BBC: 3D printers

In 1436 in Germany, Johannes Gutenberg, invented the printing press- a machine capable of making many copies of the same page of text. Ever since, printing has been used arount the world to produce books, newspapers and magazines. 

Printing technology has come a long way since Gutenberg's time, but even today's most advanced laser printers have only printed flat, two-dimensional objects... until now. 

In this programme, we're discussing 3D printers- printers which can build solid, three- dimensional objects out of a variety of materials including plastic, concrete and metal. 

Now, Neil, when you say a printer that can make solid objects, I guess you're not talking about a normal printer...

That's rignt, Sam. These lare and complex 3D printers work in a completely different way. Unlike a sculptor who chips away at a block of stone to reveal a shape underneath, 3D printers work in the opposite way, building up physical objects by adding material layer on layer. And the ability to print objects in this way is providing solutions to many problems, as we'll be finding out...

But first I have a question for you, Neil. Before Johannes Gutenberg invented his printing press, copies of texts were made by block printing, using hand-carved wooden blocks pressed into ink. So- what was the oldest known text to be printed this way? Was it:

a) a religious teaching  b) a cooking recipe   or   c) a love letter?

I think it mgiht have been a recipe. 

OK, Neil. I'll reveal the answer later in the programme. The idea of printing solid object is not new, but it was only after the millennium that tech companies began to realize how it could be done. Here's Professor Mark Miodownik, a material scientist at University College, London, explaining move to BBC World Service programme, People Fixing The World:

As teh millennium turned, patents expired and that meant people started making very cheap 3D printers. And people started mucking about with them and going. 'Hold on a minute!- it's not just an industrial tool...You can put them in schools, you can put them in universities...Ohh, it's actually really great for prototyping'. And then people got excited about it and it became the answer to everything. Everything was going to be 3D-printed!

After the year 2000, 3D printers suddenly got much cheaper and tech companies started mucking about with them- spending time playing with them in a fun way. They realized that 3D printers had many uses- for example, they discovered that 3D printers were great at making prototypes- models of a product that can be tested, improved and used to develop better products. 

Professor Miodownik thinks these tech companies were surpried at how useful 3D printing was. He uses the phrase Hold on a minute to express this surprise or disbelief. 

In fact, in turned out that 3D printers were excellent at making bespoke things- objects which are made specially for a particular person. One area which 3D printing dramatically improved was medical prosthetics- artificial body parts made specially for someone who has lost an arem, a leg or a foot, for example. 

In 2022, Stephen Verze, who lost an eye in a childhood accident, became the first person to  be fitted with a 3D-printed prosthetic eye. It's prosthetic, so the new eye doesn't restore Stephen's sight, but it has boosted his confidence. Surgen, Mandeep Sagoo, led the team at Moorsfield Hospital that opereated on Stephen's eyes. Here he is explaining more to BBC World Service's, People Fixing The World: