Printing in Three Dimensions
When you enter the circulation area of Einstein’s D. Samuel Gottesman Library these days, you may hear futuristic whirring and humming instead of the usual deep silence. The source of the sounds is the library’s new Makerbot Replicator 3-D printer, unveiled last fall and now so popular that library staffers roll it into the library to meet its public on Fridays as well as on the original “3-D Thursdays.” It even has its own Twitter hashtag, #Einstein3D.
Library staff members (from left) Winifred King, Phil Shen and Nancy Glassman get the 3-D printer set to go“It was a natural fit for us,” said Winifred King, web services librarian. Proof positive: A nearby tabletop, known as “The Petting Zoo,” has a variety of “printouts” on display.
She added, “While the cost of 3-D printers can run anywhere from hundreds to thousands of dollars, we were fortunate to receive a grant from the Metropolitan New York Library Council, which provided funding for our printer.”
Useful Applications
The 3-D printer is more than just a novel curiosity. Around the world, 3-D printers - more appropriately described as “industrial robots” - are synthesizing three-dimensional implantable body parts, prostheses, medical devices and more, explained Nancy Glassman, assistant director for informatics. All you need is the right matrix and an image file translated into language that the printer understands. The printer head moves back and forth, adding layer to layer, until the object is built up to a recognizable form.
The printer at work, laying down filament to create an object“Our printer is not suitable for creating actual prostheses, implants or medical devices,” she noted. “But it can demonstrate how such items can be made using 3-D printing. And it can help familiarize users with the many facets of how 3-D printing can further inform our knowledge.”
It’s a slow process: The left side of a heart model made recently at the D. Samuel Gottesman Library required 11 hours and 40 minutes; the right side, 21 hours and 44 minutes.
“The machine can’t be moved when a project is in progress because delicate calibration may be lost,” noted Ms. Glassman. “And it can’t run overnight; someone must always monitor it for overheating.”
A Resource for All
While there are already 3-D printers on campus, in at least one lab and one of Einstein’s highly automated shared facilities, the library’s is the first one available to all comers.
“Right now the user ratio is about 50/50 faculty and students,” said Ms. King. “We’re increasingly getting researchers who make requests like ‘Can I print a model of my virus?’ The answer is ‘Yes!’”
The “petting zoo” offers examples of items that have been printedAs for the educational value to students, “3-D printers are likely to become more of a presence in labs,” she said. “And though our future physicians and surgeons may not be called upon to design 3-D printer programs or to operate the machine, it certainly can be useful for them to know how a 3-D printer works and what it can do with regard to clinical applications.”
The library’s 3-D printer can create projects in black, white, gray, red, blue or neutral, derived from a polylactic acid filament. To learn more about 3-D printing or to do a project, visit http://libguides.einstein.yu.edu/3d. It’s a good idea to place a print request ahead of time. Happy printing!
Posted on: Wednesday, February 24, 2016