Multi-material 3D printing produces filament waste if only one nozzle is used

The most common type of 3D printer fabricates objects using plastic

At the consumer level, the most common printing method is fused deposition modeling, which builds objects by melting an extruding thermoplastic filament that is deposited in layers. For industrial applications, selective laser sintering, which uses a laser to fuse particles of polymer powder (e.g., nylon), is preferred.

Additive manufacturing consists of seven different process categories

Although 3D printing has become synonymous with the term, objects can be fabricated without filaments of hot plastic or light-sensitive powders. For example, during sheet lamination, ultrasonic waves—high-frequency vibrations—can join metal sheets by creating molecular bonds through friction.

3D printers can create nearly any object that can be digitally designed

Limited only by the size of the printer and the properties of the materials used for printing, fabrications, including household items, toys, props, cases, prototypes, and models, can take anywhere from fractions of an hour to several days to make, depending on design complexity, size, color changes, and printer settings.

Microgravity environments improve the success of 3D bioprinting

Gravity can cause gaps, such as those in the chambers of a 3D-printed heart, to collapse before stem cells, hydrogels, and biochemicals bind together during the bioprinting process. Rather than Earth's surface, some bioprinting is done on the International Space Station, where defective organs are also printed to test treatment methods.

Watch the iterative process of successfully printing a slice of vegan cheesecake

3D printing food requires integrating ingredients with a variety of properties, which may not all resist the physical stress of stacking. This means successful 3D printing of food may require rethinking how ingredients are layered and modifying ratios of each, potentially sacrificing taste for structural integrity.

Watch a time-lapse of 3D printing two pairs of eyeglasses by layering plastic filament.

Software subscriptions, licenses, and climate control systems add to 3D printing costs

Although the sharing of designs and reduced manual labor suggested the fabrication of prosthetics would be facilitated by 3D printing, particularly in developing regions, software and hardware requirements have posed hurdles to achieving this goal. While some insurance companies have refused to cover 3D-printed limbs, they are covered by Medicare.

The benefits of 3D printing batteries, from safety to sustainability

Rather than using the liquid electrolyte commonly found in lithium-ion batteries, 3D-printed batteries would use a solid layer, which can be custom-built into different shapes, deliver higher energy density by building thinner layers, and be fabricated with fewer raw materials compared to injection molding.

As of 2025, the Factory of the Future 1.0 is the world's largest 3D printer

Housed at the University of Maine, the machine incorporates AI and can utilize bio-based materials to construct homes exceeding 3,000 square feet in size. Homes made from these materials are fully recyclable, as their components can be deconstructed, ground up, and reused as raw materials for printing.

3D printing has made musical instruments more accessible

Violins fabricated from durable plastic, rather than being built from wood, can cost hundreds of dollars less, allowing children to try them out without financial pressure. They can be made in colors that appeal to children, sizes tailored to their bodies, and with tactile guides to help visually impaired learners.

Chip-based 3D printers can be pocket-sized and involve no moving parts

Researchers have demonstrated a proof-of-concept version of a chip-based 3D printer that emits visible light onto light-sensitive resin to construct solid shapes. The technology may provide a portable, low-cost solution for future, small-scale fabrication needs.

View a timeline of 3D printing technology through 2019

The first working 3D printing device was invented in 1983 and utilized stereolithography, a process in which a laser triggers a chemical reaction that hardens liquid resin. Powder-based laser sintering technology was patented in 1987, with metal-based powders first being used for 3D printing in 1997.

Objects can be 3D printed with light by projecting 2D computerized tomography (CT) scans onto rotating cylinders of resin, which solidify upon exposure.

Medical imaging allows 3D printers to create patient-matched devices

With imaging data on a person's anatomy, external prostheses and implants, such as cranial plates or hip joints, can be custom-printed to better match a patient's body. Fabrication of porous structures can promote bone growth, leading to longer-lasting implants.

Mosquito necroprinting uses an insect's mouthpart as the printer nozzle

Mosquitoes are abundant, and their nozzles are 32-100 times cheaper to harvest than to create from scratch out of metal or glass. By coating the organic nozzle to increase its strength, researchers are employing necroprinting to create tiny structures at better resolutions than commercial alternatives.

How plastic manufacturing could be sustainable again

From polymers to nurdles, learn how plastic is created and what we can do to slow the lasting repercussions this material will have on both our planet and our lives.

Explore a library of data files for 3D printing

Data files are organized by category, including gadgets, learning, and fashion, with most available in .stl format, which is native to computer-aided design software, and presliced. Some files are also available in .3mf, an open-source file format developed as a universal standard for high-fidelity 3D printing.

View a gallery of 3D printed clothing

Many 3D printed garments represent wearable art where technology meets couture. Despite their appearances on runways since Iris van Herpen's pioneering top at Amsterdam Fashion Week in 2010, mainstream adoption has been limited due to high costs and reduced comfort when compared to fabric-based apparel.

Most custom earmolds for in-ear hearing aids are made using 3D printing

The technology has also been utilized for behind-the-ear and receiver-in-canal hearing aids, allowing for the creation of structures tailored to the patient's anatomy for enhanced effectiveness. 3D printing has also been used to print retinal eye cells and custom eyeglass frames.

Components of the 'ghost gun' allegedly used by Luigi Mangione were 3D printed

Although some "ghost guns" are firearms whose serial numbers have been removed, many others are built from pieces that can be printed using readily available online data files. Federal laws and some states do not prohibit the construction of these DIY firearms for personal use.

Within fabrication plants, it takes about three months to manufacture hundreds of microchips from a single wafer of pure silicon using light and significant quantities of electricity, water, and hazardous chemicals.

During wash cycles, synthetic fabrics shed millions of plastic microfibers, making them a significant source of global microfiber pollution.

The first 3D printing patent was filed in 1967

Wyn Swainson, an English literature graduate student, filed a patent in Denmark for a system that scans an object and uses the scanning data to rebuild it using lasers that harden light-sensitive plastic. However, he never developed a working prototype. The idea originated from wanting to produce recreations of sculptures.

Many plastic products are molded from melted pellets called nurdles, which are made from ethylene and propylene extracted from crude oil.

How 3D printing inside cells paves the way for microscopic machines

In 2026, scientists in Slovenia developed a method to 3D print a small elephant, several microscopic geometric objects, and barcodes for cell labeling within living human cells, which continued to grow and divide thereafter. The experiment opens the door to fabricating devices within cells to study and manipulate cellular functions.

Watch Apple Watch cases be 3D printed from titanium powder

Apple Watch Ultra 3 cases are 3D printed entirely from recycled, aerospace-grade titanium powder using lasers to fuse particles. Over 400 metric tons of raw titanium were saved in 2025, with two watches fabricated from the same amount of raw material that would have previously been used to make one.

Glass can be endlessly recycled without losing quality

Sand from specialized mines is thoroughly cleaned and melted at more than 1,600 degrees Celsius before being poured onto liquid tin and evenly spread out to form glass sheets. Some factories are designed to reprocess 100% of glass scraps created when cutting glass with diamond-tipped blades or lasers.

Fiberglass and epoxy resin on blades complicate the recycling of wind turbines

Between 85 and 95% of a turbine's materials—except for the blades—can be recycled. Blades have been left in landfills when not repurposed into playgrounds and sheds, but new processes may allow them to be made into pellets for injection plastics and concrete.

Massive 3D printers have been used to build homes by stacking layers of 'concrete toothpaste,' a fire-resistant material that effectively insulates against outside noise.

The US produces far more waste and recycles far less of it than other developed countries

The US represents just 4% of the world’s population, but it produces 12% of global municipal solid waste. In comparison, China and India make up more than 36% of the world’s population and generate 27% of that waste.

Removal of different color tattoo inks may require multiple lasers

Light needs to be absorbed by ink particles to break them down into small enough pieces for the immune system to eliminate. Color ink reflects, rather than absorbs, lasers of the same color, while black ink absorbs all colored lasers.

Watch the engineering challenges overcome in turning a 3D printer into a tattoo machine

The DIY project required reprogramming the printer to operate on a curved, 2D surface rather than making flat layers in 3D, editing replacement firmware to bypass temperature safety checks, and developing a rapid system to stop the tattoo in case of an emergency. The final product printed "LEG" on a volunteer's leg.

Watch a time-lapse of 3D printing a Groot figurine

The total printing time on the Prusa i3 MK2 printer was 12 hours and 32 minutes, with the head alone taking nearly 5 hours to print from layering plastic filament.

Microchip fabricators create light by heating tin droplets to over 220,000 Kelvin

Every second, lasers strike 50,000 droplets moving at 250 kilometers (155 miles) per hour, vaporizing the tin in supernova-like miniature explosions that produce ultraviolet light. Knowing this light will spread via diffraction as it passes through a filter during manufacturing, designers reverse-engineer the filter design based on the required final microchip pattern.

How chemical recycling could create 'infinite' plastic

The way we normally recycle plastics is a downward spiral of waste and degraded materials, but there is another option—turning plastic back into the oil it was made from.

Thingiverse is a massive free library of 3D-printable designs

The site—which was launched in 2008 by 3D-printer manufacturer MakerBot—hosts more than 2 million user-generated design files to build everything from prosthetic hands to replacement dishwasher parts (or the "Golden Snitch" from "Harry Potter). The community behind it rapidly designed and shared files for face shields and ventilator components amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

What percentage of the world’s plastic waste actually gets recycled?

Despite growing awareness of the world’s plastic waste challenges, the numbers showing how much of the world’s plastic waste actually gets recycled are abysmal. Only 9% of the world’s plastic waste is properly recycled, and a significant portion remains landfilled, mismanaged, or incinerated. Read this article for further analysis of why this is and what can be done in the future to better manage plastic waste.

Stereolithography uses light to fabricate objects in layers via chemical reactions

Specific locations in a tank of light-sensitive liquid resin are exposed to projected light, causing them to cure onto a build platform. The resulting cross-section of hardened plastic is moved slightly away from the light source, exposing it to resin once more, and the process repeats to produce successive layers.

Methods for disposing of nuclear waste include melting it into a liquid to create glass, dumping it into graphite blocks, storing it in lead-lined rooms, and submerging it in deep pools of water.

View the estimated decomposition times for various everyday plastic products, which often fragment into smaller microplastics as molecular bonds are weakened by sunlight.

The challenges of trying to study microplastics in microplastic-abundant labs

The presence of microplastics in instruments, surfaces, and air has made accurate measurement of their levels in lab samples difficult, given the high likelihood of contamination. While the use of stainless steel tools in a sealed, clean lab may reduce accidental exposure, existing methods can misidentify biological substances, such as fat, as plastics, further complicating research.

NASA funded research into creating pizza with a 3D printer

The agency awarded a contract for the development of devices that can create edible structures from long-lasting dry powders when mixed with liquids or pastes. By delaying this integration until the time of consumption, food could last longer than the current six-month expiration of freeze-dried meals for Mars expeditions.

What to do about the microplastics in your laundry

Synthetic fabrics shed millions of tons of microplastics into oceans each year, largely through laundry wastewater. Here are ways to reduce the pollution.

3-parent IVF removes most—but not all—faulty mitochondria

The process scoops out about 99% of the mother's mitochondrial DNA—replacing it with that of a donor woman—but because that roughly 1% is still in the system there is still a small chance of disease for the resulting child or future generations. (Some users may encounter a paywall.)

Laser-etched electric charges guide toner during laser printing

When sending a print job, the file data generates an image that a laser maps positively charged regions onto a drum separately for each color toner. Once the negatively charged toner is applied where it was electrically attracted, heat and pressure fuse it onto the paper.

What happens if you throw trash into lava?

Each year, the world generates more than 2 billion tons of waste. Some have wondered: Could we dispose of it in lava? This video explores the science behind that idea, from lava lake temperatures to steam explosions and toxic emissions, and why the risks outweigh the benefits.

Fiber lasers used for metal engravings can’t burn your skin

These devices use diodes and mirrors to create pulses of light that vaporize metal in billionths of a second, though at wavelengths that cannot react with organic material. Pulse width, power, and speed adjustments can produce white, black, and even colored patterns through controlled heat reactions.

How existing technology could prevent nearly 80% of plastic pollution

More than 28 million tons of plastic enters the environment each year, where it harms animals and damages habitats. A study co-authored by researchers at The Pew Charitable Trusts found that this flow can be reduced by nearly 80% in the next 20 years using existing waste management and recycling technology.

String theory replaces black hole singularities with fuzzballs of tangled strings

Black holes contain singularities where information about the material that fell in is lost, violating quantum mechanics. Instead, modeled as a bundle of strings, information is stored and slowly released as the black hole evaporates.

What the people on the front lines think about America's recycling crisis

America produces more waste per capita than any other country in the world. And recycling, which was once considered the solution to that problem, isn't really working anymore.