1233D-PRINTED
PRODUCTS
THAT MAKE
YOU HEALTHIER,
SAFER, AND
SMILE BETTER
1 RIDDELL SPEED-
FLEX PRECISION
DIAMOND HELMET /
Last season, at least one
member of every NFL
team played in this proto-
type helmet from Riddell,
which uses custom-fit,
3D-printed liners to
better absorb blows.
The precisely mapped
sections have 140,000
individual struts arranged
in a lattice design that
crumples on impact to
dissipate and deflect
rotational and linear
impacts.2 ACTIVARMOR CAST
/ Home contractors
mostly stopped using
plaster for interior walls
decades ago. So why do
doctors still use it for
casts? ActivArmor pro-
duces 3D-printed casts
and splints, using limb
scans, that are mapped
to a patient’s bone sur-
face and contours to a
half millimeter. The pre-
cise fit better stabilizes
injuries, helping patients
heal faster.3 SMILEDIRECTCLUB
BRACES / SmileDirect’s
49 3D printers
can produce custom
molds for more than
50,000 of its dental
aligners and retainers
every day. That scale and
precision helps the com-
pany slash the cost—the
molds cost 60 percent
less and work three times
as fast as traditional
orthodontic braces.moves in 3D space and builds the
object layer by layer from XYZ
coordinates. The real ingenuity
came in the user interface that
allowed anyone with access to a
free app like Google SketchUp
or TinkerCAD to print out a key-
chain or Star Wars Yoda figure,
usually with very little training
and no coding.
The machine, not including
the attached laptop, weighed
only 30 pounds and stood 15
inches tall. Printed objects were
astoundingly complex and could
measure up to 8.9 x 5.7 x 5.9
inches. It also used a cheaper,
more accessible filament, low-
ering another barrier to entry.
One roll of brightly colored plas-
tic cost about $40, about half as
much as what the material cost
for other industrial machines.
With that, you could make sev-
eral complex parts, such as a
model train, a cup holder for your
car, or a cap for your tooth.
James Lynch, the engineer-
ing director at fab company
Design Partners, says that the
MakerBot Replicator was so easy
to use that novices could learn
actual rapid prototyping. “Mak-erBot played their part in fueling
the growth of the maker move-
ment, which now is a $30 billion
industry,” he says.
Today, 3D printing is the pur-
view of design companies that
rely on high-end machines like
the Stratasys Objet or the Form-
labs 3L. Quality has radically
improved from the early days as
well. “When developing new prod-
ucts, these kinds of 3D printers
have allowed firms to iterate at
great speeds with a significantly
lower overhead,” he says.
Now, 3D printing is more
than a hobbyist endeavor. Com-
panies are developing artificial
hearts and exoskeletons using
tech ushered in by the Replica-
tor. Some are 3D-printing entire
houses. Automakers like Ford
use 3D printers to develop car
parts. And Boeing uses print-
ers to design airplanes. And it all
took off, thanks to an affordable
home appliance that looked like
a wooden milk crate.MakerBot's
latest model,
the $2,000
Replicator+ is
faster, larger
and looks less
homespun
than the
original.CO
UR
TE
SY
(A
LL
)
May/June 2020 73