Fabricated: the new world of 3D printing: the promise and peril of a machine that can make (almost) anything

__Fabricated__ tells the story of 3D printers, humble manufacturing machines that are bursting out of the factory and into homes, businesses, schools, kitchens, hospitals, even the fashion catwalk. The magic happens when you plug a 3D printer into today's mind-boggling digital technologies. Add to that the Internet, tiny, low cost electronic circuitry, radical advances in materials science and biotech and voila! The result is an explosion of technological and social innovation. __Fabricated__provides readers with practical and imaginative insights to the question "how will 3D printing technologies change my life?" Based on hundreds of hours of research and dozens of interviews with experts from a broad range of industries, __Fabricated__ offers readers an informative, engaging and fast-paced introduction to 3D printing now and in the future. **__Chapters and contents__**__Chapter 1: Everything is becoming science fiction.__ What would "just another regular day" look like in a future, 3D printable world? __Chapter 2: A machine that can make almost anything.__ Information morphed from analog form to digital. Will physical objects be next? Ten key principles explain 3D printing's disruptive power. __Chapter 3: Nimble manufacturing.__ Emerging business models lie somewhere between mass production and the local farmer's market. Small-batch manufacturing is becoming profitable, freeing entrepreneurs from the tyranny imposed by economies of scale. __Chapter 4: Tomorrow's economy of printable products__. 3D printing, low-cost design and manufacturing technologies create new market opportunities as consumers increasingly crave on-demand, custom "experience" products. __Chapter 5: Printing in layers.__ For those of a technological bent, a deep dive into the inner workings of the 3D printing process. __Chapter 6: Design software, the digital canvas.__ Without an attached computer, a 3D printer is just an elaborate paperweight. An overview of design software and "digital capture." __Chapter 7: Bioprinting in "living ink."__ Design software and 3D printers read medical scans to fabricate living tissue and custom artificial joints. How long before all of us can tap into this Fountain of Youth? __Chaper 8: Digital cuisine.__ Today you can 3D print "high resolution" and delicious shortbread, chocolate figurines and tortillas. In the future, Quantified Selfers and couch potatoes alike will balance their diets by streaming biometrics to a food printer. __Chapter 9: A factory in the classroom__. Primary and middle school teachers teach "children's engineering" using vivid, hands-on lesson plans. __Chapter 10: Unleashing a new aesthetic.__ 3D printers are the output device computer-savvy artists, designers and architects have been waiting for. __Chapter 11: Green, clean manufacturing.__ What's cleaner to make? A 3D printed plastic toy or a mass-produced plastic toy? 3D printers may introduce greener living... or help us drown in a rising tidal wave of plastic junk. __Chapter 12: Ownership, safety and legal frontiers.__ Technology evolves faster than the law. Consumer safety and intellectual property laws will stretch to deal with printed weapons, counterfeit products and unregulated custom-made products. __Chapter 13: Designing the future.__ Why was Star Trek's Replicator used only to make Earl Grey tea? Because once we shape our tools, then our tools shape us. Next-generation design software will unshackle our imaginations, giving us new ways to imagine and edit the physical world. __Chapter 14: The next episode of 3D printing.__ What lies ahead? Watercolor artists create infinite hues by blending primary colors. Regular people will design and blend standard materials -- or micro-scale electronic components -- and "print" them out in fine, meticulously patterned sprays. The result? Weird and wacky new materials. Robots that walk out of the 3D printer. Ready-made, responsive smart materials. Voted one of the top 25 books of 2013 in China by Chinese readers! Fabricated tells the story of 3D printers, humble manufacturing machines that are bursting out of the factory and into homes, businesses, schools, kitchens, hospitals, even the fashion catwalk. The magic happens when you plug a 3D printer into today's mind-boggling digital technologies. Add to that the Internet, tiny, low cost electronic circuitry, radical advances in materials science and biotech and voila! The result is an explosion of technological and social innovation. Fabricated provides readers with practical and imaginative insights to the question "how will 3D printing technologies change my life?" Based on hundreds of hours of research and dozens of interviews with experts from a broad range of industries, Fabricated offers readers an informative, engaging and fast-paced introduction to 3D printing now and in the future. Chapters and contentsChapter 1: Everything is becoming science fiction. What would "just another regular day" look like in a future, 3D printable world?Chapter 2: A machine that can make almost anything. Information morphed from analog form to digital. Will physical objects be next? Ten key principles explain 3D printing's disruptive power. Chapter 3: Nimble manufacturing. Emerging business models lie somewhere between mass production and the local farmer's market. Small-batch manufacturing is becoming profitable, freeing entrepreneurs from the tyranny imposed by economies of scale.Chapter 4: Tomorrow's economy of printable products. 3D printing, low-cost design and manufacturing technologies create new market opportunities as consumers increasingly crave on-demand, custom "experience" products.Chapter 5: Printing in layers. For those of a technological bent, a deep dive into the inner workings of the 3D printing process.Chapter 6: Design software, the digital canvas. Without an attached computer, a 3D printer is just an elaborate paperweight. An overview of design software and "digital capture."Chapter 7: Bioprinting in "living ink." Design software and 3D printers read medical scans to fabricate living tissue and custom artificial joints. How long before all of us can tap into this Fountain of Youth?Chaper 8: Digital cuisine. Today you can 3D print "high resolution" and delicious shortbread, chocolate figurines and tortillas. In the future, Quantified Selfers and couch potatoes alike will balance their diets by streaming biometrics to a food printer.Chapter 9: A factory in the classroom. Primary and middle school teachers teach "children's engineering" using vivid, hands-on lesson plans.Chapter 10: Unleashing a new aesthetic. 3D printers are the output device computer-savvy artists, designers and architects have been waiting for.Chapter 11: Green, clean manufacturing. What's cleaner to make? A 3D printed plastic toy or a mass-produced plastic toy? 3D printers may introduce greener living... or help us drown in a rising tidal wave of plastic junk.Chapter 12: Ownership, safety and legal frontiers. Technology evolves faster than the law. Consumer safety and intellectual property laws will stretch to deal with printed weapons, counterfeit products and unregulated custom-made products. Chapter 13: Designing the future. Why was Star Trek's Replicator used only to make Earl Grey tea? Because once we shape our tools, then our tools shape us. Next-generation design software will unshackle our imaginations, giving us new ways to imagine and edit the physical world. Chapter 14: The next episode of 3D printing. What lies ahead? Watercolor artists create infinite hues by blending primary colors. Regular people will design and blend standard materials -- or micro-scale electronic components -- and "print" them out in fine, meticulously patterned sprays. The result? Weird and wacky new materials. Robots that walk out of the 3D printer. Ready-made, responsive smart materials.

Fabricated tells the story of 3D printers, humble manufacturing machines that are bursting out of the factory and into schools, kitchens, hospitals, even onto the fashion catwalk.  Fabricated describes our emerging world of printable products, where people design and 3D print their own creations as easily as they edit an online document.  

A 3D printer transforms digital information into a physical object by carrying out instructions from an electronic design file, or “blueprint.”  Guided by a design file, a 3D printer lays down layer after layer of a raw material to “print” out an object.   That’s not the whole story, however.   The magic happens when you plug a 3D printer into today’s mind-boggling digital technologies.  Add to that the Internet, tiny, low cost electronic circuitry, radical advances in materials science and biotech and voila!  The result is an explosion of technological and social innovation.   

Fabricated takes the reader onto a rich and fulfilling journey that explores how 3D printing is poised to impact nearly every part of our lives.

• Readers will meet pioneering teachers, small businesses, artists, surgeons and researchers who are applying 3D printing and innovative design software to expand the limits of what they do 
• Non-experts will learn the basics of 3D printing technologies and design software as explained in lucid, non-technical language
• Readers will learn about weird and wonderful applications of 3D printing such as printing food, dental crowns and someday…  replacement heart valves, organs and joints
• Readers will gain insight into a whole new level of intellectual property challenges as 3D printers enable people to make copies -- even “edit” -- commercial products and works of art
• Readers with a taste for science fiction will glimpse a not-so-distant 3D printed future that’s taking shape as leading researchers explore ways to 3D print smart materials and ready-made robots

Aimed at people who enjoy books on business strategy, popular science and novel technology, Fabricated will provide readers with practical and imaginative insights to the question “how will this technology change my life?”   Based on hundreds of hours of research and dozens of interviews with experts from a broad range of industries, Fabricated offers readers an informative, engaging and fast-paced introduction to 3D printing now and in the future.

About the authors:   Co-authors Hod Lipson and Melba Kurman are leading experts on 3D printing, frequently speaking and advising on this technology to industry, academia, and government.  Lipson’s lab at Cornell University has pioneered interdisciplinary research in 3D printing, product design, artificial intelligence, and smart materials. Kurman is a technology analyst and business strategy consultant who writes about game-changing technologies in lucid, engaging language.

Preface xiii Chapter 1: Everything is becoming science fiction 1 Chapter 2: A machine that can make almost anything 7 Printing three-dimensional things 11 The ten principles of 3D printing 20 Chapter 3: Nimble manufacturing: Good, fast, and cheap 25 Somewhere between mass production and the local farmer s market 27 The blank canvas of the 21st century 35 Chapter 4: Tomorrow s economy of printable products 45 Like ants with factories 46 The experience economy 51 A future economy of printable products 56 Chapter 5: Printing in layers 65 A manufacturing process at heart 65 Two families of printers 68 Cleaning up design files 77 The raw materials 81 Chapter 6: Design software, the digital canvas 85 A word processor for drawing 85 Today s design software 91 What you design is not (necessarily) what you print 100 The next generation of design software: digital capture 102 Chapter 7: Bioprinting in "living ink" 105 The printer of youth 105 Tissue engineering 111 CAD for the body 120 The future 124 Chapter 8: Digital cuisine 129 Digital gastronomy 130 Feeding the quantified self 142 Processed food 144 Chapter 9: A factory in the classroom 153 Make to learn: Children's engineering 154 Not a national crisis... but learning should be enjoyable 161 Now let's see you draw that abstract equation on a graph 166 Barriers to classroom adoption 171 The road ahead 173 Chapter 10: Unleashing a new aesthetic 175 Computers that act like nature 176 Printing wavy walls and custom gargoyles 191 Chapter 11: Green, clean manufacturing 197 A tale of two plastic toys 200 Greener manufacturing 202 3D printing a more beautiful landfi ll 206 Chapter 12: Ownership, safety, and new legal frontiers 217 Printing weapons, drugs, and shoddy products 218 Rip, mix, and burn physical things 224 Exclusivity vs. the freedom to innovate 230 Chapter 13: Designing the future 241 Tea. Earl Grey. Hot. 241 A bicycle for our imagination 243 The language of shapes 252 Changing the shape of design tools 260 Chapter 14: The next episode of 3D printing 263 The three episodes of 3D printing 265 Cofabrication of multiple materials 266 Moving from printing passive parts to active systems 271 The final episode from analog to digital 275 Machines making machines 280 References 283 Index 291

Fabricated tells the story of 3D printers, humble manufacturing machines that are bursting out of the factory and into schools, kitchens, hospitals, even onto the fashion catwalk. Fabricated describes our emerging world of printable products, where people design and 3D print their own creations as easily as they edit an online document.

A 3D printer transforms digital information into a physical object by carrying out instructions from an electronic design file, or 'blueprint.' Guided by a design file, a 3D printer lays down layer after layer of a raw material to 'print' out an object. That's not the whole story, however. The magic happens when you plug a 3D printer into today’s mind-boggling digital technologies. Add to that the Internet, tiny, low cost electronic circuitry, radical advances in materials science and biotech and voila! The result is an explosion of technological and social innovation.

Fabricated takes the reader onto a rich and fulfilling journey that explores how 3D printing is poised to impact nearly every part of our lives.

Aimed at people who enjoy books on business strategy, popular science and novel technology, Fabricated will provide readers with practical and imaginative insights to the question 'how will this technology change my life?' Based on hundreds of hours of research and dozens of interviews with experts from a broad range of industries, Fabricated offers readers an informative, engaging and fast-paced introduction to 3D printing now and in the future.

Fabricated tells the story of 3D printers, humble manufacturing machines that are bursting out of the factory and into schools, kitchens, hospitals, even onto the fashion catwalk. Fabricated describes our emerging world of printable products, where people design and 3D print their own creations as easily as they edit an online document.

A 3D printer transforms digital information into a physical object by carrying out instructions from an electronic design file, or 'blueprint.' Guided by a design file, a 3D printer lays down layer after layer of a raw material to 'print' out an object. That's not the whole story, however. The magic happens when you plug a 3D printer into today's mind-boggling digital technologies. Add to that the Internet, tiny, low cost electronic circuitry, radical advances in materials science and biotech and voila! The result is an explosion of technological and social innovation.

Fabricated takes the reader onto a rich and fulfilling journey that explores how 3D printing is poised to impact nearly every part of our lives.

Aimed at people who enjoy books on business strategy, popular science and novel technology, Fabricated will provide readers with practical and imaginative insights to the question 'how will this technology change my life?' Based on hundreds of hours of research and dozens of interviews with experts from a broad range of industries, Fabricated offers readers an informative, engaging and fast-paced introduction to 3D printing now and in the future.

This book tells the story of 3D printers, humble manufacturing machines that are bursting out of the factory and into schools, kitchens, hospitals, even onto the fashion catwalk. The book describes the emerging world of printable products, where people design and 3D print their own creations as easily as they edit an online document. A 3D printer transforms digital information into a physical object by carrying out instructions from an electronic design file, or "blueprint."