The ultimate goal of 3D printing is to give us a Star Trek-style replicator, where you can order, for example, a hot drink and the machine will assemble it for you, atom-by-atom, explained Marcel Slot – the coordinator of the EU-funded Diginova project – in a Horizon podcast.However, don’t throw out your kettle just yet. The project forecasts that we’ll have to wait for a while before we can make a replicator.In the meantime, though, we’ll be able to embed electronic components into 3D-printed devices, create made-to-measure bones using live cells, and in just two decades we’ll be able to start printing our own homes, Diginova believes.The project brought together 20 research institutes and companies to compile aroadmapto analyse exactly what the future holds for digital manufacturing.As well as 3D printing, it also looked at digital 2D printing, printed electronics and smart lighting, and how they could converge in future.‘If you bring these communities together, you start seeing the enormous advantages of convergence of these fields,’ said Slot.But how long will it be until we have embedded electronics, made-to-measure replacement bones and 3D-printed houses? We’ve brought together some of the best predictions into an interactive timeline looking at what the future of 3D printing could hold:Far futureNanoscale digital fabricationOne day, 3D printers may be able to construct materials atom-by-atom, for example by using carbon atoms to make a lightweight material that is harder than diamond. The technology could be used to make things like high-power fuel cells, single-molecule sensors, molecular-scale computer circuits and selectively permeable membranes.Artist’s impression of atoms. Image courtesy of Shutterstock/ U. Shtanzman.At the moment, the biggest problem is that 3D printing, or additive manufacturing as it’s known in the industry, is slow and expensive, and it is mostly used by big companies to make prototypes.However, things are poised to change. The technology is becoming much better, and cheaper. And on top of that, researchers are developing ways to combine 3D printing with other techniques so that electronics and fibre optics can be embedded within devices.‘There is another set of new products to be discovered basically which have these features in them, and which are not around at the moment, of course, because they cannot be made via conventional technologies,’ said Frits Feenstra, coordinator of the EU-funded SASAM project. ‘People are working on that now.’The SASAM project focussed on working outwhat standards and regulations are neededto drive the 3D printing industry forward, and Feenstra believes that the 3D printing sector will really take off in one or two years’ time when the basic standards are in place.In order to work out what kind of research is required to push forward 3D printing, industry and policymakers have come together as part of the Additive Manufacturing Platform to make recommendations. The document, called a Strategic Research Agenda, suggests things like looking for new materials that would be as strong as cast metal when 3D printed, and teaching university students about 3D printing.
This article was originally published in Horizon, the EU Research and Innovation magazine.