Prototyping for Everyone
Instead of hiring engineers to work with a factory in Shenzhen (or Baja California) to create a product sample, today an inventor can try out a new concept with simulated models and 3D printed mockups. Even your school might have a “makerspace” that you can use to channel your inner Thomas Edison—or Sarah Boone. Consider the advantages and disadvantages of such rapid prototyping, then discuss with your team: should access to these tools be limited to those who can use them responsibly?
Key concepts
- Rapid Prototyping
- Making a rough, working version of an idea fast and cheap, so you can test it and throw it away. The point is not the object but the speed: the more tries you can afford, the sooner you find out what is wrong.
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Every work — at a glance
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3D Printing (technology)
Additive manufacturing: an object built up layer by layer from a digital file, rather than cut out of a block. Cheap desktop printers arrived once the early patents expired around 2009.
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What to know
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01
What does fast, cheap making buy you? Time and reach: a physical model in a night instead of a quarter, no factory to book and no tooling to pay for. Building up an object layer by layer also wastes less than cutting one out of a block, because the machine only lays down what the object needs.
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Across subjects
Theme connection
"Are We There Yet?"
Practice — a sample
SCILayer by layer from a file, 3D printing is to a plastic prototype as bioprinting is to —
- A A plastic wrist splint
- B A transplantable organ
- C A self-grown mini-brain
- D A restored early state
- E A longer telomere
Sign in to answer and see why each option is right or wrong.
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