There are gunsmiths today that are making lower receivers for weapons using a printer, how is this possible? I wondered the same thing, so I did some searching and found a good article called "3D Printing In Technology and Engineering Education." This article was written to explain how 3D printing can be used in education but it also explains what 3D printing was in general very well. This article was written by three gentlemen that are part of the Department of Technology at Illinois State University. "In the past five years, there has been tremendous growth in the production and use of desktop 3D printers" (Martin 30). The authors start off by telling the reader about the evolution of 3D printing technology. This was done by stating were the concept originated from the Computer numeric Controlled (CNC) machines, were first invented in 1952 and how the first computers were wired to a milling machine. This was followed by machines using lasers and water-jet cutting. "All of these techniques began with raw stock material and then removed material until the desired specifications were reached" (Martin 31).
During the 80's the technique changed from removal to the addition of material in the fabrication process; a technique called additive manufacturing. Additive manufacturing has become a breakthrough for companies that specialize in the design of new products by allowing rapid-prototyping (Martin 31). 3D printing technology has advanced the greatest in the last five years. The demand for this technology has been in such demand that the company producing these machines have asked customers to start printing the parts for them. The subject that was explained the greatest in detail and I enjoyed the most was the basic parts and the steps to create a 3D object. The 3D printer integrates many technical systems into one compact machine. Instead of going through all the different set-up of a 3D printer the article listed the primary parts for all 3D printers "extruder motor and nozzle, bedplate, X, Y, and Z-axis motors, pulleys and belts, frame, and the electronic controller circuit board" (Martin 32).
