You may not have a 3D printer in your home, but that doesn't mean it's not poised to change your everyday life. Car companies are using them for spare parts, 3D printed homes are leaving the experimental stage. But it's not Star Trek replicator magic. 3D printing is based on actual science, and The Engineering Guy gives a clear, step-by-step lesson in how at least one version of that science works.

3D printing, no matter the variety, requires a material to use for the printing. In this case, it's liquid resin. When that resin is exposed to blue light, it solidifies. A lot of 3D printing is making sure that the resin is exposed to light at precisely the right moment and in the right pattern. A tray (in the video above, orange), shields the resin from inadvertently being exposed to light.

The hardening-through-light process is called curing and is done with a DLP projector, short for Digital Light Processing. LEDs produce the blue light in a narrow range of wavelengths, and then a micromirror creates the light pattern appropriate for a particular layer.

Terms like "micromirror" can make 3D printing seem especially sci-fi. Originally developed by Texas Instruments, micromirrors are three-fourth of an inch by a quarter of an inch big. But in that space, they can fit millions of tiny mirrors. The process is ultimately by the time the resin needs to harden, although different 3D printers have different speeds.

And of course this resin-hardening method is but one specific example of how additive manufacturing work. Extruder printers use vertical layers of plastic to create their products, 3D printers that trade in metal often use lasers to essential weld powder to itself. Whatever the specific tech, however, 3D printing is a fascinating process that will only get more refined as time goes on. Maybe it won't be too long until we get a real replicator after all.

Source: Popular Mechanics