You’ve heard of 3D printing from newscasters and journalists and they have been astonished at what they’ve witnessed. A machine reminiscent of the Star Trek Replicator, something magical that can create objects out of thin air. It can “print” in plastic, metal, nylon and over a hundred other materials. It can be used for making nonsensical little models like the over-printed Yoda, yet it can also print manufacturing prototypes, end user products, quasi-legal guns, aircraft engine parts and even human organs using a person’s own cells.We live in an age that is witness to what many are calling the Third Industrial Revolution. 3D printing, more professionally called additive manufacturing, moves us away from mass production line, and will bring us to a new reality of customisable, one-off production.

3D printers use a variety of very different types of additive manufacturing technologies, but they all share one core thing in common: they create a three dimensional object by building it layer by successive layer, until the entire object is complete. It’s much like printing in two dimensions on a sheet of paper, but with an added third dimension:

Each of these printed layers is a thinly-sliced, horizontal cross-section of the eventual object. Imagine a multi-layer cake, with the baker laying down each layer one at a time until the entire cake is formed. 3D printing is somewhat similar, but just a bit more precise than 3D baking.

The emerging process of 3-D printing, which uses computer-created digital models to create real-world objects, has produced everything from toys to jewellery to food.

Soon, however, 3-D printers may be spitting out something far more complex, and controversial: human organs.

For years now, medical researchers have been reproducing human cells in laboratories by hand to create blood vessels, urine tubes, skin tissue and other living body parts. But engineering full organs, with their complicated cell structures, is much more difficult.

Scientists are already using the machines to print tiny strips of organ tissue. And while printing whole human organs for surgical transplants is still years away, the technology is rapidly developing.

The idea of printing a human kidney or liver in a lab may seem incomprehensible, even creepy. But to many scientists in the field, bio-printing holds great promise.

An ‘exciting new area of medicine’

Bio-printing works like this: Scientists harvest human cells from biopsies or stem cells, and then allow them to multiply in a petri dish. The resulting mixture, a sort of biological ink, is fed into a 3-D printer, which is programmed to arrange different cell types, along with other materials, into a precise three-dimensional shape. Doctors hope that when placed in the body, these 3-D-printed cells will integrate with existing tissues.

The process already is seeing some success. Last year a 2-year old girl, born without a trachea, received a windpipe built with her own stem cells.

One early contender for the prize is Orga-novo, a California start-up that has been a leader in bio-printing human body parts for commercial purposes. Using cells from donated tissue or stem cells, Orga-novo is developing what it hopes will be authentic models of human organs, primarily livers, for drug testing.

The company has printed strips of human liver tissue in its labs, although they are still very small: four by four by one millimeter, or about one-fourth the size of a dime. Each strip takes about 45 minutes to print, and it takes another two days for the cells to grow and mature. The models can then survive for about 40 days.

Orga-novo has also built models of human kidneys, bone, cartilage, muscle, blood vessels and lung tissue, he said. Basically what it allows you to do is build tissue the way you assemble something with Legos,” Murphy said. “So you can put the right cells in the right places. You can’t just pour them into a mould.

3D Printing is a Game Changer

Printing parts and entire products anywhere in the world, is a game changer. But it doesn’t stop there. 3D printing will affect almost every aspect of industry and our personal lives.

Medicine will forever be changed as new bio-printers actually print human tissue for both pharmaceutical testing and eventually entire organs and bones.

Architecture and construction are changing as well. Now, 3D-printed models of complex architectural drawings are created quickly and inexpensively, rather than the expensive and time-consuming process of handcrafting models out of cardboard. And experimental, massive 3D printers are printing concrete structures, with the goal of someday creating entire buildings with a 3D printer.

Art is already forever changed. Digital artists are creating magnificent pieces that seem almost impossible to have been made by traditional methods. From sculptures to light fixtures, beautiful objects no longer need to be handcrafted, just designed on a computer.

And there are developments where you least expect them: for example, archeologists can 3D scan priceless and delicate artifacts and then print copies of them so they can handle them without fear of breakage. Replicas can be easily made and distributed to other research facilities or museums.

The Future of 3D Printing

This is a disruptive technology of mammoth proportions, with effects on energy use, waste, customisation, product availability, art, medicine, construction, the sciences, and of course manufacturing. It will change the world as we know it. Before you know it!