3D Printer Filament Is Reinventing Everything

By Dorothy Miller


It is doubtful that anyone could have imagined the technological breakthrough of the three-dimensional printers. Although it is still little more than a toy to most people, this toy is better than Lego blocks, erector sets, fashion plates, and real working Hot Wheels combined. With a little 3D printer filament, the boundaries of potential creation do not exist.

In the beginning few really took notice as this new tech emerged. The first people showing an interest were hobbyists or technology buffs who always seek to get whatever is new for collecting, if for no other reason. In this humble start, even those who created it did not know the unexpected directions it would take, or that it could open amazing doors, but the double side of this knife is all too obvious as well.

Initially hobbyists bought these up and created ornaments for Christmas trees and other general artsy projects. The ornaments suddenly could have solar lights that attached or were part of the object. Then these very artistic yet very average people realized a potential for moving parts, small machines, ornaments that jingle when they strike each other, kept moving by the basic laws of perpetual motion.

Parents were probably the first and most unexpected wave of buyers for this new tech. Specifically, parents of children with missing limbs. These parents learned to use this tool to make moving hands, arms, and fingers for their children so that they could grasp their world with something more elegant than a claw.

As the materials available for these printers have expanded, so have the objects people have learned to fashion from them. Some of the most unique musical instruments ever seen are now just a print away. Many such tools of sound have been based on those we are already familiar with, but some are completely unique creations and there remains only one like them.

Clothing designers have even taken a hand at creating the first styles and designs utilizing this medium. There is no end to how this industry, and others, will be forever changed with this technology. From the mind of an artist that utilizes the hands of robotic whimsy, even our clothing is three dimensional now.

Erupting from this flood of creative flow came yet another unexpected tsunami of potential. The implications of using this type of manufacturing in order to create body parts from stem cells carries a heavy implication that our bodies could one day be self-maintained biological machines, and we can be our own mechanics. This potential for all of us to live longer and better without doctors is heavy.

Manufacturing, robotics, fashion, and medicine all stand to be radically altered a machine that once worked as no more than a scribe. In less than a century, realms of possibility more vast than all potential our ancestors ever could dream for us has suddenly been opened by one of the most simple machines they created. Now we must rethink everything.




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