Is 3D Printing the Future of Disaster Relief?

Daniel_Stuckey writes "Advocates for the technology say that it's only a matter of time before we're shipping raw materials and 3D printers instead of medical supplies to the site of a disaster. 3D printers are already being used in the medical field to create customized tracheal valves, umbilical cord clamps, splints, and even blood vessels. A group in Haiti is already using the umbilical cord clamps to show locals the potential for the technology. And it's only a matter of time before they get deployed in a disaster scenario, according to Thomas Campbell, a Virginia Tech professor and senior fellow at the Atlantic Council."

you guys are nuts

[Anonymous Coward]

Listen to yourselves. This is so delusional I don't even have the energy to explain it to you.

Re:you guys are nuts

[Anonymous Coward]

This.

In a real disaster the most important things are going to be food, water and shelter. I can't see 3D printers helping with the first two and I'm not sure I want to wait days for the 3D printer to make me up a tent.. assuming I have the power to run it...

Re:you guys are nuts

[Spy Handler]

probably not nuts, just hype / pump-and-dump.

No

[SmallFurryCreature]

Why not? If it is disaster you just want to rip open a bag and have the item you want right there and then.

Not have to depend on a 3D printer that may or may not have been damaged, materials that may or may not have been contaminated, electricity supply that may or may not work and operator who may or may not be available. You just want to grab a sealed bag and use its contents straight away.

Furthermore, Haiti only needs to print these clamps because its entire social structure is so corrupt that money that was send to buy these clamps did not arrive and any medical supplies get stolen. How long do you think it will be before 3d printers go missing same as emergency generators have gone missing? The Haiti disaster is NOT the earth quake anymore it is the total corruption of its society and funneling in expensive toys will not fix it.

Ten to one within a month this 3d printer will have sprouted legs and walked out of the building.

Re:It can ALREADY print food.

[Anonymous Coward]

What's the point printing food with food?
BS

Re:It can ALREADY print food.

[Anonymous Coward]

http://www.psfk.com/2013/10/3d-printed-bread-pasta.html

Takes a day to "print" food in unmentioned quantities, social media enabled, input is already food. Not sure how this will be better than emergency rations that can be made available in large volume in minutes.

http://3dprintingindustry.com/2012/11/18/video-3d-printing-chocolate/

That is revolutionary, it produces chocolate turtles from molten chocolate, the worlds hunger problems are solved /sarcasm

Neither of these inventions actually produce food in a way that would help in a disaster unless your disaster fits into /r/firstworldproblems.

Re:It can ALREADY print food.

[Patch86]

It doesn't print food. It prints with food. If your kitchen printer can make a printed chocolate bar, you already had edible chocolate. If you can print pasta, you already had flour and water and could have made a passable flatbread with nothing more than a mixing bowl and a hot skillet.

In a disaster zone, the shape of the food is not the priority. Just having calories and vitamins, in any form, will do.

Re:No

[Greyfox]

It's a lot easier to hot-drop a printer and extra spools of materials than it would be to drop a crap-load of different supplies which may or may not contain what you need right now. It still has problems, like how you power it and insure it's not damaged when it lands after you shove it out of the back of the plane at 500 feet. If you can get it down to one box and possibly extra spools of material and it prints reasonably quickly it's not a bad idea. I assume the idea is that on the ground you have some idea of what you're going to need immediately, until better supplies arrive. Logistically that's a lot easier than getting a custom package together (Assuming you manage to radio or otherwise communicate out what you need) and making sure it all stays together when you chuck it out of the plane.

It would take a fair bit of work to get current printers to the point where they'd be useful in that situation, though. You don't necessarily have access to power or a laptop on the ground, so the whole package they'd have to drop would need to be self-contained and have a built-in list of shapes it could print. It would also have to print reasonably quickly and with reasonably good precision.

Re:It can ALREADY print food.

[AthanasiusKircher]

Sure, we can make edible food with just flour and water even blindfold,

If it's edible, we survive the disaster. Isn't that the point here?

but automated manufacturing systems (3D printers are just one, and will evolve)

It's a disaster. Exactly how many "automated manufacturing systems" are you planning to magically have available (with the power to run them)?

With flour, water, some fire source, and a flat surface that can survive heating, I can make flatbread in a matter of minutes. Your solution depends on complex technology being available and power to run it.

can in principle create vastly more complex products using large numbers of ingredients or components and with microscopic precision.

Umm, again, it's a freakin' disaster. Does anyone really give a crap about doing anything with "microscopic precision"? We're looking to survive, not do a lab experiment.

This would be totally beyond the capability of humans to reproduce in any reasonable span of time.

Anything that's "beyond the capability of humans to reproduce in any reasonable span of time" is probably not needed in a disaster scenario.