3D printing
๐ In short
An ordinary printer draws on a flat sheet, but a 3D printer makes real things you can hold in your hand: a toy, a cup, a spare part, even a house! It builds the object one thin layer on top of another until it's finished.
๐คฉ Did you know?
- On the International Space Station there's a 3D printer that astronauts use to make some parts instead of waiting for them to arrive from Earth.
- There are printers that print chocolate in amazing shapes!
- Whole houses have been built by huge printers laying concrete layer by layer.
- Scientists are trying to print living tissue to help patients in the future.
๐ Find out more
๐ Design first
We draw the object on the computer with a special program, turn it and look at it from every side. Then the program slices it into hundreds of thin layers and sends the printer instructions for each one.
๐ Layer on layer
The most common printers melt a plastic thread and lay it down with a hot nozzle, like a glue gun: they draw the first layer, then rise a little and draw the one above. A small toy can take several hours.
๐ก Very useful things
With 3D printing, doctors make low-cost artificial hands for children, engineers print models to test their ideas, and some builders print the walls of houses in concrete.
๐ฏ Tiny cubes
3D printing is like pixels but in three directions: length, width and height. It's as if we were building the object from tiny cubes.
๐งญ From drawing to object
The designer draws the shape in a 3D program, then another program slices it into layers and paths for the printer's nozzle to follow, like drawing the shape with a thread of plastic.
๐ Patience and safety
The printer's nozzle is very hot, over 200 degrees, so we never touch it. And printing takes patience: if the first layer comes out badly, we start again.
๐ See how it works
๐ Key words
- Layer
- A thin slice of the printed object
- 3D design
- A drawing with length, width and height
- Filament
- A plastic thread that melts and builds the object
๐งช Try it at home
Build a shape in layers: cut out ten cardboard circles that get smaller and smaller and glue them on top of each other. You've made a dome by hand 3D printing!
๐งฉ Test yourself
1 How does a 3D printer build things?
2 What do we do before printing?
๐ Read next
- ๐ป What is a computer?
- โ๏ธ How does a computer work?
- ๐ The story of the computer
- ๐ฑ The smartphone: a computer in your pocket
- ๐ Screen colors: red, green and blue
- โ๏ธ Where are my files kept? Storage and the cloud
- ๐ The internet: a network that connects the world
- ๐ข The computer's language: 0 and 1