Would you like to
print out the weekly shopping in the comfort of your own home? Perhaps you're in
the market for a new body part printed from your own cells? OK, you might have
to wait a decade or two, but 3D printing technology is likely to change our
lives forever.
3D printers deposit
material layer by layer to create a solid object.
Because objects are
constructed in layers from the ground up, the process is also known as additive
manufacturing.
Plastic is currently
the most common "ink," but others in use include ceramics, metal, sand, sugar
and chocolate.
In Amsterdam, a
group of architects have built a 3D printer so big it's encased in the carcass
of a shipping container.
The "KamerMaker"
prints large Lego-like structures, made from recycled plastic, which will form
the building blocks of a full-size canal house.
The pieces will be
assembled on-site like a huge jigsaw, with steel cables and industrial-strength
glue used to "sew" them together – room by room.
The European Space
Agency is exploring plans to build lunar space stations using 3D-printed bricks
made from moon dust
"Bioprinters" use a
"bio-ink" made of living cell mixtures. Like other forms of 3D printing, living
tissue is printed layer by layer.
First, a layer of
cells is laid down by the printer, followed by a layer of hydrogel that operates
as a scaffold; then the process repeats.
The cells fuse, and
the hydrogel is removed to create a piece of material made entirely of human
cells.
This is transferred
to a bioreactor, where the tissue continues to grow - as it would in nature -
into its final form.
While 3D-printed
replacement organs are still some years off, scientists are already using this
technique to print simple tissue, like skin and cartilage.
copied from CNN
written by George Webster
