What 3D printing is?

3D printing or additive manufacturing is a process of making three dimensional solid objects from a digital file. The creation of a 3D printed object is achieved using additive processes. In an additive process an object is created by laying down successive layers of material until the entire object is created. Each of these layers can be seen as a thinly sliced horizontal cross-section of the eventual object.

How does 3D Printing work?

It all starts with making a virtual design of the object you want to create. This virtual design is made in a CAD (Computer Aided Design) file using a 3D modeling program (for the creation of a totally new object) ór with the use of a 3D scanner (to copy an existing object). This scanner makes a 3D digital copy of an object and puts it into a 3D modeling program.

To prepare the digital file created in a 3D modeling program for printing, the software slices the final model into hundreds or thousands of horizontal layers. When this prepared file is uploaded in the 3D printer, the printer creates the object layer by layer. The 3D printer reads every slice (or 2D image) and proceeds to create the object blending each layer together with no sign of the layering visible, resulting in one three dimensional object.

http://3dprinting.com/what-is-3d-printing/

3-D printer is in the market for the past few years. You can generate any structure. Carving the stone is top-down approach to generate sculpture whereas 3-D printer follows bottom-up approach.

For basic info.  http://3dprinting.com/what-is-3d-printing/

We have the following in my lab

http://formlabs.com/products/form-1-plus/ 

Good luck

3D printing in the term's original sense refers to processes that sequentially deposit material onto a powder bed with inkjet printer heads.

you can look to this link

http://3dprinting.com/what-is-3d-printing/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_printing

best regards

What 3D printing is?

3D printing or additive manufacturing is a process of making three dimensional solid objects from a digital file. The creation of a 3D printed object is achieved using additive processes. In an additive process an object is created by laying down successive layers of material until the entire object is created. Each of these layers can be seen as a thinly sliced horizontal cross-section of the eventual object.

How does 3D Printing work?

It all starts with making a virtual design of the object you want to create. This virtual design is made in a CAD (Computer Aided Design) file using a 3D modeling program (for the creation of a totally new object) ór with the use of a 3D scanner (to copy an existing object). This scanner makes a 3D digital copy of an object and puts it into a 3D modeling program.

To prepare the digital file created in a 3D modeling program for printing, the software slices the final model into hundreds or thousands of horizontal layers. When this prepared file is uploaded in the 3D printer, the printer creates the object layer by layer. The 3D printer reads every slice (or 2D image) and proceeds to create the object blending each layer together with no sign of the layering visible, resulting in one three dimensional object.

http://3dprinting.com/what-is-3d-printing/

Potential of 3D Printing in the classroom

http://www.creatz3d.com.sg/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/20130221-3D-Printing-Classroom-Infographic.fw_.preview-1.png

Dear Behrouz Ahmadi-Nedushan

3D printing brain tumours to improve treatment

http://www.hw.ac.uk/news/3d-printing-brain-tumours-to-improve.htm?utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=status&utm_campaign=socialmedia2016

A few recent applications of 3D printing:

• Students successfully launch Vulcan-1 rocket with fully 3D printed engine
• Airbus files patent to 3D print entire exterior of its next-generation aircrafts
• Cancer breakthrough: Scottish scientists to 3D print brain tumors for the first time
• SHINING 3D opens new 25,000m2 3D printing HQ in Hangzhou, China

http://www.3ders.org/articles/20160526-students-successfully-launch-vulcan-1-rocket-with-fully-3d-printed-engine.html

http://www.3ders.org/articles/20160526-airbus-files-patent-to-3d-print-entire-exterior-of-its-next-generation-aircrafts.html

http://www.3ders.org/articles/20160525-cancer-breakthrough-scottish-scientists-to-3d-print-brain-tumors-for-the-first-time.html

http://www.3ders.org/articles/20160524-shining-3d-opens-new-25000m2-3d-printing-hq-in-hangzhou-china.html

Take a more philosophical approach. Why can one transfer text, audio, and graphics over the Internet, without using the postal service, but not just about any physical object? That's a bothersome state of affairs, is it not?

It's just a matter of expediency. In principle, you can transfer a complete book, for example. At the receiving end, you need the raw materials only: paper and ink. And the complete book can be duplicated anywhere.

So, generalize that concept. Any object can be transferred over a digital network, if you can supply the raw materials at the receiving end. Conceptually, it seems a no-brainer. What's more perplexing is why so many people are satisfied that only text, graphics, and audio would be transferred electronically.

That's 3D printing. The next step. (Not the last step.)

What do you do if you want to study the structure of a rock that’s inconveniently located on another planet? In a digital age, why not just scan it and print a copy here on Earth?

"...By combining remote 3-D imaging and 3-D printing, scientists can create physical models of digitally scanned rocks that are either too fragile to handle or too remote to access. Simulants of lunar regolith are being developed by scientists as a printing material for robotic additive construction of structures on planets. As imaging tools in planetary missions advance and transmission of large data files moves forward, we could one day use 3-D-printed digital rock models to help screen and select the most scientifically interesting samples to return to Earth for research...."

https://www.researchgate.net/blog/post/3-d-printing-technology-allows-researchers-to-print-rocks