Thinkers Assignment

Manufacture

The 18th century, followed by the industrial revolution, allowed the production of many different items to become automated. Throughout the 20th century, automation was crucial to either side of both world wars. Today, the automated systems of 3D printing are providing the potential for mankind to build almost anything, even biological materials, with nothing but a 3D model and the push of a button.

Sir Richard Arkwright

-Considered the father of modern industrial factories
-Many of his inventions led to the progress of the industrial revolution
-Born in Preston, UK, 1732
-Began working as an apprentice barber
-After the death of his first wife, he became on entrepreneur, and his second marriage gave him enough money to expand his business as a barber
-He acquired a secret method of dyeing hair, and also began manufacturing wigs
-During this time, he was in frequent contact with weavers and spinners
-When wigs went out of style, he looked to the textile industry
-By 1767, a machine for carding cotton had been introduced to England
-Arkwright, along with the help of a clockmaker, John Kay, developed an innovation, and their new carding machine, which allowed the production of stronger yarn with less physical labour, was patented in 1775
-As his wealth expanded, he was able to build the first horse-driven spinning mill in Preston
-He developed mills such that the entire process of yarn manufacture was reduced to a single machine
-First to incorporate the use of James Watt's steam engine
-All of this eventually led to the development of the power loom
-Since 1775, his patents had continued to be challenged, and they were finally revoked ten years later
-Was knighted in 1786 a wealthy man

Despite his intellectual credentials being uncertain, Arkwright built and streamlined the automation of cotton processing, an industry which set the foundation for the manufacturing processes we use today.

A restored carding machine at Quarry Bank Mill in the UK.

Chuck Hull

-Inventor of stereolithography (3D printing), and chief technology officer of 3D Systems
-Born 1939
-In 1984, when stereolithography (also known as SLA) technology was developed, there was no such thing as rapid protoyping; engineers would have to pay thousands of dollars and spend months developing a working prototype of anything
-When it was invented, it provided designers a way to quickly build their inventions to see how they would work outside of the computer model and in the physical, albeit not necessarily made of the right material
-Chuck, along with 3D Systems, also developed the .stl file type, allowing CAD software, the standard in 3d modeling, to communicate with the new 3D printers; a file type still used today
-The method he created is an additive manufacturing process, using liquid polymer "resin," which is UV-curable, as well as a UV laser, to build the parts, or the entire model, one layer at a time
-The laser rapidly solidifies the resin, allowing each cross-sectional layer to be traced and built individually; these layers are adhered to each other in the same process, and at the end a prototype is produced
-This technology provided design times to be cut by
-As of 2011, 3D Systems holds 400 patents on SLA technology

A 3DTouch was donated to School of Engineering at Bristol University by 3D Systems

-This technology has been recently used in the medical field extensively
-One famous instances being a replacement of a windpipe in a tracheal cancer patient in Sweden. They used an SLA (Stereolithography Appartus) to print a flexible plastic trachea in the same shape as the patient's own, and coated it with stem cells; it was accepted by the patients system and effectively cured him.
-A second case is that of a 3-year old american baby with tracheobronchomalacia; an airway in one of his lungs continued to collapse. The doctors 3D-printed a scaffold to support the baby's airway, allowing his body to grow around it and dissolve it, and cure his condition.
-As of April 2013, scientists at Modern Meadow are using the same technology to create meat from various types of animal cells, which in the future could potentially eliminate the need for humans to kill animals for food.
-With SLAs being so common these days, a new trend known as "desktop manufacturing" has arisen, providing any upper-middle-class individual the purchase of a 3D printer and software, opening at-home manufacture to the public

At the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas printer manufacturer 3D Systems has launched the first "consumer" 3D printer that isn't a kit, nor prohibitively expensive.

-A 3D printer is even being sent to the International Space Station, where it will manufacture the first parts ever made off of our planet. The company Made in Space has partnered with NASA to allow tools and parts to be made on-demand, dropping the costs of upkeeping the station, as well as preventing the hazards of going without certain tools or parts for lengthy periods of time.
-Chuck continues his work, still eager for any new field to apply his technology

Literally inventing an entirely new method of manufacture, I predict we will be having many more opportunities to thank Chuck in years to come. Already saving lives, Hull's ideas laid the foundation for one of the fastest, most portable and accessible forms of manufacture to this day.



Sources:
Wikipedia contributors. "Mass production." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 21 May. 2013. Web. 25 May. 2013. 
Wikipedia contributors. "Richard Arkwright." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 20 May. 2013. Web. 25 May. 2013.
"Sir Richard Arkwright (1732 - 1792)." BBC - History. BBC © 2013, n.d. Web. 25 May 2013. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/arkwright_richard.shtml>.
Wikipedia contributors. "Chuck Hull." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 14 May. 2013. Web. 25 May. 2013.
"25 Years of Innovation 1986-2011." 3D Systems. BBC © 2013, n.d. Web. 25 May 2013. <http://www.3dsystems.com/news/25th-anniversary>. 

Brown, Mark. "First synthetic trachea transplant is a success in Sweden." Wired UK 8 July 2011. Web. 25 May 2013.

Gallagher, Sean. "Doctors save baby’s life with 3D-printed tracheal implant." Ars Technica 23 May 2013. Web. 25 May 2013.

Moskvitch, Katia. "Modern Meadow aims to print raw meat using bioprinter." BBC News 21 Jan. 2013. Web. 25 May 2013. 

Chung, Emily. "3D printers give rise to 'desktop manufacturing'." CBC News 24 May 2013. Web. 25 May 2013. 

Wall, Mike. "3D Printer Launching to Space Station in 2014." Yahoo! News 25 May 2013. Web. 25 May 2013.