3D Printing: No longer a Sc-Fi Fantasy

In this photo taken Wednesday, May 15, 2013 Wayne Losey, co-founder of Dynamo DevLabs, speaks about 3D printing during the Hardware Innovation Workshop in San Mateo, Calif.

With the printers users make whatever they like, iPad stands, guitars, jewelry, someone even made a rifle.

About the size of a microwave oven, the printers usually extrude plastic, layer upon layer, to create objects.

Sales are projected to jump from about $1.7 billion in 2011 to $3.7 billion in 2015. 

Credit: AP Photo/Eric Risberg

Invisalign, a San Jose company, uses 3-D printing to make each mouthful of customized, transparent braces.

Mackenzies Chocolates, a confectioner in Santa Cruz, uses a 3-D printer to pump out chocolate molds.

Earlier this year, Cornell University researchers used a 3-D printer, along with injections of a special collagen gel, to create a human-shaped ear.

Once a science-fiction fantasy, three-dimensional printers are popping up everywhere from the desks of home hobbyists to Air Force drone research centers.

The machines, generally the size of a microwave oven and costing $400 to more than $500,000, extrude layer upon layer of plastics or other materials, including metal, to create 3-D objects with moving parts.

Users are able to make just about anything they like: iPad stands, guitars, jewelry, even guns. But experts warn this cool innovation could soon turn controversial—because of safety concerns but also the potential for the technology to alter economies that rely on manufacturing.



"We believe that 3-D printing is fundamentally changing the manufacturing ecosystem in its entirety—how and where products are made and by whom," said Peter Weijmarshausen, CEO of New York-based Shapeways, an online company that makes and sells 3-D printed products designed by individuals.

Products include a delicate, twig-like egg cup (cost: $8.10) and a lamp that looks like a nuclear mushroom cloud (cost: $1,388.66).

Richard D'Aveni

"We're on the verge of the next industrial revolution, no doubt about it," added Dartmouth College business professor Richard D'Aveni.

"In 25 years, entire industries are going to disappear. Countries relying on mass manufacturing are going to find themselves with no revenues and no jobs."

On ground, sea or air, when parts break, new ones can be made on the spot, and even the tools to install them can be made, eliminating the need for staging parts in warehouses around the world, said Jeff DeGrange, vice president of Direct Digital Manufacturing at Stratasys Inc., currently the industry leader in a field of about 50 3-D printer companies.

Jeff DeGrange

"We're going to see innovation happening at a much higher rate, introduction of products at a much higher rate," said DeGrange.

"We live in an on-demand world now, and we'll see production schedules are going to be greatly compressed."

Airplane mechanics could print a replacement part on the runway. A dishwasher repairman could make a new gasket in his service truck. A surgeon could print a knee implant custom-designed to fit a patient's body.

But the military, D'Aveni said, is likely to be among the first major users of 3-D printers, because of the urgency of warfare.

"Imagine a soldier on a firebase in the mountains of Afghanistan. A squad is attacked by insurgents. The ammunition starts to run out. Is it worth waiting hours and risking the lives of helicopter pilots to drop it near you, or is it worth a more expensive system that can manufacture weapons and ammunition on the spot?" he said.

In the past two years, the U.S. Defense Department has spent more than $2 million on 3-D printers, supplies and upkeep, according to federal contract records.

Their uses range from medical research to weapons development. In addition, the Obama administration has launched a $30 million pilot program that includes researching how to use 3-D printing to build weapons parts.

NASA is also wading into this arena, spending $500,000 in the past two years on 3-D printing. Its Lunar Science Institute (LSI) has published descriptions of how it is exploring the possibility of using the printers to build everything from spacecraft parts while in orbit to a lunar base.

You can read more about the NASA and the LSI 3D Printing research here

Children have highest exposure to Titanium Dioxide nanoparticles in M&Ms, Smarties, etc.

Children may be receiving the highest exposure to nanoparticles of titanium dioxide in candy, which they eat in amounts much larger than adults, according to a new study.

Published in ACS' journal, Environmental Science and Technology, it provides the first broadly based information on amounts of the nanomaterial, a source of concern with regard to its potential health and environmental effects, in a wide range of consumer goods e.g. M&Ms and Smarties.

In the study, Paul Westerhoff, Ph.D., and colleagues point out that titanium dioxide is a common additive to many consumer products, from food to paint to cosmetics.

Westerhoff explained that the body releases the nanoparticles in feces and urine, sending them to wastewater treatment plants, which cannot prevent the smallest particles from entering lakes and rivers.

Only one previous study, done a decade ago, reported on titanium dioxide content in a few commercial products.

To fill the knowledge gap about the sources of humans' exposures, the researchers bought and tested food, personal care products, paints and adhesives and measured how much titanium dioxide they contain.

The group found that children consume more titanium dioxide than adults because sweets like candies (M&Ms, Smarties, etc.), marshmallows and icing are among the products with the highest levels.

The paper lists the names of the products tested and their titanium dioxide content.

Westerhoff recommends that regulators shift their focus from the type of titanium dioxide used in paints and industrial processes to food-grade particles, because those are much more likely to enter the environment and pose a potential risk to humans and animals.

H1N1 Swine Flu Vaccine: Production Problems

The World Health Organisation says global production of vaccines for pandemic flu will be "substantially less" than the previous maximum forecast of 94 million doses a week.

WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl says the number of doses produced in a year will fall short of the 4.9 billion doses the global health body previously hoped could be available.

Hartl says production will be lower because some manufacturers are still turning out vaccines for seasonal flu.

He told reporters in Geneva on Friday that production problems have also reduced the weekly output of pandemic vaccine.

WHO says that in theory all the world's 6.3 billion people should receive at least one dose of vaccine against the pandemic strain of H1N1, also known as swine flu.