Reflections on the Power of Making Real Things

I submitted a post to another class (Green IT) and decided to use this part of the Fabricated book. I thought it was worthwhile to include here since the assignment for the Fabricated book only allowed for 250 words.

 

I have been reading a book titled “Fabricated: The New World of 3D Printing”. The book provides a top level overview of the history, technology, and potential directions for 3d printing. For starters, 3d printing is a blanket term for several different processes that exist to produce 3 dimensional physical objects from computer design files. The two most common processes are additive manufacturing and laser sintering. In additive manufacturing, an extruder heats up and excretes melted plastic. The extruder itself is mounted on a device that moves in 2 dimensions (x and y axis. The platform where the material is being secreted moves downward. Essentially the material is layered until the item is complete. In laser sintering, a high-power laser beam is directed toward the surface of a bed a of powder. The powder melts and the process continues for the next layer. The traditional (non additive manufacturing process) is injection molding. In injection molding, one first has to create a metal mold of the object you would like to produce. Creating the mold itself requires a high degree of expertise and it is a multi step process. Once the mold is complete, it is assembled into an injection molding machine. In this process, polycarbonate pellets are melted into the mold. The melted plastic takes the shape of the mold and it is completed in seconds. The benefit of this process is that the mold can create thousands upon thousands of replicas within a very short amount of time. This has been the long standing method for large scale manufacturing.

The book makes speculation that the traditional injection molding process will made be obsolete by localized 3d printers. The question now becomes, due to the reduction of scale and the dirty tradition of factories, is 3d printing a green alternative?

The book’s first response is no and makes three arguments against 3d printing as a green technology to replace injection molding. First, per unit of mass of manufactured product, a 3D printer consumes more than 10 times as much electricity as an injection molding machine. Second, an injection molding machine creates very little waste product as the input materials directly take the form of the final product. Last, 3d printing these goods instead of large scale manufacturing means that instead of several big shipments of the final products in the distribution process is more energy efficient than a distribution network built on large numbers of small shipments to different locations. As the book puts it, “if 3d printed manufacturing were merely scaled up to global proportions, there would be nothing green about it”.

The next chapter makes a complete 180 degree turn in speculation and with good reason. The book then goes on to make a case for 3d printing as a viable green alternative to traditional manufacturing methods. The trick is not to simply make 3d printing adapt to the current paradigm of large scale manufacturing. Instead, the book proposes that manufacturers leverage the capabilities of 3d printing to create a new manufacturing paradigm. Technologists like to call this “technological disruption”. The first argument is that 3d printing allows for the fabrication of products who shape is ultimately optimized for its application or environment. Second, storing  digital design and print files is more ecofriendly and less costly than storing and maintaining environmentally costly warehouses full of inventory, staff, packing materials and molds. Next, 3d printing technology does not require large scale manufacturing facilities. Therefore, localized manufacturing is feasible. Products can be made on a per need basis with quick easy local access to the customer (think Kinko’s/Staples but for specialized custom products). Lastly, there is still an unexplored potential to work with recycled or “earth friendly” materials.

Admittedly, before reading the 4 assigned chapters I have had some experience with additive manufacturing, otherwise known as “3d printing”. My first exposure was sometime in 2008-2009 while I was working at Tekserve in New York. Tekserve is an Apple sales and service company. Besides Apple products they also sell a plethora of complementary technology products. During that time I worked in corporate sales and marketing strategy. Our customers were mainly design houses, film and music studios. I became interested in being an intrapreneur within Tekserve and subsequently pitched many ideas for expanding the brand. Some examples of my pitches were: Tekserve branded high performance hard drives (with data recovery services included), an iPad content creation academy (at the time iPads were still new and mainly seen as content consumption devices), and a 3d printer reseller. All I really knew about 3d printers was that they were split into two categories. On one side was the tinkerers (consumer level) and on the other side were professional organizations. Before Tekserve I worked in large scale custom manufacturing so I understood some basic manufacturing principles and the value of rapid prototyping. I was also a tinkerer myself, as I often experimented with electronics to make my own audio devices (synthesizers, effects processors, etc..). I was only able to make a little bit of headway with Tekserve. I contacted several 3d printer manufacturers (including Stratasys) and obtained all sorts of pamphlets and 3d printed samples. Back then Tekserve executives did not show much interest. At the time of writing this blog post I noticed that on their website they now offer a line of 3d printers. Besides this initial exposure to 3d printing, I am also aware of many facets in which NASA is experimenting with 3d printers. As a disclaimer, I’m passionate about the work at NASA so I always aim to take what I’m leaning in my courses and apply it to NASA. I digress. Two of the most publicly visible applications for NASA are: (1) 3d printer for tools and parts for crewed space exploration and (2) 3d food printer. I hope to explore NASA related 3d printing topics as the semester progresses.

The first thing that got me really excited about Fabricated was the author introductions and the quickness in which the book was written (9 months). The book is written by dual authors, each with a different background and thereby showcasing different perspectives.  The first author is Hod Lipson. Mr. Lipson is a professor of engineering and his research revolves around robotics and manufacturing (among other topics). The other author, Melba Kurman, is a “technology writer, analyst and popular blogger”. The book introduction indicates that her exposure to additive manufacturing is (at the time of publishing) only 2 years young. I bring these two things up for a reason (Mr. Lipson’s engineering background and Ms. Kurman’s short experience). While we can consider Mr. Lipson’s background and experience to label him as an expert on the topic, Ms. Kurman’s lack of experience in 3d printing and background as a journalist is of immense worth in this book. When we discover new things, there tends to be an elevated level of excitement. The first chapter of Fabricated is filled with a wonderful romanticized narrative of the future potential of additive manufacturing. It’s as if Ms. Kurman discovered some of the fascinating possibilities right before sitting down to type them for us. Add to this the fact that the entire book was written in only 9 months. It is a sad truth that we sometimes become jaded and excitement over new things tends to erode with time. The quickness in which this book was written, I believe, was also an important key in capturing the excitement of this fast growing field. When introducing the public to a new frontier of possibility, it is important to convey the excitement and wonder that it encompasses.

Even though I’ve had some exposure to 3d printing before this book, in the first few chapters I discovered many amazing new things. In the interest of keeping this blog as reflective as possible, as to not accidentally replicate the assigned reading, I’ve narrowed down what struck me the most to the section on multi-material 3d printing and control of composition found in Chapter 2. To me, this is one of the key areas for 3d printing to truly change the landscape of the world of “things”.  Though the section is only about 2 pages long (covering many topics) the one that jumped at me the most was the blurb about electronic circuits. I suspect the book may go into further detail in the later chapters as the applications have the potential to be revolutionary. Traditionally, electronic circuits are manufactured in multiple steps using all sorts of different materials. At the core is the board itself, usually coated in a number of different chemicals. Then there are electronic components which have to be carefully soldered on. The components themselves vary greatly in composition and application. While most circuit design is modeled in computers, real life prototypes have to be created to test in real world applications. All of these processes could be facilitated, and potentially significantly improved with 3d printers capable of creating electronic circuits and components. Not only could this lead to rapid prototyping of electronics, but it could also substantially change the nature of the design of electrical components and circuits. Electronics are usually designed, manufactured, and assembled flat. With additive manufacturing, electronics are no longer bound to a 2d design.

There were several ideas in this chapter that resonated with me. One was the ability to scan existing objects in order to replicate them, and second was the discussion on mass production versus artisan production. The first topic, scanning existing objects, seems simultaneously incredibly controversial and insanely practical. As a builder of model airplanes and model rockets there have been many times when I buy a vintage set that is either missing parts, or the parts themselves are too brittle due to age. Scanning parts, and also having access to a library of design files for rare parts/components would be of incredible value. Not just for model airplanes or model rockets, but really for a any industry. It could even lead to reducing the problems associated with e-waste as people could repair their gadgets easily instead of having to buy new ones. The controversy here is the potential for piracy. If someone can just scan an object and replicate it, how do you regulate people doing this to pirate items?

Every time I brainstorm for a business idea for this class, it bears a striking resemblance to Shapeways. As per the book, “Shapeways is a web-based community/market place that hosts storefronts for designers and 3d prints things for customers who send in a design file”. Shapeways is the closest I’ve come to 3d printing as a consumer. In the world of model rockets and model airplanes, there are many add-ons you can add to existing kits. Many of these are made by independent designers. Recently there as been a surge of these types of products on Shapeways and I’ve had a few on my wish list. What I don’t like about Shapeways, which I believe is temporary since the industry has yet to mature, is that the things offered on the site vary greatly. There is no curation of products. I would prefer there be a separate store front for speciality products (like rare parts for kits/components etc) separate from a storefront that sells grocery bag holders. Perhaps as the industry matures, and more entrants come to the market, speciality shops will spring up accordingly.

Now time for some serendipity. As of writing this blog entry, I received an email notification of the latest issue of NASA GSFC’s Cutting Edge magazine. Click here to access the PDF.  In it there is a special article on some of NASA’s internal efforts of using additive manufacturing to improve electronics on spacecraft. Because of additive manufacturing’s ability to produce small and intricate shapes, not available in traditional injection molding methods, special  electronic components used for cooling can be created that reduce the mass, weight and space within spacecraft components. Currently existing technology requires mechanical pumps to help cool electrical components on spacecraft. These mechanical pumps tend to consume a lot of real estate and resources on the spacecraft. Not to mention they are also heavy. In the space business heavy is bad as it demands more resources for launching into space and placing it in orbit. The article also mentions a special sounding-rocket mission done in collaboration with university funded research, that flew recently which contained 3d printed parts. Some of the students that participated in that project were in my summer 2013 cohort. While the experiment only contained two types of 3d printed components (battery compartment and the cooling mechanism inside), you can see the flat 2d non-3d-printed circuit board.

Going forward some of the topics related to additive manufacturing that I’m interested in learning more about are (1) prosthetics (particular for children, since they are constantly growing, they need replacement prosthetics more quickly than adults) and (2) applications in space exploration (such as a space bound 3d printer, or 3d printers for very highly articulate components).

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