AM's impact on rearms involves two dimensions: new manufacturing methods for established companies, and new possibilities for the making of do-it-yourself rearms. In 2012, the US-based group Defense Distributed
disclosed plans to design a working plastic 3D printed rearm \that could be downloaded and
reproduced by anybody with a 3D printer." After Defense Distributed released their plans, questions were
raised regarding the eects that 3D printing and widespread consumer-level CNC machining may have on
gun control eectiveness.
Surgical uses of 3D printing-centric therapies have a history beginning in the mid-1990s with anatomical
modeling for bony reconstructive surgery planning. Patient-matched implants were a natural extension of this
work, leading to truly personalized implants that t one unique individual. Virtual planning of surgery and
guidance using 3D printed, personalized instruments have been applied to many areas of surgery including
total joint replacement and craniomaxillofacial reconstruction with great success. One example of this is the
bioresorbable trachial splint to treat newborns with tracheobronchomalacia developed at the University of
Michigan. The use of additive manufacturing for serialized production of orthopedic implants (metals) is also
increasing due to the ability to eciently create porous surface structures that facilitate osseointegration.
The hearing aid and dental industries are expected to be the biggest area of future development using the
custom 3D printing technology.
In March 2014, surgeons in Swansea used 3D printed parts to rebuild the face of a motorcyclist who had
been seriously injured in a road accident. In May 2018, 3D printing has been used for the kidney transplant
to save a three-year-old boy. As of 2012, 3D bio-printing technology has been studied by biotechnology rms
and academia for possible use in tissue engineering applications in which organs and body parts are built
using inkjet printing techniques. In this process, layers of living cells are deposited onto a gel medium or
sugar matrix and slowly built up to form three-dimensional structures including vascular systems. Recently,
a heart-on-chip has been created which matches properties of cells.
In 2018, 3D printing technology was used for the rst time to create a matrix for cell immobilization in
fermentation. Propionic acid production by Propionibacterium acidipropionici immobilized on 3D-printed
nylon beads was chosen as a model study. It was shown that those 3D-printed beads were capable to promote
high density cell attachment and propionic acid production, which could be adapted to other fermentation
bioprocesses.
In 2005, academic journals had begun to report on the possible artistic applications of 3D printing technology.
As of 2017, domestic 3D printing was reaching a consumer audience beyond hobbyists and enthusiasts.
O the shelf machines were increasingly capable of producing practical household applications, for example,
ornamental objects. Some practical examples include a working clock and gears printed for home woodworking
machines among other purposes. Web sites associated with home 3D printing tended to include
backscratchers, coat hooks, door knobs, etc.
3D printing, and open source 3D printers in particular, are the latest technology making inroads into the
classroom. Some authors have claimed that 3D printers oer an unprecedented \revolution" in STEM
education. The evidence for such claims comes from both the low cost ability for rapid prototyping in
the classroom by students, but also the fabrication of low-cost high-quality scientic equipment from open
hardware designs forming open-source labs. Future applications for 3D printing might include creating
open-source scientic equipment.
In the last several years 3D printing has been intensively used by in the cultural heritage eld for preservation,
restoration and dissemination purposes. Many Europeans and North American Museums have purchased 3D
printers and actively recreate missing pieces of their relics. The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the British
Museum have started using their 3D printers to create museum souvenirs that are available in the museum
shops. Other museums, like the National Museum of Military History and Varna Historical Museum, have
gone further and sell through the online platform Threeding digital models of their artifacts, created using
Artec 3D scanners, in 3D printing friendly le format, which everyone can 3D print at home.
3D printed soft actuators is a growing application of 3D printing technology which has found its place in
the 3D printing applications. These soft actuators are being developed to deal with soft structures and
organs especially in biomedical sectors and where the interaction between human and robot is inevitable.
The majority of the existing soft actuators are fabricated by conventional methods that require manual
fabrication of devices, post processing/assembly, and lengthy iterations until maturity in the fabrication is
achieved. To avoid the tedious and time-consuming aspects of the current fabrication processes, researchers
are exploring an appropriate manufacturing approach for eective fabrication of soft actuators. Thus, 3D
printed soft actuators are introduced to revolutionize the design and fabrication of soft actuators with
custom geometrical, functional, and control properties in a faster and inexpensive approach. They also
enable incorporation of all actuator components into a single structure eliminating the need to use external
joints, adhesives, and fasteners.
Legal aspects
Intellectual property
3D printing has existed for decades within certain manufacturing industries where many legal regimes,
including patents, industrial design rights, copyright, and trademark may apply. However, there is not much
jurisprudence to say how these laws will apply if 3D printers become mainstream and individuals or hobbyist
communities begin manufacturing items for personal use, for non-prot distribution, or for sale.
Any of the mentioned legal regimes may prohibit the distribution of the designs used in 3D printing, or
the distribution or sale of the printed item. To be allowed to do these things, where an active intellectual
property was involved, a person would have to contact the owner and ask for a license, which may come with
conditions and a price. However, many patent, design and copyright laws contain a standard limitation or
exception for `private', `non-commercial' use of inventions, designs or works of art protected under intellectual
property (IP). That standard limitation or exception may leave such private, non-commercial uses outside
the scope of IP rights.
Patents cover inventions including processes, machines, manufactures, and compositions of matter and have a
nite duration which varies between countries, but generally 20 years from the date of application. Therefore,
if a type of wheel is patented, printing, using, or selling such a wheel could be an infringement of the patent. Copyright covers an expression in a tangible, xed medium and often lasts for the life of the author plus
70 years thereafter. If someone makes a statue, they may have copyright on the look of that statue, so if
someone sees that statue, they cannot then distribute designs to print an identical or similar statue.
When a feature has both artistic (copyrightable) and functional (patentable) merits, when the question has
appeared in US court, the courts have often held the feature is not copyrightable unless it can be separated
from the functional aspects of the item. In other countries the law and the courts may apply a dierent
approach allowing, for example, the design of a useful device to be registered (as a whole) as an industrial
design on the understanding that, in case of unauthorized copying, only the non-functional features may be
claimed under design law whereas any technical features could only be claimed if covered by a valid patent.
Gun legislation and administration
The US Department of Homeland Security and the Joint Regional Intelligence Center released a memo
stating that \signicant advances in three-dimensional (3D) printing capabilities, availability of free digital
3D printable les for rearms components, and diculty regulating le sharing may present public safety risks
from unqualied gun seekers who obtain or manufacture 3D printed guns" and that \proposed legislation
to ban 3D printing of weapons may deter, but cannot completely prevent, their production. Even if the
practice is prohibited by new legislation, online distribution of these 3D printable les will be as dicult to
control as any other illegally traded music, movie or software les."
Attempting to restrict the distribution of gun plans via the Internet has been likened to the futility of
preventing the widespread distribution of DeCSS, which enabled DVD ripping. After the US government
had Defense Distributed take down the plans, they were still widely available via the Pirate Bay and other
le sharing sites. Downloads of the plans from the UK, Germany, Spain, and Brazil were heavy. Some
US legislators have proposed regulations on 3D printers to prevent them from being used for printing guns.
3D printing advocates have suggested that such regulations would be futile, could cripple the 3D printing
industry, and could infringe on free speech rights, with early pioneer of 3D printing Professor Hod Lipson
suggesting that gunpowder could be controlled instead.
Internationally, where gun controls are generally stricter than in the United States, some commentators have
said the impact may be more strongly felt since alternative rearms are not as easily obtainable. Ocials in
the United Kingdom have noted that producing a 3D printed gun would be illegal under their gun control
laws. Europol stated that criminals have access to other sources of weapons but noted that as technology
improves, the risks of an eect would increase.
Aerospace regulation
In the United States, the FAA has anticipated a desire to use additive manufacturing techniques and has
been considering how best to regulate this process. The FAA has jurisdiction over such fabrication because
all aircraft parts must be made under FAA production approval or under other FAA regulatory categories.
In December 2016, the FAA approved the production of a 3D printed fuel nozzle for the GE LEAP engine.
Aviation attorney Jason Dickstein has suggested that additive manufacturing is merely a production method,
and should be regulated like any other production method. He has suggested that the FAA's focus should be
on guidance to explain compliance, rather than on changing the existing rules, and that existing regulations
and guidance permit a company \to develop a robust quality system that adequately re
ects regulatory
needs for quality assurance."
Health and safety
Research on the health and safety concerns of 3D printing is new and in development due to the recent
proliferation of 3D printing devices. In 2017 the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work has
published a discussion paper on the processes and materials involved in 3D printing, potential implications
of this technology for occupational safety and health and avenues for controlling potential hazards. Most concerns involve gas and material exposures, in particular nanomaterials, material handling, static electricity,
moving parts and pressures.
A National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) study noted particle emissions from a
fused lament peaked a few minutes after printing started and returned to baseline levels 100 minutes after
printing ended. Emissions from fused lament printers can include a large number of ultrane particles and
volatile organic compounds (VOCs).
The toxicity from emissions varies by source material due to dierences in size, chemical properties, and
quantity of emitted particles. Excessive exposure to VOCs can lead to irritation of the eyes, nose, and
throat, headache, loss of coordination, and nausea and some of the chemical emissions of fused lament
printers have also been linked to asthma. Based on animal studies, carbon nanotubes and carbon nanobers
sometimes used in fused lament printing can cause pulmonary eects including in
ammation, granulomas,
and pulmonary brosis when at the nanoparticle size.
As of March 2018, the US Government has set 3D printer emission standards for only a limited number
of compounds. Furthermore, the few established standards address factory conditions, not home or other nvironments in which the printers are likely to be used.
Carbon nanoparticle emissions and processes using powder metals are highly combustible and raise the risk
of dust explosions. At least one case of severe injury was noted from an explosion involved in metal powders
used for fused lament printing. Other general health and safety concerns include the hot surface of UV
lamps and print head blocks, high voltage, ultraviolet radiation from UV lamps, and potential for mechanical
injury from moving parts.
The problems noted in the NIOSH report were reduced by using manufacturer-supplied covers and full
enclosures, using proper ventilation, keeping workers away from the printer, using respirators, turning o
the printer if it jammed, and using lower emission printers and laments. At least one case of severe
injury was noted from an explosion involved in metal powders used for fused lament. Personal protective
equipment has been found to be the least desirable control method with a recommendation that it only be
used to add further protection in combination with approved emissions protection.
Hazards to health and safety also exist from post-processing activities done to nish parts after they have been
printed. These post-processing activities can include chemical baths, sanding, polishing, or vapor exposure
to rene surface nish, as well as general subtractive manufacturing techniques such as drilling, milling, or
turning to modify the printed geometry. Any technique that removes material from the printed part has the
potential to generate particles that can be inhaled or cause eye injury if proper personal protective equipment
is not used, such as respirators or safety glasses. Caustic baths are often used to dissolve support material
used by some 3D printers that allows them to print more complex shapes. These baths require personal
protective equipment to prevent injury to exposed skin.
Although no occupational exposure limits specic to 3D printer emissions exist, certain source materials used
in 3D printing, such as carbon nanober and carbon nanotubes, have established occupational exposure limits
at the nanoparticle size.
Since 3-D imaging creates items by fusing materials together, there runs the risk of layer separation in some
devices made using 3-D Imaging. For example, in January 2013, the US medical device company, DePuy,
recalled their knee and hip replacement systems. The devices were made from layers of metal, and shavings
had come loose { potentially harming the patient.
Impact
Additive manufacturing, starting with today's infancy period, requires manufacturing rms to be
exible,
ever-improving users of all available technologies to remain competitive. Advocates of additive manufacturing
also predict that this arc of technological development will counter globalization, as end users will do much of their own manufacturing rather than engage in trade to buy products from other people and corporations.
The real integration of the newer additive technologies into commercial production, however, is more a
matter of complementing traditional subtractive methods rather than displacing them entirely.
The futurologist Jeremy Rifkin claimed that 3D printing signals the beginning of a third industrial revolution,
succeeding the production line assembly that dominated manufacturing starting in the late 19th century.
Since the 1950s, a number of writers and social commentators have speculated in some depth about the social
and cultural changes that might result from the advent of commercially aordable additive manufacturing
technology. Amongst the more notable ideas to have emerged from these inquiries has been the suggestion
that, as more and more 3D printers start to enter people's homes, the conventional relationship between the
home and the workplace might get further eroded. Likewise, it has also been suggested that, as it becomes
easier for businesses to transmit designs for new objects around the globe, so the need for high-speed freight
services might also become less. Finally, given the ease with which certain objects can now be replicated, it
remains to be seen whether changes will be made to current copyright legislation so as to protect intellectual
property rights with the new technology widely available.
As 3D printers became more accessible to consumers, online social platforms have developed to support
the community. This includes websites that allow users to access information such as how to build a 3D
printer, as well as social forums that discuss how to improve 3D print quality and discuss 3D printing news,
as well as social media websites that are dedicated to share 3D models. RepRap is a wiki based website
that was created to hold all information on 3d printing, and has developed into a community that aims
to bring 3D printing to everyone. Furthermore, there are other sites such as Pinshape, Thingiverse and
MyMiniFactory, which were created initially to allow users to post 3D les for anyone to print, allowing for
decreased transaction cost of sharing 3D les. These websites have allowed greater social interaction between
users, creating communities dedicated to 3D printing.
Some call attention to the conjunction of Commons-based peer production with 3D printing and other lowcost
manufacturing techniques. The self-reinforced fantasy of a system of eternal growth can be overcome
with the development of economies of scope, and here, society can play an important role contributing
to the raising of the whole productive structure to a higher plateau of more sustainable and customized
productivity. Further, it is true that many issues, problems, and threats arise due to the democratization
of the means of production, and especially regarding the physical ones. For instance, the recyclability of
advanced nanomaterials is still questioned; weapons manufacturing could become easier; not to mention
the implications for counterfeiting and on IP. It might be maintained that in contrast to the industrial
paradigm whose competitive dynamics were about economies of scale, Commons-based peer production 3D
printing could develop economies of scope. While the advantages of scale rest on cheap global transportation,
the economies of scope share infrastructure costs (intangible and tangible productive resources), taking
advantage of the capabilities of the fabrication tools. And following Neil Gershenfeld in that \some of
the least developed parts of the world need some of the most advanced technologies," Commons-based peer
production and 3D printing may oer the necessary tools for thinking globally but acting locally in response
to certain needs.
Larry Summers wrote about the \devastating consequences" of 3D printing and other technologies (robots,
articial intelligence, etc.) for those who perform routine tasks. In his view, \already there are more
American men on disability insurance than doing production work in manufacturing. And the trends are all in
the wrong direction, particularly for the less skilled, as the capacity of capital embodying articial intelligence
to replace white-collar as well as blue-collar work will increase rapidly in the years ahead." Summers
recommends more vigorous cooperative eorts to address the \myriad devices" (e.g., tax havens, bank
secrecy, money laundering, and regulatory arbitrage) enabling the holders of great wealth to \avoid paying"
income and estate taxes, and to make it more dicult to accumulate great fortunes without requiring \great
social contributions" in return, including: more vigorous enforcement of anti-monopoly laws, reductions
in \excessive" protection for intellectual property, greater encouragement of prot-sharing schemes that
may benet workers and give them a stake in wealth accumulation, strengthening of collective bargaining arrangements, improvements in corporate governance, strengthening of nancial regulation to eliminate
subsidies to nancial activity, easing of land-use restrictions that may cause the real estate of the rich to
keep rising in value, better training for young people and retraining for displaced workers, and increased
public and private investment in infrastructure development|e.g., in energy production and transportation.
Michael Spence wrote that \Now comes a . . . powerful, wave of digital technology that is replacing labor
in increasingly complex tasks. This process of labor substitution and disintermediation has been underway
for some time in service sectors|think of ATMs, online banking, enterprise resource planning, customer
relationship management, mobile payment systems, and much more. This revolution is spreading to the
production of goods, where robots and 3D printing are displacing labor." In his view, the vast majority of
the cost of digital technologies comes at the start, in the design of hardware (e.g. 3D printers) and, more
important, in creating the software that enables machines to carry out various tasks. \Once this is achieved,
the marginal cost of the hardware is relatively low (and declines as scale rises), and the marginal cost of
replicating the software is essentially zero. With a huge potential global market to amortize the upfront
xed costs of design and testing, the incentives to invest [in digital technologies] are compelling."
Spence believes that, unlike prior digital technologies, which drove rms to deploy underutilized pools of
valuable labor around the world, the motivating force in the current wave of digital technologies \is cost
reduction via the replacement of labor." For example, as the cost of 3D printing technology declines, it is
\easy to imagine" that production may become \extremely" local and customized. Moreover, production
may occur in response to actual demand, not anticipated or forecast demand. Spence believes that labor,
no matter how inexpensive, will become a less important asset for growth and employment expansion, with
labor-intensive, process-oriented manufacturing becoming less eective, and that re-localization will appear
in both developed and developing countries. In his view, production will not disappear, but it will be
less labor-intensive, and all countries will eventually need to rebuild their growth models around digital
technologies and the human capital supporting their deployment and expansion. Spence writes that \the
world we are entering is one in which the most powerful global
ows will be ideas and digital capital, not
goods, services, and traditional capital. Adapting to this will require shifts in mindsets, policies, investments
(especially in human capital), and quite possibly models of employment and distribution."
Naomi Wu regards the usage of 3D printing in the Chinese classroom (where rote memorization is standard)
to teach design principles and creativity as the most exciting recent development of the technology, and more
generally regards 3D printing as being the next desktop publishing revolution.
Self-driving car
Outline
A self-driving car (also known as an autonomous car or a driverless car) is a vehicle that is capable of sensing
its environment and moving with little or no human input.
Autonomous cars combine a variety of sensors to perceive their surroundings, such as radar, computer vision,
Lidar, sonar, GPS, odometry and inertial measurement units. Advanced control systems interpret sensory
information to identify appropriate navigation paths, as well as obstacles and relevant signage.
Potential benets include reduced costs, increased safety, increased mobility, increased customer satisfaction
and reduced crime. Safety benets include a reduction in trac collisions, resulting injuries and related costs,
including for insurance. Automated cars are predicted to increase trac
ow; provide enhanced mobility for
children, the elderly, disabled, and the poor; relieve travelers from driving and navigation chores; lower fuel
consumption; signicantly reduce needs for parking space; reduce crime; and facilitate business models for
transportation as a service, especially via the sharing economy.
Problems include safety, technology, liability, desire by individuals to control their cars, legal framework
and government regulations; risk of loss of privacy and security concerns, such as hackers or terrorism;
concern about the resulting loss of driving-related jobs in the road transport industry; and risk of increased
suburbanization as travel becomes more convenient.
History
General Motors' Firebird II of the 1950s was described as having an \electronic brain" that allowed it to
move into a lane with a metal conductor and follow it along.