Artisans, creatives, hobbyists, laboratories, schools, everyone can now transform their ideas into objects. Magic is possible thanks to printers 3D, systems capable of creating complex objects that until now could only be produced by expensive industrial machinery and specialized personnel.
I prices of these printers there are lowered considerably, so much so that it is now within the reach of many home users. The technology offered is increasingly refined and allows the use of different and very versatile materials. The merit is also of some Italian companies who push on the accelerator of the innovation.
The project W, for example, is all Italian and was born in 2012 from the open source world. The first step was the development of a fast and inexpensive 3D printer that can also mill. The next will be to focus on materials. Oh yes, because until now 3D printing has mainly used plastic materials for the creation of objects that could be useful in the communication of a project by designers and companies, but not in the creation of truly functional finished products.
At the heart of WASP's work is now theclay, ceramic , porcelain as cornerstones of digital craftsmanship, with the aim of launching the possibility of self-production for everyone and with new application horizons, which, in the case of ceramics, are vast: the medical sector, for example, which already makes extensive use of it. With the use of implantable ceramic materials such as the bio glass, L'alumina andhydroxyapatite WASP printers are able to reproduce bone porosity and therefore to build supports for the reproduction of elements of the skeletal system.
The research and development team of Massa Lombarda (Ravenna) is a world pioneer in the evolution of ceramic 3D printing and has recently created an extruder that can print a filament with a diameter of 0,35 mm, achieving precision and control equal to those of the extrusion of materials plastic. This will be the novelty presented at the 3D Print Show in Paris.
