3D printing was one of the buzzwords of 2012. Named after a graduate student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1995, the technology is finally becoming easier to use and more popular.

According to the People's Daily, 3D printing originated from photographic sculpture and landform forming technology more than 100 years ago, and has had an early prototype in the 1980s. Its academic name is rapid prototyping, which is a technology that can create arbitrary shapes without the need for traditional tools and machine tools and make physical models based on the three-dimensional model data of objects. It is considered a new technology that will change the world. To be specific, people first need to scan the physical object through the computer or directly create a three-dimensional design drawing, and then use the 3D printer to "slice" the stereoscopic prototype, record the data layer by layer, and then stack the raw materials according to the slice data layer by layer until the final shape.

3D printing is not the traditional "ink", but those that can occur curing reaction materials, such as resin, plastic, ceramics, metals, etc., so can "print" out of the real three-dimensional model, just like the "copy machine" in the fairy tale. As small as an earring, as large as the volume of engineering parts, appliances, as long as the original model data is obtained, the 3D printer can accurately copy these things. This will make the factory completely say goodbye to traditional tools such as lathes, drills, punching machines, molding machines, and so on, in order to transform into a production method based on 3D printing with lower cost and shorter development cycle. The British "Economist" magazine has published an article entitled "the Third Industrial Revolution", saying that 3D printing marks the arrival of the third industrial revolution. Judging from the current development situation, 3D printing will be followed by the rapid rise of social manufacturing.

It is reported that foreign countries have successfully "printed" pistols, bicycles, cars, electronically controlled aircraft and other things through 3D printing technology. Shapeways, a US 3D printing service provider, has printed 750,000 products in the past year, using an amazing number of materials including plastic, stainless steel, silver, ceramics and glass, according to Peter, CEO. Today, 3D printing is also used in jewelry manufacturing and model making, showing full charm in more than 10 different industries and fields such as fashion, film, and construction, and has changed the landscape of US manufacturing so much that the US Time magazine listed the 3D printing industry as "the 10 fastest growing industries in the United States in 2012". In fact, many 3D printing entrepreneurs have already settled in New York City, which is famous for its virtual economy. Even in the case of the financial crisis in 2008, 3D printing still pulled the local depressed economy and contributed to the growth.

The application of 3D printing is not only in industrial manufacturing, it also has broad prospects for development in the medical field. Imagine, if it is used to print the "ink" is a living cell, then, as long as the relevant organ slice data, the organ can be "printed" out. This is not a fantasy, at last year's global technology Entertainment Design conference (TED), Wake Forest School of Regenerative Medicine Dr. Anthony showed people such a kidney model printing process. According to him, they are working on a bolder experiment, directly using the printer to repair the "printing" on the human wound, if successful, this will be a major advance in the field of medicine.

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