docs/02_module-1-what-is-3d-printing/03_3d-printing-facts-concepts/06_3d-printing-applications.en.txt

[MUSIC] Now, let's take a look at applications. How 3D printers are being used. The next course in our specialization
will delve in more detail on this topic. So just wanted to give
you a few examples here. At present, 3D printers are being
used by many firms, not only for prototyping objects, but
also for manufacturing them. For example, General Electric uses 3D
printing to make thousands of parts for its jet engines. Also, Nike is working on
making 3D printed shoes. And Loco Motors, a car company,
recently 3D printed an actual car. In the US, most hearing aids and
dental implants are 3D printed. And several universities and firms are working on technologies that may
some day produced 3D printed human organs. For example,
the University of Louisville recently announced that they hope to 3D
print a human heart by 2023. We'll discuss this and
several other 3D printing applications, in the second week of our course. Although, most desktop 3D printers will
never make a car or a human heart, there are still lots of amazing things
that could be made using low cost, desktop 3D printing technology. Provide some stories of what our
students who come to our lab are using this technology
to make everyday. We'll discuss this in
the second week of our course. If you complete the specialization,
you will be able to design and create things that you probably
haven't even begun to imagine yet. That help guide you into how to think
about the things that you can make using a 3D printer, please take a look at this
3D typology which I developed a couple years ago with one of our doctoral
students as a way of thinking about, what these tools can make. So my doctoral student and
I examined 500 different objects that had been posted on the website,
thingiverse.com. And we tried to classify these
objects using a typology. So what you see here is the typology. It has two axis resulting
in four categories. The first axis,
the horizontal axis, is the type of product whether it's a new product or
an existing product. The second axis,
the vertical axis, is the degree to which the product is a standalone
object that just works by itself. Or a component or
a piece of a larger object. So we combine these two axis
we have these four archetypes. So going from the top left,
we have creations and what you see here is a grading dice. And this is a dice that has
different grades, A, B, C and D and also a couple others. And this is an example
of a new object that you wouldn't be able to buy in a store. And it works by itself,
you just toss a dice so it's standalone. Moving to the right, we have the next
category which are substitutes and they are simply objects that
you could buy in a store. Instead of buying in a store, you would
print it on your desktop, for example. So here we're showing a whistle. So for example, although you could buy a
whistle in the store, if you were coaching your son's soccer game and
it was 6 AM and the store was closed and you needed a whistle, printing it would
be a convenient way to obtain it. The next category down to the right
is something we call replacements. And what you see here on the right is
this knob on the right was 3D printed for an old stove. And so, lots of things that
we have something breaks and it's hard to find a replacement object. And now if you have a digital design or if you want to sketch the object in
a 3D modeling program such as SketchUp, or perhaps even scan the broken piece,
you can now print a replacement object. And the final category on the bottom left
is something that we call solutions. And what you see here is
a solution to a problem of trying to integrate two
different toy systems. So this is called a duplo
brio connector and the bottom it connects
with Lego duplo blocks. And on the top across the top
is the brio train track. So this connector allows you to
integrate this two different but in compatible toy systems,
so those are solutions. So we develop this classification and then
we randomly picked 500 different objects on Thingiverse, and then independently
my student and I each try to classify these 500 objects into 1
of these 4 different boxes. So what do you think we found? Which category had the most objects? Well, let's take a look at that. So as you see here in this next slide that
by far and away the biggest category, over half of these objects,
work creations, and you see the percentages for
the other three categories? And this is interesting because
we have to think of 3D printer as creating existing products,
and some individuals will say, why would I want to make my own whistle
when I can buy within the store, well perhaps you couldn't
if the store was an open? But that's really missing the point,
the key point here is that 3D printing allows us to create new objects
that have never been seen before. So the fact that the majority
of these objects, 51% are creations is really interesting. This suggests that people
are using 3D printers to create new-to-the-world products
that have never existed before, and this is really the magic of 3D printing. I hope this typology has been
useful in helping you think about the sort of things you can
make with a 3D printer. As you can see, 3D printers can make
a variety of objects, both those that have already existed as well as those that
have never ever been made before. The possibilities are endless and the use of this technology is
as broad as your imagination. I hope this overview of 3D printing has
provided you with a better understanding of how you can put your imagination into
action, and turn your ideas into objects. [MUSIC]