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3D printing, technically referred to as additive manufacturing<\/em>, is often heralded as the manufacturing process of the future. This is because it is a very flexible process, and is able to produce forms that cannot be manufactured using traditional methods. In theory anything that can be represented as a 3D model in a CAD file can be produced by 3D printing, and developments over recent years mean that a huge variety of materials can be used. For example polymers and metals are typical, but also concrete<\/a>, paper,<\/a> food<\/a>, and bio-matter<\/a>.<\/p>\n 3D printing is popular in the design studio as a quick and simple method for producing prototypes, and for this reason it is sometimes referred to as rapid prototyping<\/em>. When designers communicate, drawings can be of limited use with clients who are not experienced in spatial reasoning, but a 3D printed model can quickly communicate the look and feel of a design.<\/p>\n It is also gaining traction as a method for producing working components, but to-date its application is limited for a variety of reasons. It is slow and relatively expensive so it generally is not well suited to mass-manufacture, and it produces objects which are mechanically inferior to those produced using traditional manufacturing, so typically is not used for producing load-bearing components.<\/p>\n However, for low-volume, high-value manufacture, the geometric potential of 3D printing is of great interest, because it introduces new possibilities with respect to the types of shapes that can be realised. For example<\/p>\n\n
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in medicine<\/a> bespoke parts can be produced based on scans of patients, for prosthetics, skin grafts, or replacement bones<\/li>\n