From the tallest skyscrapers to the fastest jet engines, leading engineers are increasingly turning to 3-D printers to advance and even revolutionize mechanical design. The Obama administration already invested $200 million in digital design research earlier this year, an investment that could transform future military capabilities.
How does the military plan to use 3-D printers? Experts posit that U.S. forces could one day use them to create numerous pieces of military equipment, including weapons, drone aircraft and ammunition. There are even plans afoot in the biomedical field that one day could produce fully functioning human organs, allowing doctors to quickly perform a transplant in combat situations.
So what is this innovative technology and why is everybody trying to get ahold of their own printer?
Transforming warfare
Michael Philpott, professor emeritus of science and mechanical engineering at the University of Illinois, described the process of 3-D printing to Mint Press News as “layer by layer manufacturing.” It allows the engineer to input a design into a printer, which then layers a material like plastic or resin to make the physical part.
This differs from a separate process known as computer numerical control, which allows an engineer or designer to start with a block of material and cut a design into it. Philpott, who bought his own 3-D printer in 1992, explains that the technology is not new, but the recent fascination with the printers may be spurred by improvements in the materials.
“It’s not so much the availability of the technology. It’s really the material development,” Philpott said. “The resins are photopolymers that harden under ultraviolet light. Over the years it has gotten better and better. Now we are getting plastics that are almost as strong as injection molded plastic. It’s only the cost of the material that stops you in terms of the production process.”
What are some of the applications? Lt. Cmdr. Michael Llenza, a senior naval fellow at the Atlantic Council, claims that 3-D printing could “upend the way we think about supply chains, sea basing and even maritime strategy.”
Llenza describes his vision for the future of warfare in a recent Wired magazine article, believing that soldiers can quickly build their own weapons, including drones and ammunition, on the battlefield.
The U.S. military already uses 3-D printers to create some noncritical components. The Obama administration announced in a press release in May it will invest $200 million in research and development of digital manufacturing.
The Department of Defense will be tasked with leading two new institutes, one focused on “Digital Manufacturing and Design Innovation” and the other dealing with “Lightweight and Modern Metals Manufacturing.” The Department of Energy will also lead one new institute on “Next Generation Power Electronics Manufacturing.”
Similarly, Navy Lts. Scott Cheney-Peters and Matthew Hipple predicted in April that the future U.S. Navy would one day have ships capable of harvesting the oceans for 3-D printing material and using the material to repair ships out at sea.
There are some potential dangers, including hackers who could get ahold of the designs. Because weapons may one day be designed digitally, skilled hackers could take military blueprints for a 3-D printed weapon and reproduce it or sell it to enemies of the U.S.
Allegations of cyberattacks against the U.S. military are already common and the proliferation of weapons produced using 3-D printers ups the ante. Earlier this year, the Obama administration accused the Chinese military of carrying out widespread cyber-attacks. Although the motive and impact of the attacks are still unclear, The New York Times reports that a Chinese People’s Liberation Army unit near Shanghai may have carried out the attacks in order “to map military capabilities that could be exploited during a crisis.”
There are numerous applications for printers beyond the war zone, as well.
“It’s never received so much attention in the media. There’s many organizations around the world that feel they need to get into 3-D technology, even though it has been around for 25 years,” said Terry Wohlers, principal consultant and president of Wohlers, an independent consulting firm, to Mint Press News.
“It’s been growing on average 25 percent per year. Last year it grew by 28 percent. The growth has been strong and we expect it to grow and expand. The governments of China, Singapore and of course the U.S. government are investing,” Wohlers said.
Professionals are pushing the limits in virtually every field, from architecture to automotive design. There are even plans afoot to begin using 3-D printers to create fully functioning human body parts.
Pushing the limits in medicine, architecture and planes
It sounds like the stuff of science fiction, but medical researchers are on the precipice of opening Pandora’s box, as well.
Working with the National Institutes of Health, researchers at Princeton University unveiled a functional human ear in May, the first of its kind.
“The design and implementation of bionic organs and devices that enhance human capabilities, known as cybernetics, has been an area of increasing scientific interest,” the researchers wrote in an article that appeared in the journal Nano Letters. “This field has the potential to generate customized replacement parts for the human body, or even create organs containing capabilities beyond what human biology ordinarily provides.”
The ear has not been connected to a human being, but Princeton scientists report that it is capable of hearing radio frequencies far beyond the range of normal human capability.
The Armed Forces Journal reports that 3-D printing is already being used at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., where the 3-D Medical Applications Center is scanning soldiers’ injuries in order to create custom prosthetics. Printers have also been used to scan and print titanium plates that fit perfectly into damaged skulls.
The military has taken interest in the work of San Diego-based company Organovo, the first commercial producer of bio-printing machines. Organovo has actually recreated lung and heart tissue, cartilage and bone. It has bioprinted living tissue with an embedded capillary system. Their process could one day allow a patient’s own cells to create new organs, eliminating the risks of transplant rejection.
“I certainly think the medical area is very interesting. They are doing research in such a wide variety of fields including medical instruments. I am excited about manufacturing in general,” Philpott said.
The world may still be a few years away from having body parts made by a 3-D printer a la Luke Skywalker’s replacement hand in “The Empire Strikes Back.” But these printers are already transforming the field of architecture and building design.
“3-D printers can be used for a number of things ranging from a preliminary design where an architect might want to see what a structure looks like to something very detailed like furniture inside a building,” said Dennis Liang, a former architect intern with Kohn Pederson Fox Associates, to Mint Press News.
Kohn Pederson Fox is a major architecture firm that is currently working on dozens of projects throughout the world, including towers in Hong Kong, New York and Dubai.
By using models, architects can properly refine the designs of the world’s newest skyscrapers while comparing them to other existing structures.
“My coworker used one with plywood where he had half of it etched. It was completed with extreme accuracy and an incredible amount of speed. Once you input things on a computer and you have a laser etch it, it will be cut to the millimeter. As beautiful as handmade models can be, they will never match the accuracy of a computer model. I have seen the etching process happen,” Liang said.
Soaring even higher than the skyscrapers of Hong Kong are 3-D printed parts in jet engines that are already improving the speed and durability of aircraft around the world.
Wohlers has been working with Boeing and General Electric to design and produce new parts for jet engines.
“Boeing, for example, has more than 100 flying parts in their aircraft. GE Aviation will soon be flying many parts that they are gearing up to manufacture. These are nozzle systems that are very high temperature and critical parts on the Leap jet engine. They will be manufacturing more than 30,000 each year. They weigh 25 percent less and they combine 19 different parts that they otherwise manufacture separately,” Wohlers said. “They really consolidate the nozzle system and are able to produce internal cavities that are nearly impossible to do with conventional technology.”
3-D printers: Coming to your garage
Arguably the biggest revolution may actually happen in garages across the U.S., where the average Joe may one day own a printer, download designs, and build his own consumer products without ever having to leave his house.
With the proper regulations, the possibilities appear to be virtually limitless.
“There is a big market for children who like to create, play, entertain and build things, like most kids do. We all like to make stuff. Someone will come out with a safe, low-cost 3-D printer for kids,” Wohlers said.
Already some fear that the proliferation of this technology could pose a risk to public safety, after an individual posted plans for the “Liberator Pistol” online. The plans, which can be used to produce a fully functioning 3-D printed pistol, were downloaded 100,000 times before the Department of Homeland Security requested that they be taken off the Internet.
The designer, Cody Wilson of Defense Distributed, hasn’t broken any laws, but legislators are beginning to push for more regulation of 3-D printed guns. The International Business Times reports that California state Sen. Leland Yee, a Democrat, introduced a bill in May that seeks to prevent downloadable guns from getting into the hands of criminals. No proposal has been voted into law, but some are worried that elected officials may be overreacting in the wake of the Liberator Pistol incident.
“I’m more worried about knee-jerk legislation and some idiot getting ahold of one. Plans to make zip guns and bomb making recipes have been online forever, so not much is new there,” said Llenza to Wired magazine.
Despite fears that weapons will fall into the wrong hands, the future may be something that science fiction writers Ray Bradbury and Isaac Asimov never could have predicted.
“Maybe in 100 years’ time everyone will have a machine in their garage and you will be able to download a toaster, or any product. Really there is nothing stopping us other than the material development and improving the accuracy down. We know how to do it all. It’s about improving it and getting the price right,” Philpott said.
Still, some believe that manufacturing most consumer products will be left to the professionals.
“As a rule, consumers will go online and buy products like they do today. Most consumers won’t want to mess with it. Even if they had 3-D printer in their home, the size requirements, material requirements, why would you want to build it in house when you could send it to a professional?” Wohlers said.