It is said one day we will manufacture new tissues by 3D printing, yet what I currently see in the clinics is another story – q waves from old heart attacks on my patients’ ECGs and muscle hypotonia from previous strokes.
So I was long looking for an introductory and practical book on 3D printers – when I finally found this one written by Brian Evans.
General tissue engineering textbooks seemed too dry – I needed a basic understanding of what is possible and what is not in using 3D printing at home – things like:
-how to choose a 3D printer and most importantly, when to use a 3d printer kit instead of building one from scratch
– how to calibrate it before using it
-sources of 3D models like Google Warehouse or Thingiverse
-how to troubleshoot it when it doesn’t run smoothly
It’s a long way from designing a model for your 3D printer to keeping it in your hands.
Given my small living space I have decided against owning my own 3D printer for the moment – so I mainly use Shapeways for online 3D printing services.
During engineering school I was trained in using 3D modelling software such as Autocad, Solidworks and Catia – which are largely graphical in nature. Not only that, they take lots of memory space on a computer. Even if their complexity made them appropriate for the automotive and aerospatial industries, I needed something simpler and less cumbersome for prototyping.
This book has been an eye-opener in this regard, as it included projects with simple online 3D modelling software and parametric ones like OpenSCAD too.
I enjoyed creating complex shapes out of basic equations while doing the included OpenSCAD projects and it has rapidly become my favorite one.
On the whole, the book has shown not only the current capabilities of 3D printing – by sharing models, forum communities, software – but also its limits.
3D printing is an additive type of manufacturing and from the outside it seemed perfect for medical prototypes and prostheses because of easy personalization. Unfortunately, the current limit of materials used – mainly ABS and PLA – which are both polymers – make bioprinting and even personalized synthetic medical devices a faraway dream.
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