Unlocking 3D Printing: 3 Essential TED Talks to Watch

Additive manufacturing (AM), also known as 3D printing, is a term used to describe several different processes of synthesizing objects. These objects can be almost any shape or size and can be created from almost any material. So what does this mean for the manufacturing industry?

Watch these TED talks to find out...

1) A Primer on 3D Printing

It is a new reality that you can actually download products - or, at least product data - from the internet and tweak that data to create a personalized version. The information will then be sent to your printing machine that will fabricate a version of that product right then and there. This is all thanks to a new, emerging technology called additive manufacturing, or better known as 3D printing.

3D printing has been around for several decades but is just now being introduced to the public. So what exactly is it and how does it work? Check out this TED talk and hear Lisa Harouni break it down.

What if 3D Printing was 100x Faster?

What we refer to as “3D printing” is actually a misnomer. It is actually just 2D printing over and over at a veeerryy slow rate. In fact, 3D printers can take as long as three to ten hours to fabricate something as simple and small as a ping pong ball. But what if we were able to manufacture objects in real time at a rate 100x faster than we can now?

In this TED talk, material scientist Joe Desimone tells the story of how he and his team of scientists took inspiration from the T-1000 scene in Terminator 2 to improve 3D printing. Watch this presentation to find out how they were able to solve 3 of key issues that are holding additive manufacturing back from being a legitimate process.

What’s Next in 3D Printing

Everybody is asking “Will we see a 3D printer in every household?” This is the wrong question to ask. We should be asking “How will 3D printing change our lives?”

Avi Reichtal likes to make things. Now, thanks to 3D printing, he can make virtually anything out of virtually any material. In this TED talk, he walks us through the possibilities that additive manufacturing has created. Watch the video to find out if you’ll be able to eat printed candy in the near future.