What can you do with a 3D printer? An engineer will probably answer: Almost anything you can possibly imagine. While it may seem like a stretch, it’s actually true to say that when you have the right technical blueprints, you can print anything from carbon atoms to galaxies. The era of 3D printing is still relatively new although the roots of this technology date back to 1983. The 3Dinsider website explains, “Stereolithography (SLA), commonly known as 3D printing, has been around since the 1980s. Those early pioneers called it Rapid Prototyping (RP) technologies. That’s a bit of a mouthful for most of us—hence the term 3D printing was born.” Read the full article here. During the 1990s it was common for most households to have a paper printer. Eventually, 3D printers will be ubiquitous in the same way.
3D printing enables you to produce complicated objects (with or without moving parts) using less material than traditional manufacturing methods. To help understand the capabilities of an industrial 3D printer, image a scaled down operation that includes massive fabrication equipment. HGR is proud to carry some 3D printers among our vast inventory of machines. Recently, we acquired this EnvisionTEC DSP 3 SXGA Printer in our inventory of printing machines. In less than 24 hours we were delighted, but not very surprised, to get purchase offers for this unique item.
EnvisionTEC is a leader in 3D printing technology. Wikipedia notes that, “EnvisionTEC is a privately held global company that develops, manufactures and sells more than 40 configurations of desktop and production 3D printers based on seven several distinct process technologies that build objects from digital design files.” Check out the full wikipedia page for more info on EnvisionTEC and 3D printing technologies.
3D printing, or additive manufacturing, is a system of creating three dimensional solid objects from a digitally-coded blueprint file. The creation of a 3D printed object is achieved using additive processes where the architect creates successive layers of material until the object is complete. Each of these layers can be seen as a thinly sliced horizontal plane of the eventual object. 3D printing is the opposite of subtractive manufacturing which is cutting out / hollowing out a piece of metal or plastic with, for instance, a milling machine.
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