3D printing in the context of Timelapse

Printing is a process for mass reproducing text and images using a master form or template. The earliest non-paper products involving printing include cylinder seals and objects such as the Cyrus Cylinder and the Cylinders of Nabonidus. The earliest known form of printing evolved from ink rubbings made on paper or cloth from texts on stone tablets, used during the sixth century. Printing by pressing an inked image onto paper (using woodblock printing) appeared later that century. Later developments in printing technology include the movable type invented by Bi Sheng around 1040 and the printing press invented by Johannes Gutenberg in the 15th century. The technology of printing played a key role in the development of the Renaissance and the Scientific Revolution and laid the material basis for the modern knowledge-based economy and the spread of learning to the masses.

A library is a collection of books, and possibly other materials and media, that is accessible for use by its members and members of allied institutions. Libraries provide physical (hard copies) or digital (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location, a virtual space, or both. A library's collection normally includes printed materials which can be borrowed, and usually also includes a reference section of publications which may only be utilized inside the premises. Resources such as commercial releases of films, television programmes, other video recordings, radio, music and audio recordings may be available in many formats. These include DVDs, Blu-rays, CDs, cassettes, or other applicable formats such as microform. They may also provide access to information, music or other content held on bibliographic databases. In addition, some libraries offer creation stations for makers which offer access to a 3D printing station with a 3D scanner.

Libraries can vary widely in size and may be organised and maintained by a public body such as a government, an institution (such as a school or museum), a corporation, or a private individual. In addition to providing materials, libraries also provide the services of librarians who are trained experts in finding, selecting, circulating and organising information while interpreting information needs and navigating and analysing large amounts of information with a variety of resources. The area of study is known as library and information science or studies.

Injection moulding (U.S. spelling: Injection molding) is a manufacturing process for producing parts by injecting molten material into a mould, or mold. Injection moulding can be performed with a host of materials mainly including metals (for which the process is called die-casting), glasses, elastomers, confections, and most commonly thermoplastic and thermosetting polymers. Material for the part is fed into a heated barrel, mixed (using a helical screw), and injected into a mould cavity, where it cools and hardens to the configuration of the cavity. After a product is designed, usually by an industrial designer or an engineer, moulds are made by a mould-maker (or toolmaker) from metal, usually either steel or aluminium, and precision-machined to form the features of the desired part. Injection moulding is widely used for manufacturing a variety of parts, from the smallest components to entire body panels of cars. Advances in 3D printing technology, using photopolymers that do not melt during the injection moulding of some lower-temperature thermoplastics, can be used for some simple injection moulds.

Injection moulding uses a special-purpose machine that has three parts: the injection unit, the mould and the clamp. Parts to be injection-moulded must be very carefully designed to facilitate the moulding process; the material used for the part, the desired shape and features of the part, the material of the mould, and the properties of the moulding machine must all be taken into account. The versatility of injection moulding is facilitated by this breadth of design considerations and possibilities.

Blender is a free and open-source 3D computer graphics software tool set that runs on Windows, macOS, Linux, BSD, Haiku, and IRIX. It is used for creating animated films, visual effects, art, 3D-printed models, motion graphics, interactive 3D applications, and virtual reality. It is also used in creating models for video games.

Blender was used to produce the Academy Award-winning film Flow (2024).

In manufacturing, threading is the process of creating a screw thread. More screw threads are produced each year than any other machine element. There are many methods of generating threads, including subtractive methods (many kinds of thread cutting and grinding, as detailed below); deformative or transformative methods (rolling and forming; molding and casting); additive methods (such as 3D printing); or combinations thereof.

A library makerspace, also named Hackerspace or Hacklab, is an area and/or service that offers library patrons an opportunity to create intellectual and physical materials using resources such as computers, 3-D printers, 3D scanning, audio and video capture and editing tools, and traditional arts and crafts supplies. In the field of library science, makerspaces are classified as a type of library service offered by librarians to patrons.

Engineering plastics are a group of plastic materials that have better mechanical or thermal properties than the more widely used commodity plastics (such as polystyrene, polyvinyl chloride, polypropylene and polyethylene).

Engineering plastics are more expensive than standard plastics, therefore they are produced in lower quantities and tend to be used for smaller objects or low-volume applications (such as mechanical parts), rather than for bulk and high-volume ends (like containers and packaging). Engineering plastics have a higher heat resistance than standard plastics and are continuously usable at temperatures up to about 150 °C (300 °F).

Air bearings (also known as aerostatic or aerodynamic bearings) are bearings that use a thin film of pressurized gas to provide a low friction load-bearing interface between surfaces. The two surfaces do not touch, thus avoiding the problems of friction, wear, particulates, and lubricant handling associated with conventional bearings, and air bearings offer distinct advantages in precision positioning, such as lacking backlash and static friction, as well as in high-speed applications. Spacecraft simulators now most often use air bearings, and 3-D printers are now used to make air-bearing–based attitude simulators for CubeSat satellites.

A differentiation is made between aerodynamic bearings, which establish the air cushion through the relative motion between static and moving parts, and aerostatic bearings, in which the pressure is being externally inserted.

A variety of processes, equipment, and materials are used in the production of a three-dimensional object via additive manufacturing. 3D printing is also known as additive manufacturing, because the numerous available 3D printing process tend to be additive in nature, with a few key differences in the technologies and the materials used in this process.

Some of the different types of physical transformations which are used in 3D printing include melt extrusion, light polymerization, continuous liquid interface production and sintering.

Rapid prototyping is a group of techniques used to quickly fabricate a scale model of a physical part or assembly using three-dimensional computer aided design (CAD) data.Construction of the part or assembly is usually done using 3D printing technology.

The first methods for rapid prototyping became available in mid 1987 and were used to produce models and prototype parts. Today, they are used for a wide range of applications and are used to manufacture production-quality parts in relatively small numbers if desired without the typical unfavorable short-run economics. This economy has encouraged online service bureaus. Historical surveys of RP technology start with discussions of simulacra production techniques used by 19th-century sculptors. Some modern sculptors use the progeny technology to produce exhibitions and various objects. The ability to reproduce designs from a dataset has given rise to issues of rights, as it is now possible to interpolate volumetric data from 2D images.

Fused filament fabrication (FFF), also known as fused deposition modeling (with the trademarked acronym FDM), or filament freeform fabrication, is a 3D printing process that uses a continuous filament of a thermoplastic material. Filament is fed from a large spool through a moving, heated printer extruder head, and is deposited on the growing work. The print head is moved under computer control to define the printed shape. Usually the head moves in two dimensions to deposit one horizontal plane, or layer, at a time; the work or the print head is then moved vertically by a small amount to begin a new layer. The speed of the extruder head may also be controlled to stop and start deposition and form an interrupted plane without stringing or dribbling between sections. "Fused filament fabrication" was coined by the members of the RepRap project to give an acronym (FFF) that would be legally unconstrained in use.

Fused filament printing has in the 2010s-2020s been the most popular process (by number of machines) for hobbyist-grade 3D printing. Other techniques such as photopolymerisation and powder sintering may offer better results, but they are much more costly.

HP Inc. is an American multinational information technology company with its headquarters in Palo Alto, California, that develops personal computers (PCs), printers and related supplies, as well as 3D printing services. It is the world's second-largest personal computer vendor by unit sales after Lenovo and ahead of Dell as of 2024.

HP Inc. was founded in 2015 when the original Hewlett-Packard Company split into two companies. The old company's enterprise product and business services divisions were spun-off into a new publicly traded company, Hewlett Packard Enterprise. Hewlett-Packard then renamed itself as HP Inc. and retained the personal computer and printer services divisions of its predecessor, serving as the legal successor of the original company that was founded in 1939. HP is listed on the New York Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the S&P 500 Index. In the 2023 Fortune 500 list, HP is ranked 63rd-largest United States corporation by total revenue.