs of clothes into real designer wear. Shapeways is a group of designers and creative minds who have produced nylon clothes made with 3D printers. This type of fashion wear is totally personalized and fits the body of the wearer perfectly. They make clothes after a thorough body scan. Shapeways manufactured a line of bikini as their first product named the N12 Bikini.
Houses:
Behrokh Khoshnevis, an engineering professor, in his TED talk explained how 3D printers could help the homeless victims of natural disasters by printing full sized homes. A 3D printer can prepare a livable home within 20 hours. Even you can print the plumbing and electricity system.
Food:
It may sound absurd but food printing is possible. NASA has decided to take help of Modern Meadows for printing food with the help of 3D printer. This technique will help in providing food for the long duration space voyages. At present, the project of printing food is at an initial stage.
Body parts:
It may take some to print working body parts for the disabled but the work is definitely in progress. The researchers at Cornell University have printed a synthetic ear using a gel and cells from the ribs of a patient. A research company named Organovo has printed liver tissues and soon they may even be able to create a complete liver.
Robots:
In a joint project, MIT and Harvard have joined hands to create robots using shape memory polymers. Its specialty is that it can assemble itself without any help from outside. Fraunhofer-Geselleschaft in Germany has printed a spider like robot using similar technology.
