Things You Won’t Believe Were Made Using 3D Printing
Even since 3D printing was introduced people have been making many things with it; keys, tools and even guns. But did you know they could also make the following items?
Food
When astronauts are soon expected to go to Mars, what do you expect them to eat on the way there? The answer is 3D-printed food. NASA is now set on making a machine that prints food for astronauts. Their plan is to store different food ingredients as slurries and come up with a machine that can print (or arrange) those slurries into different forms of food, based on different types of recipes.
One such machine has already printed icing, chocolate and even pizza during an exhibit.
Guitars
Guitar company Fender has been making instruments for over 60 years. While their primary material has always been wood, Fender experimented with 3D printing and now has the Honeycomb Core Telecaster, Hollow Body Stratocaster and Solid Body Stratocaster, all made from lightweight plastic.
Fender Vice President for Marketing Justin Norvell played one of the guitars on YouTube and fans said it played just like a wooden stock guitar. Senior Vice President for Research and Development Keith Chapman said when 3D printing was introduced they felt they had to seriously look at how it could benefit them production-wise. He said he was encouraged by what they found in 3D printing; particularly because it allows them the flexibility they can’t get out of wood.
Soon it won’t be only the guitar stock anymore. Rob Klaczynski from Poland and his friend, guitarist Martin Kubacki, have made a guitar pickup using 3D printing.
Body parts
Making prosthetic or replacement body parts can’t be left to factories or mass production, mainly because not too many people lose a specific body part or come in need of that body part. So what did scientists do? They turned to 3D printing.
Cornell University has managed to make an artificial ear after measuring the ear of a child, they plan to make it available for children born with microtia or undeveloped ears. The University of Pennsylvania has made blood vessels while the Wake Forest Institute of Regenerative Medicine has made kidneys and skin grafts with 3D printing.
The Washington State University is now experimenting with 3D printed bone replacements.
Fabrics
Designers Jiri Evenhuis and Janne Kyttanen are working together to come up with a 3D printed fabric that not just serves as clothing but also flatters the wearer by adhering to his or her contours. Once perfected, the technique to produce this 3D printed fabric will be less labor intensive, take shorter production time and leave a lower carbon footprint.
Houses
Chinese company Winsun recently announced it built 10 houses in a day after 3D printing house parts instead of pre-fabricating them. For this special job, Winsun used a special 3D printer; and it’s huge at 22 feet tall, 33 feet wide and 105 feet long.
Each house, touted to take very little labor to assemble, is estimated to cost $4,800. The production technique is still largely experimental, but the company soon hopes to make 3D printed houses available for low-income housing projects.