3D басып шығару және қосымша өндіріс технологиясы

Additive process used to make a three dimensional object

3D printing or additive manufacturing is the construction of a three dimensional object from a CAD model or a digital 3D model. It can be done in a variety of processes in which material is deposited, joined or solidified under computer control, as of 2019, the precision, repeatability, and material range of 3D printing have increased to the point that some 3D printing processes are considered viable as an industrial production technology; in this context, the term additive manufacturing can be used synonymously with 3D printing. One of the key advantages of 3D printing is the ability to produce very complex shapes or geometries that would be otherwise infeasible to construct by hand, including hollow parts or parts with internal truss structures to reduce weight while creating less material waste. Fused deposition modeling (FDM), which uses a continuous filament of a thermoplastic material, is the most common 3D printing process in use as of 2020. 3D printing and additive manufacturing reflect that the technologies share the theme of material addition or joining throughout a 3D work envelope under automated control. Peter Zelinski, the editor in chief of Additive Manufacturing magazine, pointed out in 2017 that the terms are still often synonymous in casual usage, but some manufacturing industry experts are trying to make a distinction whereby additive manufacturing comprises 3D printing plus other technologies or other aspects of a manufacturing process. It was also described by Raymond F. Jones in his story, "Tools of the Trade", published in the November 1950 issue of Astounding Science Fiction magazine. He referred to it as a "molecular spray" in that story.

Early additive manufacturing equipment and materials were developed in the 1980s. He filed a patent for this XYZ plotter, which was published on 10 November 1981. (JP S56 144478). His research results as journal papers were published in April and November of 1981. However, there was no reaction to the series of his publications. His device was not highly evaluated in the laboratory and his boss did not show any interest. His research budget was just 60,000 yen or $545 a year. Acquiring the patent rights for the XYZ plotter was abandoned, and the project was terminated. A US 4323756 patent, method of fabricating articles by sequential deposition, granted on 6 April 1982 to Raytheon Technologies Corp describes using hundreds or thousands of "layers" of powdered metal and a laser energy source and represents an early reference to forming "layers" and the fabrication of articles on a substrate. On 2 July 1984, American entrepreneur Bill Masters filed a patent for his computer automated manufacturing process and system (US 4665492). This filing is on record at the USPTO as the first 3D printing patent in history; it was the first of three patents belonging to Masters that laid the foundation for the 3D printing systems used today. On 16 July 1984, Alain Le Méhauté, Olivier de Witte, and Jean Claude André filed their patent for the stereolithography process. The application of the French inventors was abandoned by the French General Electric Company (now Alcatel Alsthom) and CILAS (The Laser Consortium). The claimed reason was "for lack of business perspective". In 1983, Robert Howard started R. H. Research, later named Howtek, Inc. in Feb 1984 to develop a color inkjet 2D printer, Pixelmaster, commercialized in 1986, using Thermoplastic (hot melt) plastic ink. A team was put together, 6 members Sanders (SDI) first Modelmaker 6Pro customer was Hitchner Corporations, Metal Casting Technology, Inc in Milford, NH a mile from the SDI facility in late 1993 1995 casting golf clubs and auto engine parts. On 8 August 1984 a patent, US4575330, assigned to UVP, Inc., later assigned to Chuck Hull of 3D Systems Corporation later in 1987 or 1988. The technology used by most 3D printers to date—especially hobbyist and consumer oriented models—is fused deposition modeling, a special application of plastic extrusion, developed in 1988 by S. Scott Crump and commercialized by his company Stratasys, which marketed its first FDM machine in 1992.

AM processes for metal sintering or melting (such as selective laser sintering, direct metal laser sintering, and selective laser melting) usually went by their own individual names in the 1980s and 1990s. At the time, all metalworking was done by processes that are now called non additive (casting, fabrication, stamping, and machining); although plenty of automation was applied to those technologies (such as by robot welding and CNC), the idea of a tool or head moving through a 3D work envelope transforming a mass of raw material into a desired shape with a toolpath was associated in metalworking only with processes that removed metal (rather than adding it), such as CNC milling, CNC EDM, and many others. However, the automated techniques that added metal, which would later be called additive manufacturing, were beginning to challenge that assumption. By the mid 1990s, new techniques for material deposition were developed at Stanford and Carnegie Mellon University, including microcasting and sprayed materials. Sacrificial and support materials had also become more common, enabling new object geometries. The term 3D printing originally referred to a powder bed process employing standard and custom inkjet print heads, developed at MIT by Emanuel Sachs in 1993 and commercialized by Soligen Technologies, Extrude Hone Corporation, and Z Corporation. The year 1993 also saw the start of an inkjet 3D printer company initially named Sanders Prototype, Inc and later named Solidscape, introducing a high precision polymer jet fabrication system with soluble support structures, (categorized as a "dot on dot" technique). In 2005 users began to design and distribute plans for 3D printers that could print around 70% of their own parts, the original plans of which were designed by Adrian Bowyer at the University of Bath in 2004, with the name of the project being RepRap (Replicating Rapid prototyper). Similarly, in 2006 the Fab@Home project was started by Evan Malone and Hod Lipson, another project whose purpose was to design a low cost and open source fabrication system that users could develop on their own and post feedback on, making the project very collaborative. Much of the software for 3D printing available to the public at the time was open source, and as such was quickly distributed and improved upon by many individual users. In 2009 the Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) printing process patents expired. This opened the door to a new wave of startup companies, many of which were established by major contributors of these open source initiatives, with the goal of many of them being to start developing commercial FDM 3D printers that were more accessible to the general public.

As the various additive processes matured, it became clear that soon metal removal would no longer be the only metalworking process done through a tool or head moving through a 3D work envelope, transforming a mass of raw material into a desired shape layer by layer. The 2010s were the first decade in which metal end use parts such as engine brackets the demand for fuel efficient and easily produced jet engines has never been higher. For large OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) like Pratt and Whitney (PW) and General Electric (GE) this means looking towards AM as a way to reduce cost, reduce the number of nonconforming parts, reduce weight in the engines to increase fuel efficiency and find new, highly complex shapes that would not be feasible with the antiquated manufacturing methods. One example of AM integration with aerospace was in 2016 when Airbus delivered the first of GE's LEAP engines. This engine has integrated 3D printed fuel nozzles, reducing parts from 20 to 1, a 25% weight reduction, and reduced assembly times. A fuel nozzle is the perfect inroad for additive manufacturing in a jet engine since it allows for optimized design of the complex internals and it is a low stress, non rotating part. Similarly, in 2015, PW delivered their first AM parts in the PurePower PW1500G to Bombardier. Sticking to low stress, non rotating parts, PW selected the compressor stators and synch ring brackets to roll out this new manufacturing technology for the first time. While AM is still playing a small role in the total number of parts in the jet engine manufacturing process, the return on investment can already be seen by the reduction in parts, the rapid production capabilities and the "optimized design in terms of performance and cost". As technology matured, several authors began to speculate that 3D printing could aid in sustainable development in the developing world. In 2012, Filabot developed a system for closing the loop with plastic and allows for any FDM or FFF 3D printer to be able to print with a wider range of plastics. In 2014, Benjamin S. Cook and Manos M. Tentzeris demonstrated the first multi material, vertically integrated printed electronics additive manufacturing platform (VIPRE) which enabled 3D printing of functional electronics operating up to 40 GHz. As the price of printers started to drop people interested in this technology had more access and freedom to make what they wanted. As of 2014, the price for commercial printers was still high with the cost being over $2,000. The term "3D printing" originally referred to a process that deposits a binder material onto a powder bed with inkjet printer heads layer by layer. More recently, the popular vernacular has started using the term to encompass a wider variety of additive manufacturing techniques such as electron beam additive manufacturing and selective laser melting. The United States and global technical standards use the official term additive manufacturing for this broader sense. The most commonly used 3D printing process (46% as of 2018) is a material extrusion technique called fused deposition modeling, or FDM. While FDM technology was invented after the other two most popular technologies, stereolithography (SLA) and selective laser sintering (SLS), FDM is typically the most inexpensive of the three by a large margin, which lends to the popularity of the process.

As of 2020, 3D printers have reached the level of quality and price that allows most people to enter the world of 3D printing. In 2020 decent quality printers can be found for less than US$200 for entry level machines. These more affordable printers are usually fused deposition modeling (FDM) printers. In November 2021 a British patient named Steve Verze received the world's first fully 3D printed prosthetic eye from the Moorfields Eye Hospital in London. In April 2024, the world's largest 3D printer, the Factory of the Future 1.0 was revealed at the University of Maine. It is able to make objects 96 feet long, or 29 meters.

Additive manufacturing or 3D printing has rapidly gained importance in the field of engineering due to its many benefits. The vision of 3D printing is design freedom, individualization, decentralization and executing processes that were previously impossible through alternative methods. Some of these benefits include enabling faster prototyping, reducing manufacturing costs, increasing product customization, and improving product quality. Furthermore, the capabilities of 3D printing have extended beyond traditional manufacturing, like lightweight construction, or repair and maintenance with applications in prosthetics, bioprinting, food industry, rocket building, design and art and renewable energy systems. 3D printing technology can be used to produce battery energy storage systems, which are essential for sustainable energy generation and distribution. Another benefit of 3D printing is the technology's ability to produce complex geometries with high precision and accuracy. This is particularly relevant in the field of microwave engineering, where 3D printing can be used to produce components with unique properties that are difficult to achieve using traditional manufacturing methods.

3D printable models may be created with a computer aided design (CAD) package, via a 3D scanner, or by a plain digital camera and photogrammetry software. 3D printed models created with CAD result in relatively fewer errors than other methods. Errors in 3D printable models can be identified and corrected before printing. The manual modeling process of preparing geometric data for 3D computer graphics is similar to plastic arts such as sculpting. 3D scanning is a process of collecting digital data on the shape and appearance of a real object, and creating a digital model based on it. CAD models can be saved in the stereolithography file format (STL), a de facto CAD file format for additive manufacturing that stores data based on triangulations of the surface of CAD models. STL is not tailored for additive manufacturing because it generates large file sizes of topology optimized parts and lattice structures due to the large number of surfaces involved. A newer CAD file format, the additive manufacturing file format (AMF), was introduced in 2011 to solve this problem. It stores information using curved triangulations.

Though the printer produced resolution and surface finish are sufficient for some applications, post processing and finishing methods allow for benefits such as greater dimensional accuracy, smoother surfaces, and other modifications such as coloration. The surface finish of a 3D printed part can improved using subtractive methods such as sanding and bead blasting. When smoothing parts that require dimensional accuracy, it is important to take into account the volume of the material being removed. based on acetone or similar solvents. Some additive manufacturing techniques can benefit from annealing as a post processing step. Annealing a 3D printed part allows for better internal layer bonding due to recrystallization of the part. It allows for an increase in mechanical properties, some of which are fracture toughness, flexural strength, impact resistance, and heat resistance. Additive or subtractive hybrid manufacturing (ASHM) is a method that involves producing a 3D printed part and using machining (subtractive manufacturing) to remove material. Machining operations can be completed after each layer, or after the entire 3D print has been completed depending on the application requirements. These hybrid methods allow for 3D printed parts to achieve better surface finishes and dimensional accuracy. The layered structure of traditional additive manufacturing processes leads to a stair stepping effect on part surfaces that are curved or tilted with respect to the building platform. The effect strongly depends on the layer height used, as well as the orientation of a part surface inside the building process. This effect can be minimized using "variable layer heights" or "adaptive layer heights". These methods decrease the layer height in places where higher quality is needed. Painting a 3D printed part offers a range of finishes and appearances that may not be achievable through most 3D printing techniques. The process typically involves several steps, such as surface preparation, priming, and painting. These steps help prepare the surface of the part and ensuring the paint adheres properly. Some additive manufacturing techniques are capable of using multiple materials simultaneously. These techniques are able to print in multiple colors and color combinations simultaneously and can produce parts that may not necessarily require painting. Some printing techniques require internal supports to be built to support overhanging features during construction. These supports must be mechanically removed or dissolved if using a water soluble support material such as PVA after completing a print. Some commercial metal 3D printers involve cutting the metal component off the metal substrate after deposition. A new process for the GMAW 3D printing allows for substrate surface modifications to remove aluminium or steel.

Traditionally, 3D printing focused on polymers for printing, due to the ease of manufacturing and handling polymeric materials. However, the method has rapidly evolved to not only print various polymers but also metals and ceramics, making 3D printing a versatile option for manufacturing. Layer by layer fabrication of three dimensional physical models is a modern concept that "stems from the ever growing CAD industry, more specifically the solid modeling side of CAD. Before solid modeling was introduced in the late 1980s, three dimensional models were created with wire frames and surfaces." but in all cases the layers of materials are controlled by the printer and the material properties. The three dimensional material layer is controlled by the deposition rate as set by the printer operator and stored in a computer file. The earliest printed patented material was a hot melt type ink for printing patterns using a heated metal alloy. Charles Hull filed the first patent on August 8, 1984, to use a UV cured acrylic resin using a UV masked light source at UVP Corp to build a simple model. The SLA 1 was the first SL product announced by 3D Systems at Autofact Exposition, Detroit, November 1978. The SLA 1 Beta shipped in Jan 1988 to Baxter Healthcare, Pratt and Whitney, General Motors and AMP. The first production SLA 1 shipped to Precision Castparts in April 1988. The UV resin material changed over quickly to an epoxy based material resin. In both cases, SLA 1 models needed UV oven curing after being rinsed in a solvent cleaner to remove uncured boundary resin. A post cure apparatus (PCA) was sold with all systems. The early resin printers required a blade to move fresh resin over the model on each layer. The layer thickness was 0.006 inches and the HeCd laser model of the SLA 1 was 12 watts and swept across the surface at 30 in per second. UVP was acquired by 3D Systems in January 1990. A review of the history shows that a number of materials (resins, plastic powder, plastic filament and hot melt plastic ink) were used in the 1980s for patents in the rapid prototyping field. Masked lamp UV cured resin was also introduced by Cubital's Itzchak Pomerantz in the Soldier 5600, Carl Deckard's (DTM) laser sintered thermoplastic powders, and adhesive laser cut paper (LOM) stacked to form objects by Michael Feygin before 3D Systems made its first announcement. Scott Crump was also working with extruded "melted" plastic filament modeling (FDM) and drop deposition had been patented by William E Masters a week after Hull's patent in 1984, but he had to discover thermoplastic inkjets, introduced by Visual Impact Corporation 3D printer in 1992, using inkjets from Howtek, Inc., before he formed BPM to bring out his own 3D printer product in 1994. A drawback of many existing 3D printing technologies is that they only allow one material to be printed at a time, limiting many potential applications that require the integration of different materials in the same object. Multi material 3D printing solves this problem by allowing objects of complex and heterogeneous arrangements of materials to be manufactured using a single printer. Here, a material must be specified for each voxel (or 3D printing pixel element) inside the final object volume. The process can be fraught with complications, however, due to the isolated and monolithic algorithms. Some commercial devices have sought to solve these issues, such as building a Spec2Fab translator, but the progress is still very limited. Nonetheless, in the medical industry, a concept of 3D printed pills and vaccines has been presented. With this new concept, multiple medications can be combined, which is expected to decrease many risks. With more and more applications of multi material 3D printing, the costs of daily life and high technology development will become inevitably lower. Metallographic materials of 3D printing is also being researched. By classifying each material, CIMP 3D can systematically perform 3D printing with multiple materials.

Using 3D printing and multi material structures in additive manufacturing has allowed for the design and creation of what is called 4D printing. 4D printing is an additive manufacturing process in which the printed object changes shape with time, temperature, or some other type of stimulation. 4D printing allows for the creation of dynamic structures with adjustable shapes, properties or functionality. The smart/stimulus responsive materials that are created using 4D printing can be activated to create calculated responses such as self assembly, self repair, multi functionality, reconfiguration and shape shifting. This allows for customized printing of shape changing and shape memory materials. 4D printing has the potential to find new applications and uses for materials (plastics, composites, metals, etc.) and has the potential to create new alloys and composites that were not viable before. The versatility of this technology and materials can lead to advances in multiple fields of industry, including space, commercial and medical fields. The repeatability, precision, and material range for 4D printing must increase to allow the process to become more practical throughout these industries. To become a viable industrial production option, there are a few challenges that 4D printing must overcome. The challenges of 4D printing include the fact that the microstructures of these printed smart materials must be close to or better than the parts obtained through traditional machining processes. New and customizable materials need to be developed that have the ability to consistently respond to varying external stimuli and change to their desired shape. There is also a need to design new software for the various technique types of 4D printing. The 4D printing software will need to take into consideration the base smart material, printing technique, and structural and geometric requirements of the design.

Powder bed fusion techniques, or PBF, include several processes such as DMLS, SLS, SLM, MJF and EBM. Powder bed fusion processes can be used with an array of materials and their flexibility allows for geometrically complex structures, making it a good choice for many 3D printing projects. These techniques include selective laser sintering, with both metals and polymers and direct metal laser sintering.

The binder jetting 3D printing technique involves the deposition of a binding adhesive agent onto layers of material, usually powdered, and then this "green" state part may be cured and even sintered. The materials can be ceramic based, metal or plastic. This method is also known as inkjet 3D printing. To produce a part, the printer builds the model using a head that moves over the platform base to spread or deposit alternating layers of powder (plaster and resins) and binder. Most modern binder jet printers also cure each layer of binder. These steps are repeated until all layers have been printed. This green part is usually cured in an oven to off gas most of the binder before being sintered in a kiln with a specific time temperature curve for the given material(s). This technology allows the printing of full color prototypes, overhangs, and elastomer parts. The strength of bonded powder prints can be enhanced by impregnating in the spaces between the necked or sintered matrix of powder with other compatible materials depending on the powder material, like wax, thermoset polymer, or even bronze.

Other methods cure liquid materials using different sophisticated technologies, such as stereolithography. Photopolymerization is primarily used in stereolithography to produce a solid part from a liquid. Inkjet printer systems like the Objet PolyJet system spray photopolymer materials onto a build tray in ultra thin layers (between 16 and 30 μm) until the part is completed. Each photopolymer layer is cured with UV light after it is jetted, producing fully cured models that can be handled and used immediately, without post curing. Ultra small features can be made with the 3D micro fabrication technique used in multiphoton photopolymerisation. Due to the nonlinear nature of photo excitation, the gel is cured to a solid only in the places where the laser was focused while the remaining gel is then washed away. Feature sizes of under 100 nm are easily produced, as well as complex structures with moving and interlocked parts. In powder fed directed energy deposition, a high power laser is used to melt metal powder supplied to the focus of the laser beam. The powder fed directed energy process is similar to selective laser sintering, but the metal powder is applied only where material is being added to the part at that moment.

Computed axial lithography is a method for 3D printing based on computerised tomography scans to create prints in photo curable resin. It was developed by a collaboration between the University of California, Berkeley with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Unlike other methods of 3D printing it does not build models through depositing layers of material like fused deposition modelling and stereolithography, instead it creates objects using a series of 2D images projected onto a cylinder of resin. The process was originally created by Adrian Bowyer and was then built upon by German RepRap. A technique called programmable tooling uses 3D printing to create a temporary mold, which is then filled via a conventional injection molding process and then immediately dissolved.

In some printers, paper can be used as the build material, resulting in a lower cost to print. During the 1990s some companies marketed printers that cut cross sections out of special adhesive coated paper using a carbon dioxide laser and then laminated them together. In 2005 Mcor Technologies Ltd developed a different process using ordinary sheets of office paper, a tungsten carbide blade to cut the shape, and selective deposition of adhesive and pressure to bond the prototype.

In powder fed directed energy deposition (also known as laser metal deposition), a high power laser is used to melt metal powder supplied to the focus of the laser beam. The laser beam typically travels through the center of the deposition head and is focused on a small spot by one or more lenses. The build occurs on an X Y table which is driven by a tool path created from a digital model to fabricate an object layer by layer. The deposition head is moved up vertically as each layer is completed. Some systems even make use of 5 axis or 6 axis systems (i. e. articulated arms) capable of delivering material on the substrate (a printing bed, or a pre existing part) with few to no spatial access restrictions. Metal powder is delivered and distributed around the circumference of the head or can be split by an internal manifold and delivered through nozzles arranged in various configurations around the deposition head. A hermetically sealed chamber filled with inert gas or a local inert shroud gas (sometimes both combined) is often used to shield the melt pool from atmospheric oxygen, to limit oxidation and to better control the material properties. The powder fed directed energy process is similar to selective laser sintering, but the metal powder is projected only where the material is being added to the part at that moment. The laser beam is used to heat up and create a "melt pool" on the substrate, in which the new powder is injected quasi simultaneously. The process supports a wide range of materials including titanium, stainless steel, aluminium, tungsten, and other specialty materials as well as composites and functionally graded materials. The process can not only fully build new metal parts but can also add material to existing parts for example for coatings, repair, and hybrid manufacturing applications. Laser engineered net shaping (LENS), which was developed by Sandia National Labs, is one example of the powder fed directed energy deposition process for 3D printing or restoring metal parts.

Laser based wire feed systems, such as laser metal deposition wire (LMD w), feed the wire through a nozzle that is melted by a laser using inert gas shielding in either an open environment (gas surrounding the laser) or in a sealed chamber. Electron beam freeform fabrication uses an electron beam heat source inside a vacuum chamber. It is also possible to use conventional gas metal arc welding attached to a 3D stage to 3 D print metals such as steel, bronze and aluminium. Low cost open source RepRap style 3 D printers have been outfitted with Arduino based sensors and demonstrated reasonable metallurgical properties from conventional welding wire as feedstock.

In selective powder deposition, build and support powders are selectively deposited into a crucible, such that the build powder takes the shape of the desired object and support powder fills the rest of the volume in the crucible. Then an infill material is applied, such that it comes in contact with the build powder. Then the crucible is fired up in a kiln at the temperature above the melting point of the infill but below the melting points of the powders. When the infill melts, it soaks the build powder. But it does not soak the support powder, because the support powder is chosen to be such that it is not wettable by the infill. If at the firing temperature, the atoms of the infill material and the build powder are mutually defusable, such as in the case of copper powder and zinc infill, then the resulting material will be a uniform mixture of those atoms, in this case, bronze. But if the atoms are not mutually defusable, such as in the case of tungsten and copper at 1100 °C, then the resulting material will be a composite. To prevent shape distortion, the firing temperature must be below the solidus temperature of the resulting alloy.

Cryogenic 3D printing is a collection of techniques that forms solid structures by freezing liquid materials while they are deposited. As each liquid layer is applied, it is cooled by the low temperature of the previous layer and printing environment which results in solidification. Unlike other 3D printing techniques, cryogenic 3D printing requires a controlled printing environment. The ambient temperature must be below the material's freezing point to ensure the structure remains solid during manufacturing and the humidity must remain low to prevent frost formation between the application of layers. Materials typically include water and water based solutions, such as brine, slurry, and hydrogels. Cryogenic 3D printing techniques include rapid freezing prototype (RFP), and freeze form extrusion fabrication (FEF).

3D printing or additive manufacturing has been used in manufacturing, medical, industry and sociocultural sectors (e. g. cultural heritage) to create successful commercial technology. More recently, 3D printing has also been used in the humanitarian and development sector to produce a range of medical items, prosthetics, spares and repairs. The earliest application of additive manufacturing was on the toolroom end of the manufacturing spectrum. For example, rapid prototyping was one of the earliest additive variants, and its mission was to reduce the lead time and cost of developing prototypes of new parts and devices, which was earlier only done with subtractive toolroom methods such as CNC milling, turning, and precision grinding. NASA is looking into the technology in order to create 3D printed food to limit food waste and to make food that is designed to fit an astronaut's dietary needs. In 2018, Italian bioengineer Giuseppe Scionti developed a technology allowing the production of fibrous plant based meat analogues using a custom 3D bioprinter, mimicking meat texture and nutritional values.

3D printing has entered the world of clothing, with fashion designers experimenting with 3D printed bikinis, shoes, and dresses. In 2014, Local Motors debuted Strati, a functioning vehicle that was entirely 3D printed using ABS plastic and carbon fiber, except the powertrain. In May 2015 Airbus announced that its new Airbus A350 XWB included over 1000 components manufactured by 3D printing. In 2015, a Royal Air Force Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jet flew with printed parts. The United States Air Force has begun to work with 3D printers, and the Israeli Air Force has also purchased a 3D printer to print spare parts. In 2017, GE Aviation revealed that it had used design for additive manufacturing to create a helicopter engine with 16 parts instead of 900, with great potential impact on reducing the complexity of supply chains.

AM's impact on firearms involves two dimensions: new manufacturing methods for established companies, and new possibilities for the making of do it yourself firearms. In 2012, the US based group Defense Distributed disclosed plans to design a working plastic 3D printed firearm "that could be downloaded and reproduced by anybody with a 3D printer".

Surgical uses of 3D printing centric therapies began in the mid 1990s with anatomical modeling for bony reconstructive surgery planning. Patient matched implants were a natural extension of this work, leading to truly personalized implants that fit one unique individual. Virtual planning of surgery and guidance using 3D printed, personalized instruments have been applied to many areas of surgery including total joint replacement and craniomaxillofacial reconstruction with great success. developed at the University of Michigan. The use of additive manufacturing for serialized production of orthopedic implants (metals) is also increasing due to the ability to efficiently create porous surface structures that facilitate osseointegration. The hearing aid and dental industries are expected to be the biggest areas of future development using custom 3D printing technology. In 2018, 3D printing technology was used for the first time to create a matrix for cell immobilization in fermentation. Propionic acid production by Propionibacterium acidipropionici immobilized on 3D printed nylon beads was chosen as a model study. It was shown that those 3D printed beads were capable of promoting high density cell attachment and propionic acid production, which could be adapted to other fermentation bioprocesses. 3D printing has also been employed by researchers in the pharmaceutical field. During the last few years, there has been a surge in academic interest regarding drug delivery with the aid of AM techniques. This technology offers a unique way for materials to be utilized in novel formulations. AM manufacturing allows for the usage of materials and compounds in the development of formulations, in ways that are not possible with conventional/traditional techniques in the pharmaceutical field, e. g. tableting, cast molding, etc. Moreover, one of the major advantages of 3D printing, especially in the case of fused deposition modelling (FDM), is the personalization of the dosage form that can be achieved, thus, targeting the patient's specific needs. In the not so distant future, 3D printers are expected to reach hospitals and pharmacies in order to provide on demand production of personalized formulations according to the patients' needs. 3D printing has also been used for medical equipment. During the COVID 19 pandemic 3D printers were used to supplement the strained supply of PPE through volunteers using their personally owned printers to produce various pieces of personal protective equipment (i. e. frames for face shields).

3D printing, and open source 3D printers, in particular, are the latest technologies making inroads into the classroom. Higher education has proven to be a major buyer of desktop and professional 3D printers which industry experts generally view as a positive indicator. Some authors have claimed that 3D printers offer an unprecedented "revolution" in STEM education. The evidence for such claims comes from both the low cost ability for rapid prototyping in the classroom by students, but also the fabrication of low cost high quality scientific equipment from open hardware designs forming open source labs. Future applications for 3D printing might include creating open source scientific equipment. Many Europeans and North American Museums have purchased 3D printers and actively recreate missing pieces of their relics and archaeological monuments such as Tiwanaku in Bolivia. The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the British Museum have started using their 3D printers to create museum souvenirs that are available in the museum shops. Other museums, like the National Museum of Military History and Varna Historical Museum, have gone further and sell through the online platform Threeding digital models of their artifacts, created using Artec 3D scanners, in 3D printing friendly file format, which everyone can 3D print at home. Morehshin Allahyari, an Iranian born U. S. artist, considers her use of 3D sculpting processes of re constructing Iranian cultural treasures as feminist activism. Allahyari uses a 3D modeling software to reconstruct a series of cultural artifacts that were demolished by ISIS militants in 2014.

[[Image:Stoofbrug JUL2021 3Dbridge. jpg|thumb|The in Amsterdam, the world's first 3D printed metal bridge In 2021, Parsinejad et al. comprehensively compared the hand surveying method for 3D reconstruction ready for 3D printing with digital recording (adoption of photogrammetry method). Polymer ink is used to create the layers of the build while silver polymer is used for creating the traces and holes used to allow electricity to flow. Current circuit board manufacturing can be a tedious process depending on the design. Specified materials are gathered and sent into inner layer processing where images are printed, developed and etched. The etch cores are typically punched to add lamination tooling. The cores are then prepared for lamination. The stack up, the buildup of a circuit board, is built and sent into lamination where the layers are bonded. The boards are then measured and drilled. Many steps may differ from this stage however for simple designs, the material goes through a plating process to plate the holes and surface. The outer image is then printed, developed and etched. After the image is defined, the material must get coated with a solder mask for later soldering. Nomenclature is then added so components can be identified later. Then the surface finish is added. The boards are routed out of panel form into their singular or array form and then electrically tested. Aside from the paperwork that must be completed which proves the boards meet specifications, the boards are then packed and shipped. The benefits of 3D printing would be that the final outline is defined from the beginning, no imaging, punching or lamination is required and electrical connections are made with the silver polymer which eliminates drilling and plating. The final paperwork would also be greatly reduced due to the lack of materials required to build the circuit board. Complex designs which may take weeks to complete through normal processing can be 3D printed, greatly reducing manufacturing time.

In 2005, academic journals began to report on the possible artistic applications of 3D printing technology. As of 2017, domestic 3D printing was reaching a consumer audience beyond hobbyists and enthusiasts. Several projects and companies are making efforts to develop affordable 3D printers for home desktop use. Much of this work has been driven by and targeted at DIY/maker/enthusiast/early adopter communities, with additional ties to the academic and hacker communities. Sped on by decreases in price and increases in quality, as of 2019 an estimated 2 million people worldwide have purchased a 3D printer for hobby use.

3D printing has existed for decades within certain manufacturing industries where many legal regimes, including patents, industrial design rights, copyrights, and trademarks may apply. However, there is not much jurisprudence to say how these laws will apply if 3D printers become mainstream and individuals or hobbyist communities begin manufacturing items for personal use, for non profit distribution, or for sale. Any of the mentioned legal regimes may prohibit the distribution of the designs used in 3D printing or the distribution or sale of the printed item. To be allowed to do these things, where active intellectual property was involved, a person would have to contact the owner and ask for a licence, which may come with conditions and a price. However, many patent, design and copyright laws contain a standard limitation or exception for "private" or "non commercial" use of inventions, designs or works of art protected under intellectual property (IP). That standard limitation or exception may leave such private, non commercial uses outside the scope of IP rights. Patents cover inventions including processes, machines, manufacturing, and compositions of matter and have a finite duration which varies between countries, but generally 20 years from the date of application. Therefore, if a type of wheel is patented, printing, using, or selling such a wheel could be an infringement of the patent. The FAA has jurisdiction over such fabrication because all aircraft parts must be made under FAA production approval or under other FAA regulatory categories. In December 2016, the FAA approved the production of a 3D printed fuel nozzle for the GE LEAP engine. Aviation attorney Jason Dickstein has suggested that additive manufacturing is merely a production method, and should be regulated like any other production method. He has suggested that the FAA's focus should be on guidance to explain compliance, rather than on changing the existing rules, and that existing regulations and guidance permit a company "to develop a robust quality system that adequately reflects regulatory needs for quality assurance".

Noise level is measured in decibels (dB), and can vary greatly in home printers from 15 dB to 75 dB. Some main sources of noise in filament printers are fans, motors and bearings, while in resin printers the fans usually are responsible for most of the noise. claimed that 3D printing signals the beginning of a third industrial revolution, succeeding the production line assembly that dominated manufacturing starting in the late 19th century.

Since the 1950s, a number of writers and social commentators have speculated in some depth about the social and cultural changes that might result from the advent of commercially affordable additive manufacturing technology.

The growth of additive manufacturing could have a large impact on the environment. As opposed to traditional manufacturing, for instance, in which pieces are cut from larger blocks of material, additive manufacturing creates products layer by layer and prints only relevant parts, wasting much less material and thus wasting less energy in producing the raw materials needed. By making only the bare structural necessities of products, additive manufacturing also could make a profound contribution to lightweighting, reducing the energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions of vehicles and other forms of transportation. A case study on an airplane component made using additive manufacturing, for example, found that the component's use saves 63% of relevant energy and carbon dioxide emissions over the course of the product's lifetime. In addition, previous life cycle assessment of additive manufacturing has estimated that adopting the technology could further lower carbon dioxide emissions since 3D printing creates localized production, and products would not need to be transported long distances to reach their final destination. Continuing to adopt additive manufacturing does pose some environmental downsides, however. Despite additive manufacturing reducing waste from the subtractive manufacturing process by up to 90%, the additive manufacturing process creates other forms of waste such as non recyclable material (metal) powders. Additive manufacturing has not yet reached its theoretical material efficiency potential of 97%, but it may get closer as the technology continues to increase productivity. Some large FDM printers that melt high density polyethylene (HDPE) pellets may also accept sufficiently clean recycled material such as chipped milk bottles. In addition, these printers can use shredded material coming from faulty builds or unsuccessful prototype versions thus reducing overall project wastage and materials handling and storage. The concept has been explored in the RecycleBot.