Grand Challenges: Dystopian Futures 3D Printing Technology Essay

This argumentative essay delves into the realm of 3D printing technology, exploring its evolution, operational principles, and the rationale behind its development. It provides a comprehensive description of 3D printing, highlighting its additive manufacturing process and its capacity to produce complex physical objects from digital models. The essay then examines the potential benefits of 3D printing, such as faster production, enhanced product quality, and cost-effectiveness, while also addressing associated risks, like exposure to ultrafine particles. The core of the essay presents an evidence-based argument on whether the technology is a worthwhile advancement, particularly within the medical field, where 3D printing has enabled the creation of affordable prosthetics. Ultimately, the essay concludes that, despite the risks, the advantages of 3D printing, including its economic and competitive benefits, warrant its continued development and adoption across various industries.

Running head: ARGUMENTATIVE ESSAY
Argumentative Essay on the Technology of 3D Printing
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1ARGUMENTATIVE ESSAY
Introduction
One of the latest technologies that have emerged in the world of digital technology
has been the 3D Printing. This latest technology that has changed the face of technology for
manufacturing at such a level that the process of creating a physical object has been
completely emerged into a technologically advanced feature. This technology has made it
easier to manufacture or develop complex physical objects as per the imagination of a human
being behind that particular object (Radenkovic, Solouk and Seifalian 2016). It was not at all
easier for people to develop or manufacture physical objects according to the accuracy of the
requirements due to the inability of the machines. This new technology has provided the
printing technology develop the physical objects right from a digital model that is three
dimensional in nature. This is mostly done by the laying down of the thin layers of materials
for successions. Therefore, the following essay would focus on the technology by providing a
clear description about the 3D printing technology, describe the purpose behind the
development of such a technology and the potential benefits of the technology. The risks
associated with the technology would also be described in this essay as well as presentation
of an argument with evidence that would describe if the technology has been a benefit or a
disadvantage to the society.
Clear description of the technology
A 3D printing technology or a 3-Dimensional Printing technology is the latest
development in the world of technology that helps the process of manufacturing develop in
such way for delivering the production of a physical object that has never been experienced
before (Duda and Raghavan 2016). With this technology, the process of manufacturing has
been developed at such a level that it has become easy to manufacture and physical object,
developed from the objects taken from a digital file.

2ARGUMENTATIVE ESSAY
The process utilized for this manufacturing process has been the additive process. The
additive process can be described as the process where the objects are laid down by adding
layers to the structure one after another successively until and unless the required object is
created as per the descriptions taken from the digital file (Lee et al. 2016). The layers that are
obtained from the specifications of the digital file to create the layers has a potential of being
thinly sliced according to the horizontal cross-section obtained from the eventual succession
of the object. This is found to be the exact opposite manufacturing process developed form
the subtractive model of manufacturing. The subtractive model of manufacturing is described
as the process by which an object is modelled with the cutting out of an object or hollowing
out a piece of an object with the help of a milling machine and its instances. The 3D printing
technology enables the production of most complex of functional shapes with the utilization
of the least amount of materials, even by utilizing the traditional forms of manufacturing. The
working principle of a 3D printing is also an easy process to follow (Wang et al. 2017). First,
the 3D model is to be made in the computer with the help of digital designing techniques
utilizing the techniques of the instances found in the Computer Aided Design file or a CAD
file. This 3D model is created with the help of the 3D modelling software or generated based
on the data with the help of a 3D scanner. The digital copy is then created through the 3D
scanner. A 3D modelling structure is then used to generate the 3D model and then it is
focused on making the 3D model into a printable structure. The slicing process then follows
this method to develop the horizontal layers with the help of slicing software and this is how
a physical object is developed from the digital files created by a computer to a physical
object.

3ARGUMENTATIVE ESSAY
Purpose and rationale of the technology
The additive manufacturing technology for 3D printing has been a 40-year-old idea
that has been developed in the Regan era by trial and error procedures. In the year 1981, the
first solid printed model was developed with several layers for the development of the
prototypes created with the use of photopolymers. Later, it was developed to be the latest
technology of the 3D printing to make it easier for the development and the manufacturing of
the processes which was easier to develop, and provided a whole new range of advantages to
the field of product manufacturing. The traditional ways by which the manufacturing
procedure was conducted did not provide much precision to the manufactured devices (Xing,
Zheng and Duan 2015). This was not decided that the manufacturing procedures would only
be kept only to manufacture the engineering devices, but it was also meant for manufacturing
the objects that were too expensive to develop. The primary idea behind the 3D printing
reduces the expense behind the manufacturing of the device as it makes use of the least
amount of the manufacturing materials utilized for the product, thus making the cost of
production or manufacturing as least or cheap as possible, at the same time providing the
customers with the most precise and high-quality product possible.
Potential Benefits to the technology
The technology of 3D printing has the potential of presenting the customers and the
organizations with all kinds of benefits in a huge range, irrespective of the industry that the
printing is been done for. Therefore, following would be the potential benefits that can be
gained from the technology of 3D printing:
Faster Production: 3D printing is a technology that has the potential of producing or
manufacturing the required products much faster that the conventional forms of
manufacturing (Satyanarayana and Prakash 2015). The way that the manufacturing of the

4ARGUMENTATIVE ESSAY
products is made possible via 3D printing technologies, possibly takes only a few hours, thus
adding competitive advantage to the technology, in comparison to other forms of
manufacturing processes.
Quality products with tangible design and product testing: The traditional forms
of manufactures have the potential of delivering poor quality prototypes and poor designs.
The precisions in the previous manufacturing techniques were not as much defined as the 3D
printing technology. The design available are also tangible and the product is tested digitally
before the manufacturing begins, thus, reducing the cost of testing the manufacturing process.
Cost-effectiveness: Since, the technology eradicates all the intermediate processes
that were found in the traditional manufacturing procedure, it is much cost effective to go on
with the manufacturing procedure which helps in the reduction of cost for the end product as
well. Therefore, it becomes much cheaper for the customers to avail the 3D manufactured
products.
Risk associated to the society as a result of the technology
The only risk associated with the 3D technology is its exposure to the ultrafine
particles or the UFPPs which elaborate the risk of asthma, stroke and heart diseases if the
UFPs are inhaled (Barnatt 2016).
Evidence based argument on why the change is worthwhile or serves as feasible goal
Medical industry also enjoys the benefits of the 3D printing technology. It has been
found that the 3D printing technology has the potential of providing the customers with the
best possible prosthetics developed and manufactures incurring the utilization of the least
materials possible, thus making the production and development cost to be the cheapest (Loo,
Chua and Pumera 2017). It has been reported that the prosthetics developed by 3D printing is

5ARGUMENTATIVE ESSAY
available at such a cheap rate as a result of the procedure, that it is available to every class
and creed of people. This was not possible before, when the prosthetics were developed at a
huge cost thus making them available at an expensive rate.
Therefore, it is worthwhile to keep the change that has been incurred by the 3D
printing technologies and the technology should be developed much more to help the
generation of the manufacturing industry keep on helping with the manufacturing of
expensive object at the cheapest amount possible.
Conclusion
Thus, it can be said that the emerging technology of 3D printing has been providing
huge transformation all over the world of the manufacturing industry. This is a technology
that helps in manufacturing of the physical objects with the help of digital files created for
providing specifications of the product to be manufactured. It has been found that the
manufacturing is done with the help of layering techniques and the product in the end is
found to be accurate to the specifications that the digital files provide. This is much better as
a technological advancement than the previous manufacturing techniques that were not able
to provide the products with the accuracy it required. The technique has its benefits and risks,
but the technology should be backed up since it provides economic and competitive
advantages to the customers by providing manufactured products for all the industries, and
not just the engineering products. The medical industry can enjoy the benefits of the
technology as it has the potential of manufacturing prosthetics at the least and cheapest
amounts possible with the bets manufactured products.

6ARGUMENTATIVE ESSAY
References
Barnatt, C., 2016. 3D Printing Third Edition. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.
Duda, T. and Raghavan, L.V., 2016. 3D metal printing technology. IFAC-
PapersOnLine, 49(29), pp.103-110.
Lee, J.Y., Tan, W.S., An, J., Chua, C.K., Tang, C.Y., Fane, A.G. and Chong, T.H., 2016. The
potential to enhance membrane module design with 3D printing technology. Journal of
Membrane Science, 499, pp.480-490.
Loo, A.H., Chua, C.K. and Pumera, M., 2017. DNA biosensing with 3D printing
technology. Analyst, 142(2), pp.279-283.
Radenkovic, D., Solouk, A. and Seifalian, A., 2016. Personalized development of human
organs using 3D printing technology. Medical hypotheses, 87, pp.30-33.
Satyanarayana, B. and Prakash, K.J., 2015. Component replication using 3D Printing
technology. Procedia Materials Science, 10, pp.263-269.
Wang, X., Jiang, M., Zhou, Z., Gou, J. and Hui, D., 2017. 3D printing of polymer matrix
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Xing, J.F., Zheng, M.L. and Duan, X.M., 2015. Two-photon polymerization microfabrication
of hydrogels: an advanced 3D printing technology for tissue engineering and drug
delivery. Chemical Society Reviews, 44(15), pp.5031-5039.