"3D Printing: The technology can revolutionize manufacturing & healthcare industry"

SAN FRANCISCO: Gonzalo Martinez's overheating gasoline scooter needed better ventilation parts. He designed the parts on his home computer that night and hit "Print" for his office printer. When he went to office the next morning, the two parts -- a turbine fan and the cover housing of the scooter's ventilation turbine -- (printed in ABS plastic) were waiting at his office printing station. 

He put them into his scooter and had his scooter running, without the hassle of visiting a mechanic. Martinez's behaviour might not appear surprising; he is after all director for strategic research, Office of the CTO at design software behemoth Autodesk. But it hints at the very near future when not just design

buffs like him, but anybody will be able to manufacture an unimaginable variety of things on demand. 

The process called 3D Printing -- originally known as Additive Manufacturing -- is not very different from printing a digi-document from your home. Only here, a 3D object is the 'printout'. Instead of ink on paper, layers upon successive layers of materials (like plastics, rubber and titanium) are put together to create the object. 

This week, a revolutionary nano racing car, four times the width of a human hair, was created in minutes, thereby hitting a new high in high-precision printing of nanoscale structures. On a more humble scale, students can print 3D models of their rocket designs and test these like aerospace engineers would. Scientists can get a more comprehensive understanding when they see how molecules reach out to each other in 3D versus in 2D, consequently exploring and creating in completely new ways. 

Companies can make not just prototypes, but product parts, quickly and on-demand, thereby saving time and money. German auto giant BMW for instance, saved 58% in costs and 92% in time by manufacturing its jigs and fixtures with Stratasys' -- one of the world's largest manufacturers of 3D printers -- 3D printing technique instead of traditional CNC machining techniques. 

Highly-customised design for each part has even greater implications in aerospace. The US Air Force is building many such 3D printed parts for its UAVs. Arguably the most revolutionary benefits of 3D printing though, will come in medical applications simply because no two person's body parts are identical. So hearing aids can be designed and printed exactly for a certain person's ear canal, consequently improving comfort and effectiveness. 

Bone implants can be printed to an accuracy hitherto only imagined. "Within the next five years, we will have the ability to make 3D-printed body parts like bone scaffolds," says Jeffrey DeGrange, VP Direct Digital Manufacturing at Stratasys. Developing artificial organs is the most talked-about possibility of this emerging technology. Experts like Nima Samidi, a senior analyst at research firm IBISWorld, estimate that the bioprinting of organs like livers will take off in the next 10-15 years. 

Companies like Organovo and Invetech have already built 3D printers to layer human cells and print any type of a desired 3D pattern. When further developed, these tissues could create blood vessels and hopefully, organs! Millions battle life-threatening complications in medical therapies and these solutions could save their lives. Because the parts would be built specifically for that person, the hope is that several complications of regular transplants will be bypassed as well.