- Here's a pretty amazing technology, 3D printing.
3D printing is when various materials, often plastic,
are joined together to build a three dimensional object.
It's done by designing the object on the computer
with CAD software and ultimately
exporting the appropriate files to the 3D printer.
The technology is often used to create prototypes
of products to be later manufactured in bulk.
However, it can be used to actually
create commercial product as well.
And, of course, there's a big market for the home user.
I've seen people make sunglasses, chess sets, toys,
you name it.
Now this is more of a professional device.
And here we see a prototype of an engine it looks like.
So you have one example there.
3D printing can be accomplished by implementing one
of a few processes namely fused deposition modeling,
or FDM.
Also laser centering.
Now FDM is very common.
That's an additive process where materials
are fed into an extruder,
they're super heated,
and then they're applied on top
of a substrate or build plate.
And it's done layer by layer
ultimately creating the 3D shapes, which harden immediately.
Laser centering's a little different,
that uses a laser that compacts a piece
of material such as nylon using heat and/or pressure
and binds the material to create the structure.
But FDM, very common in the industry.
3D printing is also known as additive manufacturing
and that name encompasses a lot of technology.
Now you might say, "Hey, this device
it's not really a printer, it's more of a modeler"
and effectively it is
but you probably won't see that name, "modeler"
or "modeling" used too often
because of the confusion it could cause
with actual software based 3D modeling
when you're dealing with graphics.
This device builds, this device manufacturers,
but the name 3D printing has stuck and it's commonly used.
Now what's important for the A+ exams?
The same as always,
installing, maintaining, troubleshooting, and so on.
You know the drill.
Many 3D printers can connect via USB, Wi-Fi, and Ethernet.
These printers are controlled
by a computer running an operating system,
such as Windows 7 and higher
or macOS 10.9 and higher.
The computer itself should meet the minimum requirements
or the recommended requirements
for the various design software
like the computer aided design software,
the CAD software,
and the slicing software if you're using it.
Now, some manufacturers
of 3D printers make their own software
while others use third-party programs.
So be ready to install the different programs necessary
and to even work with design templates
many of which are freely available on the internet.
When first installing a 3D printer
and periodically afterward,
be sure to update the firmware for the device.
Next, periodically make sure the build plate is level
and on cheaper devices, on home use devices,
you could actually do this with a physical level, a tool,
but on devices like this
you would do it from the LCD panel.
So make sure that build plate is level,
otherwise your object might not come out correctly.
Then, you want to lubricate, tighten,
and realign the rods and the pulleys periodically.
And of course calibrate the device, like other printers,
but from a 3D perspective.
More expensive 3D printers
will have automatic calibration configured.
That's becoming more common
with the less expensive ones, too.
Finally, clean the device,
including the extruder's drive gear.
So we have the extruder here
and that's what actually puts out the filament
to build the prototype
or whatever you want to build here.
And the gears are inside here,
so you're gonna have to clean those out once in a while.
You also wanna clean up the build plate,
make sure that's clean of any residue
and so on, clean out the device.
Now users should clean up after themselves
when completing a 3D print job,
but you and I know that this does not happen that often,
that's a utopia, a perfect world that we don't live in,
especially given the fast pace of engineering
and prototyping work.
So you wanna be ready to clean up any excess stuff
be ready to clean any
of that excess filament from the device.
Let's take a look at a few more 3D printers.
Okay, here we have another MakerBot 3D printer
and MakerBot's big in the industry,
and so this is another one here.
You can look right in to see what's being built.
Now this is more of an expensive, professional printer.
And so with this type of thing,
what we're interested in is the tech specs.
That's what we want for this.
So if we go to the tech specs here,
we'll see the size and shape, the dimensions,
the printing technology used, FDM, we could do two color,
we have two print heads here, the resolution,
the accuracy, product testing,
the actual hardware, what it's made of, the LCD,
extruder hardware in case we ever need to do a replacement,
color availability,
and, here's a good one, operation.
What temperatures
and humidity should you be operating the device at?
And you'll see here that this has automatic calibration
for the device and the more expensive ones will have that.
Safety and compliance, software,
MakerBot's proprietary, they use their own software.
Other devices will use other software
and the file types that you can use:
MakerBot, very common, STL, very common.
Operating systems supported, electrical information,
and the connectivity.
And there's a whole technical document
for the device, as well, written by experts.
So you wanna download that and go through it
if you're working with any 3D printers.
Here's another one and a bit more advanced,
HP Jet Fusion, large device, and this can do multicolor
and you can do all kinds of stuff with this.
You open up the lid on the top
and you can build some pretty large prototypes.
And again, multicolor, some of these are just single color.
Some are two, some are full color
And so, another professional device.
And here we have the da Vinci, xyzprinting.
And this is more of a basic device for home use.
Meant for doing one color at a time,
quite often, just white or black.
And I have seen people make some pretty cool stuff
with this, but more for the home use.
So you're talking a couple hundred dollars as opposed
to several thousand dollars for these other devices.
So take a look out there at the different 3D printers
that are available for the business and also for home use.
Definitely understand, one, how to connect these devices
and also understand the basic maintenance
for the devices, as well.