First Blog: Intro To 3D Printing

FFF

(Fused Filament Fabrication)

This is just a basic introduction blog to have an overview of FFF 3D Printing technology developed by Dr. Adrian Bowyer (Special Thanks Doc) & maintained by the RepRap Community. Thanks all.



What is 3D Printing ?

Wikipedia Definition: 3D printing, also known as additive manufacturing (AM), refers to processes used to synthesize a three-dimensional object^[1] in which successive layers of material are formed under computer control to create an object.^[2] Objects can be of almost any shape or geometry and are produced using digital model data from a 3D model or another electronic data source.

Basically, it is the formulation of an existing material into a requested shape by slicing the object into successive layers.

This process uses a 3-axis robot (CNC Machine) commanded to follow specified coordinates (G-Code Commands) while shaping the material into its specified shape to build the 3D object layer by layer (3D file, i.e. .STL File).

Dr. Bowyer presented the 3D printer as a breeding machine that can print itself, which is really a convincing idea, that accelerated the advancements of 3D printing development in consumer market.

there comes the FFF, stands for Fused Filament Fabrication, which uses an extruder head to extrude tiny lines of thermoplastics into a planned path to formulate one layer of the object, and the process repeats for the next layer.

This image shows how the filament is being fed into the extruder then formulated into its shape

So, we have a 3-axis robot that moves in X,Y & Z axes and carry along with it an extruder head. This extruder is being fed by thermoplastic filament to extrude as commanded. That is a 3D Printer ! simple :-)

That is one type & one technology of 3D printers. There are dozens of 3D printing technology & designs, each solves a certain problem or avoid an obstacle.


Note: 3D printer is just a tool to fabricate 3D objects. Keep this in your mind. It is not factory, it is not useful in all scenarios, I have more than 10 3D printers and still make some objects by hand. 3D printers serve a certain purpose that is to fabricate a complex object accurately that is very hard to fabricate by other means. And it is limited in many ways.



In the next blog, I'll write an overview of 3D printers kinematics & components.


Thanks for reading.



CNC Machine: Computer Numerical Controlle Machines
.STL: (Surface Tessellation Language) 3D file formt that describes the surface of an object by meshes
G-Code: command language used to control machines

Adrian Bowyer Page: http://adrianbowyer.com/about.html
RepRap Project: http://reprap.org/