3D printing has arrived!

 

There were three 3D printing firms from Hyderabad, Thin3D, Build Protos and one representing the design and prototyping centre for Engineering Staff College of India (ESCI), Bengaluru’s Creator Bots, who will soon open shops here. Then, city-based LightSaber looking out for investors.

 

People huddled around the stalls to see how these products were actually printed. And now, these entrepreneurs feel reassured that they were not shooting in the dark and that, yes, there is a demand for the technology.

 

As Raja Sekhar Upputuri of Think3D puts it: “A man walked up to my stall, I think he was a dentist, and asked, ‘Can we print teeth too?’ Then recently, a Class XI student asked us to print a box. He has built a sensor for blind people that detects obstacles and wanted a box for it. We printed it in 2-3 hours.” 

 

That’s the beauty of the technology. You get an idea, put it together on a designing software and fire the print command. And you have the product of your choice ready in minutes or hours. It’s like a domestic manufacturing unit. You need not run around from shop to shop to gather material and then get it manufactured.

 

In the city, students are finishing up their science projects, like printing a mini-pen, architects are getting prototypes of their estate projects, IT firms are getting logos printed on every possible corporate gift, automobile manufacturers are printing spare parts, design studios are innovating with their products and some, like artist Harsha Vardhan Durugadda, are printing sculptures on 3D printers. Work is even on at BITS-Pilani, Hyderabad, to print life-like miniatures as wedding gifts. 

 

While the 3D movement has only started gaining steam in the city, with workshops and demonstrations happening on and off, in start-up circles and colleges, it has a lot more to offer. Nikhil Chowdary of ESCI says, “In India, the biggest market of 3D printers is jewellery designing. Jewellers can innovate, do a lot of trial and error with their designs, without wasting a lot of material, their time and energy.” And, by October, ESCI will also get a metal 3D printer in the city, which will print out screws, nuts, bolts and spare parts for industry in hours. 

 

 

At the moment, a 3D printer can cost from Rs 35,000 to lakhs. And, probably that is what holding its utility back. But city’s BITS-Pilani is working towards making its material cheaper, which usually is plastic or nylon, and determines the price of the product printed. MD of the incubator, Surya Rao, says, “We are building low-cost, biodegradable material for 3D printing from scratch. We received Rs 35 lakh funding from the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India, earlier this year.”