3D Printing will also help in Dental Industry

The latest 3D printing innovation could change the way you think about your visit to the dentist. That’s because Dutch researchers at the University of Groningen are working on the creation of a 3D-printed tooth made of an antimicrobial plastic that kills the bacteria responsible for tooth decay on contact. 

Any time accurate models of individual objects need to be made, there's a case for using 3D printing to produce them. Dentists often work with replicas of their patients' teeth - sometimes for planning work, sometimes for creating crowns or bridges - so 3D printing is an obvious fit there. And now 3D printing company Stratasys has produced a special kind of material designed especially for printing, well, teeth.

World's first 3D-printed apartment building constructed in China

A Chinese company has successfully 3D printed a five-storey apartment building and a 1,100 square metre villa from a special print material.

While architectural firms compete with their designs for 3D-printed dwellings, one company in China has quietly been setting about getting the job done. In March of last year, company WinSun claimed to have printed 10 houses in 24 hours, using a proprietary 3D printer that uses a mixture of ground construction and industrial waste, such as glass and tailings, around a base of quick-drying cement mixed with a special hardening agent.

Now, WinSun has further demonstrated the efficacy of its technology -- with a five-storey apartment building and a 1,100 square metre (11,840 square foot) villa, complete with decorative elements inside and out, on display at Suzhou Industrial Park.

3D Printer Technology in 2015

We are used to looking at an image or document on the computer screen, hitting “print” and here you are!, you have your picture/document on a piece of paper. This is 2D printing. What, then is 3D printing?! How on earth is your printer going to pop out a 3 dimensional version of the objects you can see on a computer screen? In traditional manufacturing, items are produced by means of “subtractive manufacturing.”

Imagine crafting a sculpture: you would first take a block of stone and then chip away at it until you reach your desired shape. So you are “subtracting” some of the material from the original block. 3D printing uses “additive manufacturing” which does the opposite — in this process, you would add in layers small amounts of the material you are using until you have the product.