A primer on 3D printing

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It is actually a reality today
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that you can download products from the Web --
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product data, I should say, from the Web --
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perhaps tweak it and personalize it
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to your own preference or your own taste,
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and have that information sent
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to a desktop machine
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that will fabricate it for you on the spot.
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We can actually build for you,
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very rapidly,
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a physical object.
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And the reason we can do this
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is through an emerging technology
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called additive manufacturing,
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or 3D printing.
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This is a 3D printer.
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They have been around
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for almost 30 years now,
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which is quite amazing to think of,
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but they're only just starting
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to filter into the public arena.
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And typically, you would take data,
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like the data of a pen here,
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which would be a geometric representation of that product in 3D,
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and we would pass that data with material
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into a machine.
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And a process that would happen in the machine
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would mean layer by layer that product would be built.
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And we can take out the physical product,
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and ready to use,
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or to, perhaps, assemble into something else.
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But if these machines have been around for almost 30 years,
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why don't we know about them?
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Because typically they've been too inefficient,
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inaccessible,
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they've not been fast enough,
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they've been quite expensive.
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But today,
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it is becoming a reality
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that they are now becoming successful.
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Many barriers are breaking down.
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That means that you guys
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will soon be able to access one of these machines,
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if not this minute.
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And it will change and disrupt
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the landscape of manufacturing,
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and most certainly our lives, our businesses
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and the lives of our children.
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So how does it work?
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It typically reads CAD data,
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which is a product design data
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created on professional product design programs.
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And here you can see an engineer --
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it could be an architect or it could be a professional product designer --
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create a product in 3D.
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And this data gets sent to a machine
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that slices the data
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into two-dimensional representations of that product
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all the way through --
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almost like slicing it like salami.
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And that data, layer by layer, gets passed through the machine,
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starting at the base of the product
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and depositing material, layer upon layer,
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infusing the new layer of materials to the old layer
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in an additive process.
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And this material that's deposited
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either starts as a liquid form
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or a material powder form.
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And the bonding process can happen
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by either melting and depositing or depositing then melting.
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In this case, we can see a laser sintering machine developed by EOS.
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It's actually using a laser
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to fuse the new layer of material to the old layer.
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And over time --
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quite rapidly actually, in a number of hours --
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we can build a physical product,
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ready to take out of the machine and use.
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And this is quite an extraordinary idea,
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but it is reality today.
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So all these products that you can see on the screen
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were made in the same way.
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They were all 3D printed.
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And you can see,
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they're ranging from shoes,
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rings that were made out of stainless steal,
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phone covers out of plastic,
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all the way through to spinal implants, for example,
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that were created out of medical-grade titanium,
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and engine parts.
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But what you'll notice about all of these products
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is they're very, very intricate.
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The design is quite extraordinary.
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Because we're taking this data in 3D form,
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slicing it up before it gets past the machine,
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we can actually create structures
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that are more intricate
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than any other manufacturing technology --
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or, in fact, are impossible to build in any other way.
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And you can create parts with moving components,
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hinges, parts within parts.
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So in some cases, we can abolish totally
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the need for manual labor.
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It sounds great.
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It is great.
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We can have 3D printers today
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that build structures like these.
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This is almost three meters high.
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And this was built
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by depositing artificial sandstone layer upon layer
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in layers of about five millimeters to 10 mm in thickness --
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slowly growing this structure.
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This was created by an architectural firm called Shiro.
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And you can actually walk into it.
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And on the other end of the spectrum,
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this is a microstructure.
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It's created depositing layers
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of about four microns.
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So really the resolution is quite incredible.
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The detail that you can get today
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is quite amazing.
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So who's using it?
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Typically, because we can create products very rapidly,
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it's been used by product designers,
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or anyone who wanted to prototype a product
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and very quickly create or reiterate a design.
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And actually what's quite amazing about this technology as well
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is that you can create bespoke products en masse.
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There's very little economies of scale.
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So you can now create one-offs very easily.
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Architects, for example,
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they want to create prototypes of buildings.
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Again you can see,
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this is a building of the Free University in Berlin
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and it was designed by Foster and Partners.
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Again, not buildable in any other way.
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And very hard to even create this by hand.
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Now this is an engine component.
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It was developed by a company called Within Technologies
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and 3T RPD.
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It's very, very, very detailed
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inside with the design.
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Now 3D printing
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can break away barriers in design
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which challenge the constraints
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of mass production.
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If we slice into this product which is actually sitting here,
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you can see that it has a number of cooling channels pass through it,
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which means it's a more efficient product.
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You can't create this with standard manufacturing techniques
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even if you tried to do it manually.
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It's more efficient
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because we can now create all these cavities within the object
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that cool fluid.
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And it's used by aerospace
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and automotive.
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It's a lighter part
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and it uses less material waste.
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So it's overall performance and efficiency
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just exceeds standard mass produced products.
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And then taking this idea
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of creating a very detailed structure,
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we can apply it to honeycomb structures
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and use them within implants.
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Typically an implant
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is more effective within the body
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if it's more porous,
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because our body tissue will grow into it.
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There's a lower chance of rejection.
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But it's very hard to create that in standard ways.
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With 3D printing,
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we're seeing today
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that we can create much better implants.
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And in fact, because we can create
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bespoke products en masse, one-offs,
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we can create implants
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that are specific to individuals.
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So as you can see,
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this technology and the quality of what comes out of the machines is fantastic.
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And we're starting to see it being used
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for final end products.
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And in fact, as the detail is improving,
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the quality is improving,
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the price of the machines are falling
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and they're becoming quicker.
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They're also now small enough
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to sit on a desktop.
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You can buy a machine today for about $300
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that you can create yourself,
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which is quite incredible.
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But then it begs the question,
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why don't we all have one in our home?
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Because, simply, most of us here today
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don't know how to create the data
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that a 3D printer reads.
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If I gave you a 3D printer,
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you wouldn't know how to direct it
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to make what you want it to.
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But there are more and more
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technologies, software and processes today
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that are breaking down those barriers.
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I believe we're at a tipping point
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where this is now something
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that we can't avoid.
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This technology
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is really going to disrupt
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the landscape of manufacturing
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and, I believe, cause a revolution
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in manufacturing.
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So today,
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you can download products from the Web --
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anything you would have on your desktop,
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like pens, whistles, lemon squeezers.
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You can use software like Google SketchUp
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to create products from scratch
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very easily.
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3D printing can be also used
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to download spare parts from the Web.
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So imagine you have, say,
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a Hoover in your home
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and it has broken down. You need a spare part,
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but you realize that Hoover's been discontinued.
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Can you imagine going online --
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this is a reality --
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and finding that spare part
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from a database of geometries
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of that discontinued product
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and downloading that information, that data,
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and having the product made for you at home,
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ready to use, on your demand?
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And in fact, because we can create spare parts
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with things the machines
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are quite literally making themselves.
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You're having machines fabricate themselves.
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These are parts of a RepRap machine,
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which is a kind of desktop printer.
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But what interests my company the most
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is the fact that you can create
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individual unique products en masse.
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There's no need to do a run
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of thousands of millions
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or send that product to be injection molded in China.
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You can just make it physically on the spot.
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Which means
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that we can now present to the public
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the next generation of customization.
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This is something that is now possible today,
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that you can direct personally
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how you want your products to look.
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We're all familiar with the idea
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of customization or personalization.
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Brands like Nike are doing it.
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It's all over the Web.
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In fact, every major household name
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is allowing you
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to interact with their products
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on a daily basis --
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all the way from Smart Cars
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to Prada
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to Ray Ban, for example.
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But this is not really mass customization;
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it's known as variant production,
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variations of the same product.
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What you could do is really influence your product now
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and shape-manipulate your product.
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I'm not sure about you guys,
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but I've had experiences
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when I've walked into a store and I've know exactly what I've wanted
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and I've searched everywhere for that perfect lamp
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that I know where I want to sit in my house
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and I just can't find the right thing,
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or that perfect piece of jewelry
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as a gift or for myself.
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Imagine that you can now
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engage with a brand
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and interact,
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so that you can pass your personal attributes
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to the products that you're about to buy.
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You can today
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download a product with software like this,
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view the product in 3D.
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This is the sort of 3D data
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that a machine will read.
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This is a lamp.
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And you can start iterating the design.
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You can direct what color that product will be,
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perhaps what material.
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And also, you can engage in shape manipulation of that product,
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but within boundaries that are safe.
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Because obviously the public are not professional product designers.
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The piece of software will keep an individual
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within the bounds of the possible.
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And when somebody is ready to purchase the product
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in their personalized design,
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they click "Enter" and this data gets converted
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into the data that a 3D printer reads
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and gets passed to a 3D printer,
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perhaps on someone's desktop.
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But I don't think that that's immediate.
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I don't think that will happen soon.
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What's more likely, and we're seeing it today,
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is that data gets sent
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to a local manufacturing center.
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This means lower carbon footprint.
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We're now, instead of shipping a product across the world,
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we're sending data across the Internet.
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Here's the product being built.
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You can see, this came out of the machine in one piece
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and the electronics were inserted later.
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It's this lamp, as you can see here.
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So as long as you have the data,
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you can create the part on demand.
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And you don't necessarily need to use this
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for just aesthetic customization,
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you can use it for functional customization,
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scanning parts of the body
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and creating things that are made to fit.
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So we can run this through to something like prosthetics,
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which is highly specialized to an individual's handicap.
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Or we can create very specific prosthetics
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for that individual.
12:56 - 12:58

Scanning teeth today,
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you can have your teeth scanned
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and dental coatings made in this way to fit you.
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While you wait at the dentist,
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a machine will quietly be creating this for you
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ready to insert in the teeth.
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And the idea of now creating implants,
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scanning data, an MRI scan of somebody
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can now be converted into 3D data
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and we can create very specific implants for them.
13:22 - 13:24

And applying this
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to the idea of building up what's in our bodies.
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You know, this is pair of lungs and the bronchial tree.
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It's very intricate.
13:31 - 13:33

You couldn't really create this or simulate it in any other way.
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But with MRI data,
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we can just build the product,
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as you can see, very intricately.
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Using this process,
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pioneers in the industry are layering up cells today.
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So one of the pioneers, for example, is Dr. Anthony Atala,
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and he has been working
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on layering cells to create body parts --
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bladders, valves, kidneys.
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Now this is not something that's ready for the public,
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but it is in working progress.
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So just to finalize, we're all individual.
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We all have different preferences, different needs.
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We like different things.
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We're all different sizes and our companies the same.
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Businesses want different things.
14:13 - 14:15

Without a doubt in my mind,
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I believe that this technology
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is going to cause a manufacturing revolution
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and will change the landscape of manufacturing as we know it.
14:22 - 14:24

Thank you.
14:24 - 14:28

(Applause)

Title:: A primer on 3D printing
Speaker:: Lisa Harouni
Description:: 2012 may be the year of 3D printing, when this three-decade-old technology finally becomes accessible and even commonplace. Lisa Harouni gives a useful introduction to this fascinating way of making things -- including intricate objects once impossible to create.

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Video Language:: English
Team:: closed TED
Project:: TEDTalks
Duration:: 14:29

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A primer on 3D printing

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