As the implications for 3D solid modeling and rapid prototyping continue to grow the impact for consumers and small businesses to manufacture products continues to grow as well. If a new product is needed by a business of customer a CAD file can be purchased, uploaded and the 3D solid modeling can reproduce it. Maybe a plastic ABS buckle needs replacing or a new product appeals to the consumer, 3D solid modeling has the capability to produce replicas, models or prototypes quickly and easily. Advancements in fabrication materials allow an almost unlimited potential for products with 3D solid modeling technology.
3D Solid Modeling Applications
3D solid modeling technology is on the brink of enhancing product availability for everyone. The technology once used only by manufacturing industries is becoming available for general use and not just for large manufacturers. 3D solid modeling will provide enhanced capabilities for production techniques to be used by the average person. Just imagine that you have a broken fan in your computer and you have no time to purchase another. What to do? With 3D solid modeling technology you can produce an exact replica of the part needed. Once produced you replace the old one with the new and your back in operation. 3D solid modeling can apply prototyping technology in a variety of applications. The technology for 3D solid modeling is computer assisted design software instructing a 3D printer to build models layer by layer on a platform until an exact reproduction according to specifications is produced.
The imaginations which people have of one another are the solid facts of society.
—Charles Horton Cooley (1864–1929)
Everyone with kids has games and toys needing repair or replacement parts. These parts could be replaced as 3D solid modeling technology would manufacture a brand new toy or just the piece that needs repairing. 3D solid modeling along with 3D printers has opened up a whole new set of options by allowing consumers to play a role in the design and manufacture of products they wish to purchase. Because of 3D solid modeling consumers will not have to purchase products in colors and designs they don’t want or need. 3D solid modeling will eventually allow the customizing, designing and manufacturing of many products by the same individual who will be purchasing them.
3D Solid Modeling Advantages
The use of 3D solid modeling for businesses is also one of many applications of 3D solid modeling technology. In this application the small business would produce a custom product for the consumer by purchasing or downloading a (CAD) software package for the item they wanted and produce it exactly to the specifications of the customer, many times while they waited. One of many 3D solid modeling printers would then begin to manufacture the customized item for the purchaser.
Avrum was there in the audience, I believe, in Berkeley on the afternoon in 1941 when, in conformity with the law subsequently enunciated by Murphy, what could go wrong, epistemologically, did. G. E. Moore was delivering the Howison Lecture in Wheeler Auditorium, which had a handsome coffered ceiling inset with glass panels. Giving a local angle to his defence of common sense, Moore declared that among the things he knew there and then was that light from the sun was streaming through the roof. Most in the audience were aware, however, that the glass panels were diffusers for electrical illumination; the roof of the building was solid and opaque. Someone had the temerity to point this out to Moore in the question period. He responded, “Oh dear me!” and went on to the next question.
—Wallace Matson, U. S. philosopher. Certainty and Surface in Epistemology and Philosophical Method, p. 7, Edwin Mellen Press (1991)
3D solid modeling offers options such as customizing colors and product materials would be available to the consumer with a 3D solid modeling program. In a short period of time a customized product would be ready for the consumer to take home and use. Think about purchasing a gift and having it made in the store while you wait. Maybe that special train or model car for a grandchild as a gift could be produced by 3D solid modeling technology.
Writer for Objet Geometries.