In EDSGN 100, I was first introduced to the 3D printer. This printer could essentially scan an object onto the computer and recreate it in real life. One could also create a design on the computer itself and define it to one’s one specifications and produce that object. This is all in theory though. In reality, the ten-sided die that we scanned, which was very simple in structure, was not reproduced well. In fact, it would have taken hours in order to fix all the problems on SolidWorks. Even then there was no guarantee that the object would then be properly extruded. So the entire thing had to be scrapped.
Altogether, I liked the idea of 3D printing. I can see a great future in it as far as mass production of affortable items. However, from my experience with it, there is still a lot of work left to be done for it to be a viable and efficient method of fabrication. First of all, the scanning process was incredibly slow and despite 2 tries, the final model still came out distorted. After that, it took a lot of time of SolidWorks to fix up the object so that it can at least be remotely recreatable. Even still, there was a chance it could not accurately recreate our object. The whole process was very inefficient in my opinion, or at least at this current state. In the service economy we live in currently, a successful product is one that can be easily constructed and sold at a moderate price. Currently, I feel that this process is not up to parr.
Resources
http://publicknowledge.org/issues/3d-printing
http://www.forbes.com/sites/gcaptain/2012/03/06/will-3d-printing-change-the-world/
The 3D scanning did not work well. That has nothing to do with 3D printing, which does work well. The scanning does work but it is slow and difficult and its needs are far fewer than printing