An overview of the advances in the 3D printing technology

In the past decades, 3D printing technology or additive manufacturing has evolved to mold prototypes as physical objects by precisely depositing material (e.g., plastic, resin, biomaterials, metals) layer by layer according to the geometrical representations by computer-aided design (CAD). Since its advent, it has found its use in education, health, engineering, architecture, and irrigation, to name a few. The idea dates back to the 1970s until the prototype was accepted in the 1980s which made tremendous use of stereolithography. Over time it has evolved to use various technologies like Selective Laser Sintering and Fused Deposition Modeling, which have gained colossal recognition worldwide. Persistent advancements in the CAD tools and materials used have co-occurred to provide more robust, economic, and effective means for 3D printing, an account of which this chapter describes.