Feb 07 2012 This is one of those emerging technologies that has
the potential to be a game changer – the ability to print three-
dimensional objects. A recent news story brought to my attention
how far this technology has come so far. Belgium surgeons have
recently (this past June, although they just announced it)
implanted an artificial jaw into an 83 year old woman. The jaw
is made from titanium and was created with a 3-D printing
process. The process of creating the jaw involved “printing”
thin 2-D layers and then combining them: “It used a laser beam
to melt successive thin layers of titanium powder together to
build the part. “This was repeated with each cross section
melted to the previous layer. It took 33 layers to build 1mm of
height, so you can imagine there were many thousand layers
necessary to build this jawbone.” There are multiple advantages
to this technology over other forms of crafting 3-D objects.
Digital design is nothing new, but of course this process
benefits from the ability to design a