3D Printing: you may have one in future

3D printing or Additive Manufacturing is a technique which is improving day by day. As the name suggests, 3D printing refers to the technique of manufacturing solid objects by supplying a digital pattern. Just like a 2D printer prints text or photos sent to it by the computer, a 3D printer reads in computer designs and manufactures the products implied by those designs. A 3D model of the object is supplied to the printer. Such 3D models are developed using Computer aided Design(CAD) tools.

A small statue of Mario generated using a 3D printer

Unlike traditional object manufacturing(pottery,shoe making,clay modeling and what not), where objects are created by taking initial building material and then removing parts from it to get the final object(in short, Subtractive modeling), in 3D modeling, objects are built by adding small quantities of the building material(Additive modeling). The 3D design of the object is broken down into cross sections of different thicknesses.This thickness depends upon the object to be created as well as the technology to be used for 3D printing.The 3D printing device takes this design and then produces every cross section as suggested by the design and creates the final object by adding the next cross section to the previous. Hence, the overall object is built by building single layers of the object and adding them to each other as they are built. These layers of the manufacturing process correspond to the cross sections specified in the design.

The aforementioned process is the core of all 3D printing technologies but the manner in which the layers are produced and how the layers are added to one another distinguishes the various technologies.A broad categorization of the techniques goes below:

Molten Polymer Deposition : Uses a molten polymer and beads of some thermoplastic material. A movable nozzle, whose movement is controlled by the Computer Aided Manufacturing(CAM) software, is used. The nozzle releases the thermoplastic beads to produce the layers. These beads harden immediately after the nozzle deposits them. The movable nozzle deposits these beads in the way the layer should be formed and then releases molten polymer to seal this layer to next layer that will be built upon it. e.g: Fused Deposition Modeling(FDM) technology.

Granular Materials Binding: Small granules of the building material are fused together by heating them. When one layer gets built up, another layer of granules is fused on to the first layer and hence no need of layer binding here. e.g : Electronic Beam Melting(EBM) used for making metal parts, CandyFab for making confectionery and inkjet 3D printing used for making colored 3D objects.

Photopolymerization : A liquid polymer that turns solid on getting exposed to some light, is used. The liquid polymer is kept in a container and is exposed to the light in a controlled manner.A build plate is used to separate a cross section of the polymer from the rest of it. The light projector's position and coverage area are controlled so that only desirable portion of the polymer over the build plate gets exposed. In this way, a layer gets formed. Then the build plate moves downwards and another layer is formed similarly. At the end, the remaining liquid polymer is released from the container and the object is acquired.e.g : Stereolithography (SLA)

A model of a sport shoe generated using 3d modeling

3D printing is used for prototyping, where a small model of actual object is made, or for creating artifacts that will actually be put into use.3D printers can be used to produce jewelery,artwork,metal models, artistic confectionery etc.  The 3D printer generates an object which is exactly similar to the 3D model supplied. Hence the printer allows one to create multiple similar copies of same design. 3D printing is perfectly complemented by 3D scanning. Hence, instead of creating 3D models of some real life object manually, one can simply use a 3D scanner to create a 3D model of  that object and once you have the model, just imagine how easy it is to build multiple copies of the same.

A bicycle model generated using 3D printing

Can u smell what ur computer's cookin ???

Many of you might be knowing this and many of you might not be knowing this that apart from the general computer peripherals, there is a peripheral which can actually produce smell. Yes, in fact its been quite some time since such gadgets were developed. These gadgets are based on the concept that certain limited number of scents can be combined to produce other scents. These gadgets have these basic scents in form of cartridges or plain liquid containers. While operating , different quantities of these basic scents are combined in different proportion just like it happens in RGB or any other color model. And what results is an array of scents that imitate naturally available scents. Scentcom and certain other vendors are already into manufacturing different devices that exploit this mechanism. These devices are primarily used to enhance multimedia experience by adding another sense to computing.

One would wonder then that why these devices never gained any major recognition. The primary reason for that is the limited number of scents that can be produced. Although the number that can be produced is very large but only some of them are meaningful and a lot of naturally available scents may be difficult to produce by this mechanism. But the major problem is that all of this scent reproduction to imitate the reality is done manually. Someone will have to manually make a guess at what proportions might be correct to produce the kind of scent which is desired. Here is where a major scope for improvement comes in.

Currently, one has to manually generate these scents but wonder what would happen if one could actually record a scent composition and then use the composition data to reproduce the exact scent as and when needed. Just imagine what would happen then. You and your friend have this peripheral and you two are chatting. And while chatting, you can actually smell what your friend is cooking !!! 

Now this major breakthrough would come only when a more advanced scent generation mechanism is created - One that is capable of producing almost all the possible scents. Such a mechanism would concentrate on combining the core chemical compounds instead of combining scents. And the recording device will actually have to break the scent down into respective compounds and record the same for reproduction at the receiver's side. I don't have to tell you how sophisticated this future scent machine needs to be but just imagine what a revelation it would be. It will just go on another mile to make your multimedia experience lifelike.

The Future Of Wired Communication

Natural Plant Fiber, which is found abundantly almost everywhere in the world, has some unique refraction,X-Ray diffraction and a host of properties that have gained it wide acceptance as replacement in certain fields. On one hand, it is used in natural composites to add more strength to the surface soil and on the other hand, it is used in certain components of automobile engines to capture particles that can render the air polluted. Another use of it has been anticipated.

Plant fiber from a few categories of plants has optic properties that are pretty similar to those we find in Synthetic Optic Fiber made of glass. The only desirable property though which is absent in these natural Fibers, is the mechanical strength needed to work as a long distance communication medium. This property is needed as we need to splice and merge fibers as the distance increases. However, what compels us to move ahead and use these Natural fibers as replacements of the Optic fibers is the extremely low cost that such fibers would fetch. Hence, biotechnology scientists have already started working on advancing such species of plants so that the fibers become more strong. In fact, certain other fibers derived from other plants are indeed very strong but they lack the optical properties which are needed. Hence, bio-technologists are striving to make a combination of the two. It is also believed that if such fibers are made, they would perform even better than synthetic fibers because of their tissue structure which provides better refraction than synthetic fiber.

we cannot say if we'll actually see such fibers in future but the move towards it would certainly complement the philosophy of intelligent technology.