Thrive for Future Series 1: Seminar on the Introduction of 3D Printing

By Mr Reza Chu

The captioned event, jointly organized by YMC and MI Division, was successfully held on 3rd

October,

2013. Ir Dr. Martin Wong, an Associate Professor of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University has delivered

us a seminar on the introduction of 3D printing technology, its impacts to our life and its development

from the past to the future.

“3D printing technology is not new,” said Ir Dr. Wong, “it has been invented for thirty years and applied

in the automotive manufacturing industry for more than a decade.” Academically, 3D printing refers to

the Additive Manufacturing (AM) technology. The first 3D printing technology was invented in 1983.

There are four different kinds of mechanism in 3D printing which are Laser, Binder, Heat and Laser Light.

A 3D printing machine nowadays can “print” the object layer by layer without using a mold to form the

object. It not only benefits to the cost saving from the mold materials, but allows adjustment and

redesign by checking the prototype to create the final version of the product befor entering the mass

production process. Besides automotive manufacturing industry, it has also been applied in the

biomedical industry for many years. Doctors can use a 3D printing machine to make a part of the

patient’s body from the 3D model of the patient’s skeleton model generated from Computed

Tomography (CT) or Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) for practicing or optimizing some complex

surgeries such as radiation therapy for cancer.

Now, this technology comes to the public aspect in our daily life. You can have everything custom-made

even your own figure from your photos by the machine or a chocolate figure on the wedding cake. In

the future, the technology could be widely used in the space research such as making components of

the research equipment by using the 3D printing machine in the space station and the layout data of the

components sent from the Earth instead of directly sending it by a spacecraft. However, there is a

challenging problem for the scientists to control the liquid flow in a gravity free condition. If the problem

is solved, it could help the development of space research.

The seminar was ended by a question and answer section. On behalf of HKIE YMC and MI Division, I

would like to express our most sincere thanks to Ir Dr. Martin Wong to deliver us an inspiring and

informative seminar.

Photos:

Photo 1 (DSC01593) – Numerous participants concentrating into Ir Vincent Tam’s presentation

Photo 2 (DSC01615) – Souvenir presentation from YMC Honour Secretary Mr. Vincent LEUNG and MI Div.

Chairman Ir Richard TSE to Ir Dr. Martin WONG