Fabricated: The New World of 3D Printing

Fabricated: The New World of 3D Printing

Released February 2013
Publisher(s): Wiley
ISBN: 9781118350638

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Book description

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.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Chapter 1: Everything is becoming science fiction
  3. Chapter 2: A machine that can make almost anything
    1. Printing three-dimensional things
    2. The ten principles of 3D printing
  4. Chapter 3: Nimble manufacturing: Good, fast, and cheap
    1. Somewhere between mass production and the local farmer’s market
    2. The blank canvas of the 21st century
  5. Chapter 4: Tomorrow’s economy of printable products
    1. Like ants with factories
    2. The experience economy
    3. A future economy of printable products
  6. Chapter 5: Printing in layers
    1. A manufacturing process at heart
    2. Two families of printers
    3. Cleaning up design files
    4. The raw materials
  7. Chapter 6: Design software, the digital canvas
    1. A word processor for drawing
    2. Today’s design software
    3. What you design is not (necessarily) what you print
    4. The next generation of design software: digital capture
  8. Chapter 7: Bioprinting in “living ink”
    1. The printer of youth
    2. Tissue engineering
    3. CAD for the body
    4. The future
  9. Chapter 8: Digital cuisine
    1. Digital gastronomy
    2. Feeding the quantified self
    3. Processed food
  10. Chapter 9: A factory in the classroom
    1. Make to learn: Children’s engineering
    2. Not a national crisis . . . but learning should be enjoyable
    3. Now let’s see you draw that abstract equation on a graph
    4. Barriers to classroom adoption
    5. The road ahead
  11. Chapter 10: Unleashing a new aesthetic
    1. Computers that act like nature
    2. Printing wavy walls and custom gargoyles
  12. Chapter 11: Green, clean manufacturing
    1. A tale of two plastic toys
    2. Greener manufacturing
    3. 3D printing a more beautiful landfill
  13. Chapter 12: Ownership, safety, and new legal frontiers
    1. Printing weapons, drugs, and shoddy products
    2. Rip, mix, and burn physical things
    3. Exclusivity vs. the freedom to innovate
  14. Chapter 13: Designing the future
    1. Tea. Earl Grey. Hot.
    2. A bicycle for our imagination
    3. The language of shapes
    4. Changing the shape of design tools
  15. Chapter 14: The next episode of 3D printing
    1. The three episodes of 3D printing
    2. Cofabrication of multiple materials
    3. Moving from printing passive parts to active systems
    4. The final episode—from analog to digital
    5. Machines making machines
  16. References
  17. About the Authors
  18. Credits
  19. Acknowledgments
  20. Preface

Product information

  • Title: Fabricated: The New World of 3D Printing
  • Author(s):
  • Release date: February 2013
  • Publisher(s): Wiley
  • ISBN: 9781118350638