During the last several years, 3D printing has been receiving significant attention in the scientific literature and the popular press. It has also generated exciting business interests and prospects. To many, 3D printing is a transformative technology capable of impacting many areas of experimental Science, of Engineering, of Medicine (including dentistry), to development of robotic hands, to tissue engineering, and to fabrication and manufacturing technology (to name but a few). In addition, 3D printing has often been described as a technology that has the potential to alter rapid prototyping (an early publication in reference [1]) and to influence (if not disrupt) traditional methods of manufacturing. In fact, the capability of 3D printing to make personalized (i.e., one-of-a-kind) items on-demand may offer the necessary stepping stones for the implementation of the emerging Industry 4.0, and of the over the horizon Industry 5.0 and of Society 5.0.
The aim of this tutorial is to provide an introduction to 3D-printing and to highlight potential future directions.
The content of this tutorial is (roughly) divided into five parts:
1. 3D printing technologies.
2. Materials for 3D-printing.
3. Comparison of technologies, capabilities and materials used for 3D printing.
4. Selected applications of 3D printing, with examples drawn from the Engineering and the Scientific literature (with many) from the author's laboratory.
5. Multi-material 3D printing, for example, for simultaneous printing of metal and plastic or polymers. This will enable development of complex 3D objects having sensors and electronics embedded into the 3D printing structure. A case study we will be discussed and it involves the development of 3D printed robotic/prosthetic hand with intrinsic soft pressure sensors, e-skin and electronics embedded in the hand structure.
6. Future directions of 3D printing technology, the potential impacts of this technology on IoT, on Industry 4.0 and (potentially) on Industry 5.0 and of its capability to influence (if not enable) Society 5.0 approaches will be discussed. General comments on future societal and economic impacts of 3D printing will be made.
[1] S. Weagent, L. Li and V. Karanassios, “Rapid prototyping of hybrid, plastic-quartz 3D-chips for battery-operated microplasmas”, Open-access book chapter, Chapter 10, Pages 209-226, InTech publishing (2011), DOI: 10.5772/24994
