3D printing

3D printing or three-dimensional printing is the "general public" name for manufacturing processes of volume parts by adding or agglomeration of material. In industrial language, the term additive manufacturing is preferred. 3D printing makes it possible to create a real object: a designer draws the 3D object using a computer-aided design (CAD) tool. The 3D file obtained is processed by a specific software that organizes the slicing of the different layers necessary for the realization of the piece. The cut is sent to the 3D printer which deposits or solidifies the material layer by layer until the final piece. The principle remains close to that of a conventional 2D printer with this big difference: it is the stack of layers that creates the volume.