Soon you may be able to create a kidney with
a copy machine.
How would you like to download a coffee table?
Or at least a digital model of a coffee table
that you could customize any way you like
so it fit perfectly in your living room and
then you just print it out. I'm not talking
about a picture of a coffee table. I'm talking
about an actual, physical three-dimensional
object that lives in your living room. Well
it's all possible. It's the world of 3D printing
and it's going to change everything. It'll
redefine the way we think about innovation,
design, manufacturing, distribution. Everything
about buying and selling tangible goods from
here to Mars.
Simply put, 3D printing is the process of
making three-dimensional, solid objects out
of 1's and 0's from a digital file. 3D printers
bridge the gap between the digital and physical
worlds. It uses very thin layers of plastic,
measuring just a few microns, as thin as a
sheet of copy paper, to build an object from
the bottom up. This is additive manufacturing.
It creates a new item by adding only what
is needed. Unlike other forms of manufacturing
where the excess is carved, cut or melted
away, leaving a ton of waste. And 3D printing
isn't limited to plastics. Already, you can
print stuff to glass, metal, food, organs
- I'm not talking about the musical instrument,
I'm talking about human tissue. I kid you
not! A couple of years ago there was a guy
who demonstrated he could print human kidneys
using living cells as ink. We're talking about
the ability to create transplant organs with
a 3D printer. And this isn't the future we're
talking about - we're talking about right
now! I mean we've come a long way from the
1980s when a bunch of do-it-yourself nuts
decided to kickstart 3D printing. Today, you
and I, you know, people who have real jobs,
we can actually go out and buy one of these
things for like, a thousand bucks. Forbes
estimates that it'll be a five billion dollar
industry by the year 2020. And as these printers
become more popular, the price comes down,
which means consumers like me and you can
afford to buy one ourselves. Or have a friend
print one out for us.
Once we get to the point where we can print
circuitry directly, you print one printer
that prints another printer, and it's game
over. We're talking limitless customization.
You could even scan your entire body and print
out your own action figure. Or in my case,
an inaction figure. NASA's using 3D printers
to make repairs on space equipment. They use
a process called selective laser melting,
or SLM, that they use to create a nickel alloy
to repair everything like the J2 rocket engine.
I mean, this is the promise of 3D printing!
We can make our lives as customized as we
want, print any object you can imagine, and
have it in your hand in just a matter of hours.
And in the immediate future, it could mean
that astronauts are able to print our repair
parts for space craft or space stations, which
are pretty important when you're months away
from a rescue mission. I mean, imagine what
it would've been like if Apollo 13 had a 3D
printer on board. But then we wouldn't have
had Tom Hanks in space...
