In 1984, Chuck Hull of 3D Systems Corp developed the world’s first working 3D printer. 3D printing, also known as additive manufacturing, is a process of making a three-dimensional solid object of virtually any shape from a digital model. It is called additive manufacturing because 3D printing is achieved using an additive process, where successive layers of material, like such as plastic, ceramics, glass or metal, are laid down in different shapes to manufacture parts.

Today, the market for 3D printers is estimated at 2.2 billion dollars, and companies like Boeing, General Electric and Honeywell are using the printers. Traditionally, 3D printers have been used for both prototyping and manufacturing. Applications include architecture, construction, industrial design, automotive, aerospace, military, engineering, civil engineering, dental and medical industries, fashion, footwear, jewelry, eyewear, education, geographic information systems, food, and new applications are continually surfacing. One new application is in biotech (human tissue replacement).

In 2012, 3D printing technology began to be studied by biotechnology firms and academia. Possible applications include tissue engineering, in which organs and body parts are built by depositing layers of living cells onto a gel medium or sugar matrix and slowly built up to form three-dimensional structures including vascular systems. This field of research is being referred to as organ printing, bioprinting, body part printing, and computer-aided tissue engineering. One such company, Organovo, a San Diego-based company that focuses on regenerative medicine, is using 3D printers to print functional human tissue for medical research and regenerative therapies.

In 2013, Chinese scientists found ways of printing ears, livers and kidneys, with living tissue. Researchers at Hangzhou Dianzi University invented their own 3D printer for the complex task, dubbed the “Regenovo.” Regenovo’s developer, Xu Mingen, said that it takes the printer less than an hour to produce either a mini liver sample or a four to five inch ear cartilage sample. In the same year, researchers at the University of Hasselt, in Belgium, successfully printed a new jawbone for an 83-year-old Belgian woman, who is now able to chew, speak and breathe normally again with her new jawbone.

Eventually, medical researchers predict to be able to use the printed tissue to make organs for organ replacement. However, growing functional organs is still at least 10 years away, said Shaochen Chen, a professor of nano-engineering at the University of California, San Diego, and an expert that uses bioprinting in researching regenerative medicine. Other researchers, like Xu Mingen of Hangzhou Dianzi University, agree. This suggests that growing human compatible functional organs is only one or two decades away.

The image is a picture of Materials Engineer working in an Advanced Manufacture Laboratory with a 3D printing Machine.