THE REVOLUTION

01

THE HOUR OF
DEMOCRATIZATION OF
THE THREE DIMENSION

INNOVATION TRENDS SERIE

The future is
printable, in three
dimensions

02

INFOGRAPHIC

03

The time of
makers

04
05

Printing 3D

Makers need to build

things in order to
express themselves
3D revolution
in healthcare

01

The future is
printable, in three
dimensions
68% of companies will increase their
investment in 3D technology in 2015.
1983.The US engineer Charles
Hull spends his free time
working on prototypes for
furniture using ultraviolet (UV)
light.Hull, an intraentrepreneur,
works in his small home
laboratory experimenting with
photopolymers. These are
materials with an acrylic base

( )

that are liquid until they are

treated with ultraviolet light,
when they immediately turn
solid.
The new technology, which he
has called and patented as
"stereolithography", uses
different photosensitive resins in

liquid state. These then solidify

layer by layer when selectively
exposed to a laser with a UV
frequency.Following the
example of many US colleagues,
his home saw the birth of an
invention that will revolutionize
society, and which today is
known as 3D printing.

He said in 2014 at the gala of the European

Patent Office's European Inventor Awards 2014
in the category for non-European countries.

That year, he acknowledged on CNN the great

assistance provided by the "maker community" in
the launch of 3D.
The community is a community founded on
small-scale production through technology,
which works together and is no longer a passing
fashion but rather a real phenomenon. ( )

"I was working for a company in which we

needed to make plastic objects to try out
prototypes for our products. First, you had
to make a mold, then inject the plastic...I
thought it would be easier if you could
manufacture the object directly, creating
layer on layer with the same plastic.

"Technology has really blossomed in the last few

years, in the sense of really rapid growth and
recognition. There's lots of things that
contributed to that, I think: medical applications
and certainly the maker movement, with lowcost machines getting hobbyists interested in
inventing and building using 3D printing.
For the creator of 3D printing, its invention has
become a real success by taking a further step in
what was provided by computers: fostering

creativity and changing product design and

manufacture. "At the individual level I think there's a
great kind of kind of pent-up need: we've got into
the computer age and everything is on a screen or
remote, we've kind of missed the tangible
result.This is a means to convert something on the
computer into reality in a straightforward way," said
Hull in 2014. He also founded the Californian
company 3D Systems, which is a leader in the
global market.
How 3D has evolved

( )

One year after these words, 3D printing is making

progress. And it appears to be doing so with giant
steps. Some 68% of companies say they will
increase their investment in 3D technology in
2015 (according to the survey carried out by
Sculpteo published by Forbes, using a sample of
1,118 representatives of 16 types of companies in
50 countries). This growth in the number of
investments is not new. It was already seen faintly
in 2014, so it appears it is a case of stable growth
in the sector.

Despite the great diversity of sectors reflected in

the survey The state of 3D printing, there is
consensus when it comes to citing the determining
factors in the adoption of the 3D technology by
companies, which according to 50% of those
surveyed will be the price of the materials and
supplies and the utilized machine capacity.
Important secondary factors include the
understanding of customer needs, the legal
framework and employee training.

Within the profile of those

surveyed, the sample
differentiates between two
different "schools": the
European school, in which 3D
technology is solely within the
domain of specialists who are
duly qualified and trained for it;
and the American school,
whose 3D printing is accessible
for all corporate employees,

regardless of their qualifications

or functions.

in materials, new markets and

easy 3D modeling.

The study also highlights that 3D

users have very significant
advantages in speeding up the
development of products and
offering personalized products
and limited series. The trends
highlighted by those surveyed
for the near future are: printing

As Bastien Rechke, an R&D

Mechanical Engineer at
Withings, concludes: "Being able
to produce prototypes quickly in
order to validate structure and
functionality is a real added
value. With the wide variety of
materials and finishes available
via 3D impression, we can now
simulate the characteristics of
the final product. During the
design phase it is essential to
have different prototypes on
hand in order to be able to
choose one proposal over the
other. The handling of physical
pieces is also an opportunity to
anticipate production-related
problems and thus improve
the design."

02/INFOGRAPHIC
Printing 3D
3D printing is able to generate a three-dimensional
solid object by adding material, following 3D models
that define what is to be printed. A model is simply
the digital representation of what we wish to print
using software.
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History
3D printing dates from 1976,
with the invention of the inkjet
printer. In 1984 a number of
adaptations and advances in
the concept of inkjet transform
the technology from printing
with ink to printing with
materials.

How it works
3D printers create an object
with three dimensions by
building successive layers until
the desired object is achieved.

The filament extrudes

the material through a
heated nozzle, and it
sets as it gradually
cools.

A nozzle moves from left to right

distributing a binder which forms
the cross-section of each layer of
the object.

Filament
Isolation sleeve
Heating coil

Materials: Plastics, ceramics,

cements, metals, foods, biological
material, etc.

The print bed or tray serves

as the base and moves
backwards and forwards.

At the end of each layer the

platform moves down
(around 0.1 mm) and begins
printing the next layer.

Markets
Sectors

Consumer goods
High technology
Sector
Electronics
Services
Education
Mechanics
Healthcare
Aeronautics

Retail
Automobile
Energy
Transport

Food
Textiles
Chemistry

Use of 3D printing by
sector in the market.

Europe

Location

3D printing use by
continent.
Asia and
Oceana

America

Revenues

Company size in annual

turnover in millions of
dollars.

> 20.000
< 20.000
< 5.000
< 1.000
< 500
< 100
< 50
Almost none

Africa

+75%

In figures
Low-cost printer
production

+75%
+49%

Printers costing less than

100,000 dollars (figures in
millions of dollars)

Spending on 3D printers

Millions of dollars

288
million

412
million

669
million

03

The time of
makers
The movement, closely
connected to the 3D printing
revolution, seeks to change the
mentality of society. ( )

When Cecilia Tham graduated in Biology at Emory

University in Atlanta and later in Architecture at
Harvard she didn't understand a word of Spanish
and was not familiar with the maker movement.
When the slogan Do it yourself and the We are all
makers creed began to gain popularity in the
United States, Tham was settling in Barcelona. If
was 2006.

Dale Dougherty, the father of the maker movement

and founder of Maker Magazine and organizer of
the Make Faire events, was committed to making
things with no intermediaries, using technology to
encourage people's creativity and promoting the
creations that people make with their own hands.

innovations developed in home

garages to become visible.
Nearly ten years later, Tham, an
American citizen of Chinese
origin, speaks perfect Spanish
and is the founder and director
of Makers of Barcelona (MOB),
the lab that brings makers
together to carry out and share
their projects.

Dougherty compares the

makers with music lovers: very
few are regarded as
professionals but many play
instruments at home or in
public places. The makers are at
the base of the pyramid, while

famous innovators and

inventors are at the top. And
according to Dougerthy the
ones at the base do things
similar to those accomplished
by the ones who have made it
to the top. He wanted the

Thanks to technology, the

same person can design, build
and consume their products.
They innovate without wasting
time, saving, one can create
things. The designer,
manufacturer and consumer
can even become the same
person, she explained on the
phone from France where she
is spending her holidays. Tham
also shares Dougerthy's view:
Before, the entire structure was
pyramidal. You need an expert

for everything, and today we

don't need them. Being an
expert in something very
specific is being an expert in
nothing, she says. MOB is
visited by designers,
entrepreneurs, IT people who
according to Tham believe in
multidisciplinary work. ( ) And
also in the group. They all share
their knowledge. It may happen
that one is a great computer
scientist, but doesn't know how
to sell. And together they carry
the invention forward. They
make progress jointly.

The movement is closely

connected to the 3D printing
revolution, which enables lowcost manufacturing, although
according to Tham the maker
culture and movement should
try to change the mentality of
society. The education we

receive teaches us very essential

knowledge. Students are passive
and take no risks. The maker
movement -based on STEM
education- enables them to
participate. It makes them selfconfident, it teaches them to be
leaders. They have to think
about solutions to help society
and try to take their ideas off the
ground. They create, and if the
project fails they start again. ( )
The Bloom Blanket project by
the Brazilian Bianca Cheng was
born at MOB. With no
knowledge of 3D printing and
not knowing who the makers
were, she designed blankets in
the shape of a pyramid. She was
looking for 14,000 dollars to
drive the project, and in 10
days she sold 800 blankets and
made more than 200,000
dollars.

Tham also approached the

maker movement by chance
when her husband gave her a
sewing machine as a present.
When I saw it I was very upset
-she says laughing-, although I
later discovered that I enjoyed
making things with my own
hands. I had no idea who the
makers were, I started creating
clothes and my self-confidence
increased.
I decided to launch a space for
people to make things. Tham

defines the makers as

proactive people who don't
stop creating, from websites to
a new business. They are not
afraid to take risks and don't set
themselves limits, whey want
the projects to get off the
ground.
There are currently 335 labs for
makers worldwide, known as
fablabs, according to the
specialized website Fabwiki.
MOB's challenge is to separate
the maker movement from the

hobby world and the craft

world. It is much more than a
simple hobby or craftwork.
What we want to do at MOB is
to combine the entrepreneur
and maker worlds, said the
American, who also stresses
that the makers have to fight to
change today's educational
model. With two university
degrees, she has no doubts:
Had I known that this existed
before, I wouldn't have gone to
university, she concluded
laughing.

04

Makers need to
build things in
order to express
themselves
He speaks passionately and defines himself
as a maker rather than an engineer. When
he was a kid he took apart robots and now,
Juan Gonzlez, a Telecommunications
engineer and PhD in Robotics, heads the
maker department of BQ. The Spanish
technology company specializes in the
manufacture and sale of multimedia devices,
3D printers and robot kits. ( )

What do makers contribute to a company?

Basically speed in prototype creation. With a maker
everything speeds up significantly, the ideas are
explored quickly, we have immediate feedback
right from the beginning. Makers are skillful at
building things. We need to build things in order to
express ourselves. And we get down to work
immediately.
Are they different from engineers?
Most makers are engineers, although not all
engineers are makers. An engineer usually seeks
the end result. Makers have studied engineering,
buy they feel disappointed and frustrated by the
educational model.
They teach us thousands of equations and maths,
and you have to wait until the final year to see

something practical. And we want it to be the other

way around. You have to learn by building. ( )
What was the experience of setting up the maker
department at BQ like?
Incredible. Working with people from my own
species is very pleasant. I came from the world of
University and I though it was a difficult challenge,
but it worked out fine.
How do you define your workers?
We are a team of 15 makers. The difference is that
you don't have to tell them what to do, they
propose the ideas, they define the project and tell
you about it. Unlike engineers, makers are used to
sharing tools and are very well trained in software,
hardware and electronics.

Can we say that 3D printing is

the new industrial revolution?
Rather than revolution, I would
say evolution. Things are not
going to change overnight, but
we can compare this stage with
the computer age. When they
came out we didn't see all the
possibilities they offered, and
they ended up changing
everything. With 3D printers we
can build things easily, in a
matter of hours you can have
something made. Something
unthinkable just a few years
ago.

Will it change society?

I'm no futurologist and I don't
know about all the possible uses
of 3D printing, but what I see is
that you can do anything. For
example, we can teleport
components. Before, you had

to send a gear to Japan, and

now you send the part's design
over the Internet and in a
matter of hours they have the
component. Cooperation is very
close.
Does 3D printing have any
drawbacks?
I only see advantages. ( )
It's vital for building parts. It is
true that it's a new technology
and it still needs to mature, but
the possibilities are endless. For
the time being, most parts are
made of plastic and chemists
need to explore new materials.
Also, the 3D printing process is
slow compared with Industry.
As an expert in 3D printing,
what applications have
impressed you the most?
The components that are built

for children who have been

maimed. 3D artificial limbs are
cheap and adapt perfectly to
the patient. If they break, there's
no problem because they can
be replaced, they're customized.
I think it's a fantastic advance
that makes a great contribution
to people.

05
3D revolution
in healthcare
To a large extent, 3D printing has
become more than just a trend thanks
to healthcare. 3D makes it possible to
create hearts, arms, hands, ears... all
tailor-made. And it reduces costs. ( )

A prosthetic hand costs 4000 dollars in the United

States, but this can now be reduced to 350 dollars
with 3D technology. In March, Alex Pring made
news headlines across the world when Robert
Downey Jr presented him with a bionic arm.
With the stubbornness of the seven-year-old's
mother (he was born with a partially mutilated
right arm) and the help of several 3D enthusiasts,
Alex received an arm.
The team led by Albert Manero, a student at the
University of Florida and a member of Limbitless
Solutions, launched a project involving engineers,
artists, nurses and doctors. Together they created
a fixed elbow, a forearm, and a hand designed
with autodesk inventor, a 3D modeling software.
After being 3D printed, the pieces were assembled
together.
The right arm comes to life thanks to a muscular
sensor that detects electrical impulses from Alex's
right bicep. Alex now has a new arm thanks to his
mother's perseverance (Alison wrote to the
organizations to ask for help) and the collaboration

of the team that created an arm for 350 dollars

after eight months of work. Alex's case is an
example of the revolution in healthcare brought
about by 3D printing. ( )

Other cases (

In Spain, various projects are

aimed at creating organs, tissues
and prostheses using 3D printing.
This allows us to customize
treatment, do a simulation
beforehand. For example, with
the heart, 3D printing allows us

to shape the prosthesis, predict

the size and type and customize
it for patients, says Federico
Gutirrez Larraya, head of
Pediatric Cardiology at Hospital
La Paz (Madrid), in an interview
to Diario Mdico. 3D is also being
researched at Hospital 12 de
Octubre (Madrid), as explained by
cardiologist Enrique Garca

Torres. Just as Dr. Larraya, he

stresses the importance of the
new technology in preparing
surgeries: "As a surgeon, if you
have an exact 3D replica of the
heart you are going to do the
procedure on, you can prepare
the surgery, visualize and plan

each step accurately, identify

possible complications and, in
short, perform a very complex
procedure in a much more agile
fashion".
Late last year, in a first-time
procedure in Spain, surgeons at
Hospital Sant Joan de Du de
Esplugues (Barcelona) used a
3D copy to reconstruct the ear
of a 17-year-old who had been
born with a missing ear. In
Michigan, 3D-printed splints
saved the life of three babies
born with
tracheobronchomalacia. These
are some of the examples of
how this new technology can
be applied.
We are now looking toward,
Larraya explains in Diario
Mdico, making printing

biological, using biological

material. The process for
generating 3D printing is very
demanding both financially and
intellectually.
We need to generate good
enough images of each patient,
process them and convert them
into a language that the 3D
printer can understand. This
can take two to three weeks,
and the cost is also dependent
on the material used and the
volume involved. Needing a
whole heart is not the same as
needing a segment of the
heart. We are looking at 500 to
2000 euros per piece, and two
or three weeks for the process.

And also in the pharmaceutical industry

The progress of 3D seems to be unstoppable.
The last addition to this revolution has been
the pharmaceutical industry. In August,
the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
approved marketing of a 3D-printed pill for
treating epilepsy (Spritam). This production
method makes it possible to concentrate a
higher amount of the drug into a single dose.
Aprecia Pharmaceuticals explained that:
Thanks to three-dimensional printing, a
detailed porous structure can be created that
allows the pill to dissolve quicker, while
concentrating a higher amount of the drug.
The printing system, called ZipDose, is able to
concentrate up to 1000 milligrams into a single
dose.
Aprecia's drug, Spritam, drug is the first 3Dprinted medication and will reach the market in
early 2016. Step by step, a revolution is taking
place in one of the areas that have helped 3D
the most healthcare.

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