In the past, highly skilled craftsmen relied upon chisels and manual tools to carve prototypes, household items and decorative objects. However, over the past decade, such culturally rich and labour-intensive methods are progressively being replaced by more advanced and efficient ones. One such revolutionary innovation is 3D printing. Once considered inefficient, uneconomical and impractical, 3D printing is now anticipated to reshape the whole world in the near future. As it begins to enter the mainstream market and becomes accessible to the general public, time has arrived to decide whether it is going to ease our lives or further introduce new issues. To finalise our stance let us now briefly understand the core concepts of 3D printing and analyse its potential benefits and drawbacks.
3D printing
In the modern era, most of us are familiar with conventional printers. However, this process significantly differs from 3D printing. It is a method of fabricating an object by constructing it layer by layer, unlike the traditional methods of carving or CNC machining it from a solid block of material. Furthermore, it requires the user to create a virtual representation of the object being printed in advanced software (CAD), widely known as 3D modelling. Such 3D models are then printed using highly specialised materials, most commonly various types of plastic and resin, which have the ability to form extremely intricate and structurally strong minuscule structures. Although the process appears to be exceptionally complicated, these unique characteristics of 3D printing are the driving factors that surpass the constraints of conventional methods and give rise to numerous advantages and disadvantages.
Benefits of 3D printing
The beneficial impacts brought by 3D printing are not confined to a single sector of manufacturing, but an extended range of sectors by offering unprecedented amounts of flexibility, precision and more crucially customization. This has led to several revolutionary advancements in various industries particularly healthcare, manufacturing, education and construction.
Healthcare and medicine – The sector that has benefited the most from the innovation of 3D printing is healthcare. From customised prosthetic limbs to experimental bioprinted tissues, 3D printing has extended the capabilities of modern healthcare systems, improving global wellbeing. One of these revolutionizing applications is customised prosthetics and implants. 3D printing allows these to be produced in a significantly cheaper and faster way, reducing the agony, especially from the wrongly fitted implants and prosthetics. Furthermore, 3D printing has enabled doctors to fabricate life-size replicas of patients’ anatomical models, through which their conditions are diagnosed much more easily and accurately, greatly improving the standards of healthcare provided. In addition to this, the recent ongoing developments in bioprinting using bioink to create live tissues and organs have reached prominent milestones and achievements. It is highly anticipated that this sophisticated piece of experimental technology will be made successful and accessible to the general public in the future, potentially reducing the need for organ donors and drastically decreasing the mortality rates due to failed organ transplants or the unavailability of donors.
Manufacturing – One of the main motives behind the invention of 3D printing was to reshape the manufacturing industry, which remains one of the industries that has benefited the most from this technology. The conventional manufacturing processes are being gradually replaced by 3D printers across countless sectors, ranging from household items to even the automobile industry. This immense growth is primarily backed by the relentless advancements in the materials used for 3D printing. From the initial stages of using low mechanical strength PLA plastics, the 3D printing process has shifted to use a wide range of structurally robust materials like carbon fibre and metals. Moreover, due to its nature of additive manufacturing, a substantial amount of resources are being saved, ultimately reducing the cost of production and the time taken to produce. This further makes it well suited for the production of highly sterile healthcare tools and extremely durable and intricate automobile parts.
Education and research – Beyond healthcare and manufacturing, 3D printing is greatly influencing the realm of learning. As this piece of technology is becoming relatively cheaper, schools and colleges across the globe are integrating this technology into their curriculum to offer a more hands on experience oriented learning environment. Research and surveys suggest that such experience based education fosters creativity and critical thinking. Additionally tangible models representing theory concepts allow students to visualise and understand them better and especially help students who are lagging behind in those specific areas. Furthermore such interactive learning experiences induce curiosity and enthusiasm towards learning. Moreover, 3D printing acts as one of the most useful tools for student researchers. They make it possible for rapid production of tangible representations of prototypes and allow them to construct customized systems and components required for their research. This further encourages students to deepen their interests in such research activities and enhances their practical skills.
Environmental impacts – In addition to the industrial and lifestyle oriented benefits, 3D printing is steadily advancing towards a sustainable and eco friendly one. As the public interest is globally shifting towards sustainable and environmentally friendly practices, the recent innovation of using more environmentally cautious materials is becoming widely popular. This kind of advancement of using recycled eco-friendly plastics and better alternatives like biodegradable and composite filaments are ultimately improving efficiency and creativity in this field. Furthermore, 3D printing allows producers to produce on demand, reducing resource wastage and unintended losses, supporting small and emerging entrepreneurs to survive in the market. Moreover, reduced consumption of a considerable amount of energy and material can greatly reduce the carbon footprint. This not only improves the environmental conditions but also encourages companies to capitalise this technology, providing almost a win-win situation for both humanity and the environment.
Drawbacks of 3D printing
Despite the numerous benefits offered by 3D printing, its drawbacks are not negligible. In spite of continuous advancements in the realm of 3D printing, several significant technical, economical and environmental limitations continue to persist to this day.
Technical constraints – Although 3D printing has the ability to produce highly intricate structures it is generally relatively weaker in terms of structural integrity. One of the most predominant drawbacks in the process of additive manufacturing remains the limited bond strength between layers. The bonds between the lines are generally not as strong and reliable as in other means of production, hence manufacturing of strength critical components is not ideal with the help of 3D printing. Moreover the overall size of the structures produced in 3D printing is relatively small when compared to traditional manufacturing methods. Larger 3D printers are still under development, therefore at present larger printers trade off for the quality of production, acting as one of the major constraints limiting 3D printing to transform into the primary method of manufacturing.
Environmental concerns – Notwithstanding the considerable improvements toward a sustainable process, 3D printing continues to negatively influence the environment. Although technologically advanced eco-friendly filaments are produced, the wasted materials from failed printing or prototypes continue to end up in landfills. While filament recycling methods are evolving rapidly, to date no practical and economical solution has been devised. Furthermore, the actual energy consumption of 3D printing is often not meeting the overwhelming sustainability oriented claims made by the companies, resulting in a reduced difference between this technology and the conventional methods. Moreover, as most 3D printing processes involve melting of substances, several harmful fumes are being emitted, especially in the case of plastic based filaments, raising concerns on user’s health when operated in a closed environment.
Employment displacements – While 3D printing seems to create employment opportunities in the short term, it is highly expected to shift employment especially in the manufacturing industry. As 3D printing replaces more labor intensive conventional production, a greater proportion of the workforce in the production line, including extremely talented artistic workers, are expected to face a lower demand, forcing them to shift to other industries. On the contrary, technically skilled workers are experiencing a surge in demand, accompanied by an increase in wage rate due to their lower availability. This not only increases the cost of production but also affects a significant amount of workers’ living standards, hence requiring serious attention and a proper response to this as soon as possible.
Ethical concerns – Beyond environmental and economic issues, certain new problems such as illegal replication of structures and weapon creation are raising serious concerns globally. In the past few years, duplication of expensive products has become increasingly common among individuals with access to advanced technologies. This has been disrupting the sales of such products at an alarming rate, indirectly encouraging illegal activities among the society. Moreover, replication of lethal weapons has also become progressively accessible, raising several serious concerns. Furthermore, the increasing availability of structurally strong filaments is further intensifying the issue and even raising nationwide safety concerns. Therefore, it has become necessary to regulate this extremely powerful piece of technology through government regulatory bodies.
Conclusion
As 3D printing continues to reshape several industries, the coexistence of its benefits and drawbacks remains inevitable. Ultimately, the issue does not lie in the technology itself, but in how well it is being managed by society as well as the government. Hence collective work towards reducing the negative externalities of 3D printing will pave the way towards a more technologically advanced yet sustainable future.
By: S. Paarthivkumar
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