# 3D printing ...what are the limits **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 26, 2013, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3d-printing-what-are-the-limits/648460 "2013-01-26T19:14:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![leahcim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b4bc9f/32.png) [@leahcim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leahcim)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2013, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3d-printing-what-are-the-limits/648460/21 "2013-01-27T03:34:23Z")
> [@cguide](#): > > There was an old lady in the news who had to get her jaw replaced. They implanted a 3d printed titanium jaw. If [this](http://www.engadget.com/2012/02/06/83-year-old-woman-gets-replacement-3d-printed-titanium-jaw-make/) is the story, it sounds like this is made with [selective laser sintering](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selective_laser_sintering), which looks like it has more freedom of materials than your standard makerbot does. ---
**Author:** ![Space\_Vegetable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6de8d8/32.png) [@Space\_Vegetable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Space_Vegetable)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2013, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3d-printing-what-are-the-limits/648460/22 "2013-01-27T04:25:10Z")
> [@Nanoda](#): > > I don’t think it’s inconceivable that some day you could pick up your 3D model along with your printed photos at London Drugs or whatever. Staples has announced [in-store 3d printing](http://www.cnn.com/2012/11/30/tech/innovation/staples-3-d-printing/index.html) in some of their stores in the Netherlands and Belgium. They’re only using glued paper for now, but if nothing else, this could eventually provide a lot more visibility for this technology. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2013, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3d-printing-what-are-the-limits/648460/23 "2013-01-27T04:46:33Z")
> [@Space\_Vegetable](#): > > Staples has announced [in-store 3d printing](http://www.cnn.com/2012/11/30/tech/innovation/staples-3-d-printing/index.html) in some of their stores in the Netherlands and Belgium. They’re only using glued paper for now, but if nothing else, this could eventually provide a lot more visibility for this technology. There have been proposed systems that would use laminated layers of cut metal in this same way. The metal layers would be resistance welded together to make a final product approaching the strength of cast and machined materials. In one case where printing may rapidly outperform conventional technology is in [printing electronic components](http://www.idtechex.com/research/reports/printed-and-thin-film-transistors-and-memory-2012-2022-000306.asp). In that case the conventional technology is not as simple as casting plastic or metal though. ---
**Author:** ![AaronX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7bcc69/32.png) [@AaronX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AaronX)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2013, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3d-printing-what-are-the-limits/648460/24 "2013-01-27T12:23:01Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > What if we can print food? What’s the point, from a food shortage perspective? Unless you’re talking about gastronomic delights? ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2013, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3d-printing-what-are-the-limits/648460/25 "2013-01-27T12:29:22Z")
> [@AaronX](#): > > What’s the point, from a food shortage perspective? Unless you’re talking about gastronomic delights? [Already done](https://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&aq=&oq=3d+printed+food&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4GGHP_enUS473US473&q=3d+printed+food&gs_l=hp....0.0.1.373716...........0.). ---
**Author:** ![Jake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f475e1/32.png) [@Jake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jake)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2013, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3d-printing-what-are-the-limits/648460/26 "2013-01-27T20:08:41Z")
Nobody has yet mentioned the cost of supplies for this printer. Also, what are they? Another question: How often do you have to clean the printer? If it’s pumping glue it seems to me this would be a major problem. ---
**Author:** ![AndrewL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@AndrewL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AndrewL)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2013, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3d-printing-what-are-the-limits/648460/27 "2013-01-27T20:41:31Z")
> [@Jake](#): > > Nobody has yet mentioned the cost of supplies for this printer. Also, what are they? > Another question: How often do you have to clean the printer? If it’s pumping glue it seems to me this would be a major problem. There are many different types of 3D printers, and different technologies have different stock materials and maintenance requirement. The cheap (sub-$2000) printers that have become very common in the last few years typically use reels of plastic filament, either PLA or ABS. The material costs about $20 a pound, and a pound lasts a fairly long time since most of the objects printed are lightweight and hollow. The feed material is solid and doesn’t become a liquid until it reaches the heated extrusion nozzle. Occasionally the nozzle becomes clogged and needs to be taken apart and cleaned. This happens more often if you buy cheaper feed material from questionable sources that’s had filler added to bulk it out. I don’t know what maintenance is required for the higher-end printers that work by fusing powders together. I would expect it wouldn’t be much, the ones which work by spraying glue on the material use heads that are very similar to those used by inkjet printers, and the laser sintering machines shouldn’t need much more than an occasional cleaning. I’ve never worked with those types, so I can’t say for sure. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2013, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3d-printing-what-are-the-limits/648460/28 "2013-01-27T21:00:09Z")
I think 3D printing will be big. We’re at the Model T stage now. The technology will become faster, better and cheaper in the next twenty years or so. ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2013, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3d-printing-what-are-the-limits/648460/29 "2013-01-28T18:10:17Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Currently, the way the technology is going, 3D printing will not revolutionize manufacturing, per se, but rather fabricating. If you want to make a million copies of some object, it will generally be easier to use molds, dies, and machine tools, like what we do now. The real advantage come in when you don’t want to make a million of something, but rather to make one of a very specific thing, like the custom-shaped bones **Jenaroph** mentioned. > > For comparison, think about 2-D printing. Most of us have, or at least have access to, a device that can produce any 2-D image we want on a piece of paper. This is very good for, for instance, printing out family photos, or the essay you need to turn in for class. But even though you could print out a novel on a home laser printer, that’s not generally how novels are manufactured: When they’re making a great many copies of the same thing, there are cheaper ways to do it. The place that this analogy falls apart is that all 2-D printed end products are producible by both technologies. There’s no such thing as a 2-D image that can’t be made by a printing press. But, as mentioned above, there is a huge class of objects that simply can’t be made with mills, molds, or dies. Objects that are hollow or have a sophisticated internal lattice structure. Design of such objects has been limited so far, since it didn’t make too much sense to design them when they couldn’t be produced (and 3-D printers still aren’t quite there in many respects), so it’s tough to say how much they will out-compete traditional designs. However, objects with internal lattices are generally stronger, lighter, _and_ cheaper (in material cost), which means that 3-D printers might almost entirely displace traditional manufacturing because we’ll end up designing things that just can’t be constructed traditionally. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2013, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3d-printing-what-are-the-limits/648460/30 "2013-01-28T23:42:01Z")
Hm, that’s a good point. I hadn’t given much thought to such objects because there are so few of them in existence now… But then again, maybe there _should_ be some. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3d-printing-what-are-the-limits/648460.md?page=1)