Emerging Technologies in Transportation Casebook/3D Printing/Future developments

• The field of 3D Printing is developing so rapidly that it is impossible to predict what future advances may be, and where successes and failures may manifest. Current initiatives focus more on successfully utilizing new material, rather than on producing a larger or smoother item. Specific items include titanium, high-performance polymers, advanced technical ceramics like zirconia, silica-based ceramics like silicon carbide, graphene alltropes, and biomaterials as discussed below:
  • “3D bioprinting is already being used in labs to create tissue scaffolds and other complex biological structures. “We’re still at the very beginning of being able to build real functional tissues with 3D bioprinting,” said FluidForm CTO Adam Feinberg. “Collaborations like the one we are building with LulzBot will help make this a reality faster.” 3D biofabrication technology is revolutionizing applications across a wide spectrum of industries, including pharmaceuticals, regenerative medicine, drug screening, food and other animal products, cell-based biosensors, and testing of cosmetics and other health care goods. Within the next decade, major pharmaceutical companies will  be able to replace some animal testing and non-physiological 2D cell culture systems with clinically-relevant 3D bioprinted human tissues.”

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