Week 11 - 3D Printers

 Week 11 - 3D Printers 

As I was looking at printer content during the week for the assignments, I remember coming across multiple different printer devices. Although all of them served a great purpose, I didn't particularly find any of them interesting besides the 3D Printer. This post was supposed to be published for the blog last week.

I remember when I went over to my friend's house one time to hang out with him and play some video games. At the time, he was getting into the world of electrical engineering and 3D printing. Even though this isn't my field of interest, I still found some of the stuff he was doing to be so cool. He showed me various different things he had printed. One of my favorites was a Naruto Hidden Leaf charm. In case you haven't heard of it, Naruto is an anime and the Hidden Leaf is a village in the anime. The charm is a "symbol" of the village so to speak. I'll include a picture of what it looked like:

*Please note this isn't the actual charm, but a very close resemblance*

My point in saying all of this is that I find 3D Printers to be very fascinating. So what exactly is a 3D Printer? Well simply put, a 3D printer is a printing process in which you can print shapes and objects with 3D properties through geometric means. In other words, whatever you choose to print will be an actual 3D object rather than the traditional "paper" or 2D printing models many people are used to.

3D Printing is accomplished by transforming a CAD file (Computer Aided Design) into a 3-dimensional object that is solid. The printer works by developing a material that layers depending on the shape or object being printed. It works to precisely get the dimensions of the object right based on the given CAD file and create the design by continuing to layer it with the material until the final print is complete. 3D geometry is used to be able to get the layers accurate. 

There are many different materials used in 3D printers. The main materials used are plastics, polymers, metals, and ceramics. The type of material used depends entirely on the item itself that is being printed and what the end goal of the product is. I won't go into extensive detail about what each does, but just know they each serve their own unique purpose and properties that make them good for 3D Printing. 

3D Printing is already very popular and leads many engineering works today. From high-level printing in a professional setting to a casual person printing out some files for fun, they can provide some excellent utility. I highly recommend watching a time-lapse of some print jobs (look up some items or interests you have revolving around 3D printing).