“When it comes to going to market with a product, developing a service and making decisions on infrastructure investments, those decisions will drive the priorities of a lot of different departments, including the IT department,” he said. “If there is a view from top management that using new technology might be used to improve the organisation’s agility, then looking at 3D printing has to be assessed. Ultimately the IT department will need to be able to support these technologies but I don’t think it’s going to happen overnight.”
Nano-moves
Meanwhile, the outer limit of what can be achieved through 3D printing is continually shifting, bringing a variety of intriguing applications into view. IBM recently demonstrated its command of nano-3D printing when it had a representative from Guinness Book of Records officiate as it printed the world’s smallest magazine cover using its Microscopic 3D Printer. The image printed was of a copy of National Geographic Kids magazine that had been reduced in size to fit 2,000 times in a space the size of a grain of salt.
IBM’s devices work differently than most 3D printers. Instead of building up an image of an object layer by layer, they remove material by vaporising polymer at 1,000 degrees celsius to create indents of varying depths, depending on the light qualities of each pixel in the original scanned image.
IBM’s devices work differently than most 3D printers. Instead of building up an image of an object layer by layer, they remove material by vaporising polymer at 1,000 degrees Celsius to create indents of varying depths, depending on the light qualities of each pixel in the original scanned image.
Ultimately the printer could be used to work out the pathways for future processors. To put it into perspective, IBM’s newly introduced high-end mainframe processor, the Power8, uses a 22 nanometer production process. The micro printer can go as low as 8 nanometers. Ostensibly, this means the printer is ready to prototype a road map for the future of processors.
In different industries, creative applications of 3D printing continue to be made. In January, defence contractor BAE Systems announced the first successful test flight of a military aircraft using 3D-printed parts. The Royal Air Force in the UK printed parts for use in aircraft cockpits, and BAE Systems estimates that the technique could save the RAF more than $2 million (€1.47 million) in repairs and maintenance over the next four years.
Space ready
NASA has also used 3D printing to create tools that can be used in space, and is reportedly collaborating with a start-up called Made In Space on a plan to bring a 3D printer to the International Space Station by October. It is easy to imagine applications for 3D print technology in an environment where space is limited and anything needed for a long term space mission needs to be brought from Earth.
Likewise, there has been significant research into how 3D printing can be used in the food industry. The EU recently announced a $4 million (€2.93 million) fund to develop 3D printed food specifically tailored for the elderly, while other researchers see 3D printing as offering huge potential for aid workers in developing countries where sustainable sources of food are hard to find.
The medical applications for 3D printing also seem extremely promising. Earlier this year, a 3D-printed ‘exoskeleton’ helped a woman paralysed in a skiing accident in 1992 to walk for the first time, and last year doctors at the University of Michigan in the US used 3D printing to develop a custom splint to prop open the airway of an Ohio infant, helping him breathe without the assistance of a machine.
Gartner has predicted that by 2016, 3D printing of tissues and organs, known as bio-printing, will cause a global debate about regulating the technology or banning it for both human and non-human use. The day when 3D bio-printed human organs are readily available is drawing closer, a fact that is causing many to wonder just what effect this will have on society.
Beyond these questions there is the reality of what 3D bio-printing means in helping people who need organs that are otherwise not readily available. However Gartner expects government agencies charged with evaluating medical proposals to introduce guidelines that prohibit the bio-printing of life-saving 3D printed organs and tissues without prior approval by end of 2015.
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