Prototyping: 3D Printing

The Printrbot is an FDM printer. Here you can see a model that was printed for production.

While several of the technologies work predominately in 2 dimensions (vinyl cutting, and laser cutting) 3D printing works in three dimensions. The technologies that are applied change drastically but all in some form create a form from a file that was first generated in the computer. Fused Deposition Modeling (or FDM) is the least expensive and most readily used process of 3D printing. The FDM process deposits hundreds or thousands of very thin layers of plastic on a bed. The print head extrudes a very thin layer of plastic. When complete, the print head raises and another layer is extruded. This process allows strong stable parts and great accuracy.