Explaining 3D Printing, Legacy Of Maya Angelou, Illustrating For Kids

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3D printers have been used to create everything from working video-game controllers to prosthetic limbs. Veronica Rueckert and Rob Ferrett find out how the technology works. They also talk about the joy of illustrating for kids, and discuss the life and legacy of Maya Angelou.

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  • A New Dimension In Printing Could Reshape How People Live

    Three-dimensional printers are becoming fixtures at makerspaces, design studios and factories around the country. According to an engineering expert, the emerging technology has the potential to change the way people do business and live their daily lives.

    Cornell University engineering Professor Hod Lipson is co-author of “Fabricated: The New World Of 3D Printing.” Just as computer printers spray ink onto paper, Lipson said 3-D printers form materials by spraying out material.

    “A 3-D printer will spit out droplets of plastic and gradually build up a three-dimensional object, layer by layer,” he said, “so not a picture of a cup of coffee, but the coffee cup itself. Something you can drink out of.”

    The technology isn’t limited to plastic as some models work with metals and ceramics. Current uses include aircraft components, medical technology, fashion and even food.

    Lipson said when his lab first released open-source instructions on how to build 3-D printers, some of the first users took it to the kitchen.

    “People started building these printers at home, and they didn’t print aircraft parts, they didn’t print robots, they printed parts out of chocolate out of cookie dough,” he said. “At the time, it was sort of a novelty thing … but the area of food printing might be the killer app.”

    One of the advantages of 3-D printing over conventional manufacturing is that it’s easier to produce more complicated objects.

    “The printer itself doesn’t care about the complexity of the object, just like if the inkjet printer doesn’t care if you’re printing a circle or you’re printing the Mona Lisa,” he said. “It can be a complex perforated organic shape or it can be a cube, it doesn’t matter.”

    He said flexibility is another advantage. Where an assembly line is best suited to making the exact same object again and again, it’s easy to customize with a 3-D printer.

    “The real innovators take this technology and take advantage of the fact that it can make things that are very complex. It can make customized and optimized parts, and use that to create objects and business models that would not be viable before,” he said.

    Examples of such objects that a 3-D printer could customize include orthodontic aligners, eyeglasses and shoes.

    Lipson said the printers are coming down in cost, making them more available to businesses, schools, and even individuals. He sees the main stumbling block as being on the software side, as it can still be difficult to translate a complex design into a program for a printer.

    Looking to the future, Lipson said there’s a lot of interest from NASA and other agencies who want to use 3-D printers in space, where supplies are difficult to get. Uses could include printing spare parts on a space station, or printing construction materials with sand from the surface of the Moon.

    Lipson said the real-world potential of 3-D printing could exceed the visions of science fiction.

    “It always frustrated me that the ‘Star Trek’ replicator users only printed things they already had. They never innovated,” he said. “The power of this technology is not about replicating things that you already have that you made some other way, but it’s really about creating new things you cannot create any other way. And that’s really the promise.”

  • What Is 3D Printing?

    From prosthetic hands to 18th century paintings and furniture, 3D printing is being used to churn out new and cool objects at a frenetic pace. An engineering explains how the process works, and the implications for the future.

  • Remembering Maya Angelou

    Poet, writer and activist Maya Angelou has passed away at the age of 86. A guest poet talks about Angelou’s life and legacy, and how her work will live on.

  • The Craft Of Children's Books And Illustration

    An award-winning author and illustrator of children’s books joins us to talk about his craft and his latest release, a book called “The Numberblys.”

Episode Credits

  • Rob Ferrett Host
  • Veronica Rueckert Host
  • Hod Lipson Guest
  • Fabu Carter Guest
  • William Joyce Guest
  • Chris Malina Producer

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