Secrets of Error 5200 on Canon Printers

Canon printers provide reliable quality printing for home and office use. However, when you receive an error code 5200 on your Canon Printer, it can be an exasperating situation. Here is a simple guide to help you solve the problem so you can get back to work.

What is Error 5200

The Error 5200 code has to do with ink levels and usage within the printer. The printer is programmed to combine all of the remaining ink colors to make black. Soon this means that all ink cartridges installed in the printer are empty or close to empty. So the operator looks at the ink level guide to see that the black is gone and colors are nearly gone, and they proceed by replacing only the black ink, with the intention to use the rest of the color ink in the cartridges.

However, once the black ink is installed, sometimes a malfunction of the printer and ink level reader will case the error code 5200 to appear. There are some who feel this may be a conspiracy of the ink racket to sell more ink by forcing you to replace all cartridges at once.

Regardless of any ulterior motives involved in this error code, there are some simple solutions you can try to get the error to go away.

How To Reset the Error

The first step in trying to resolve the error code 5200 is to turn the printer off and wait several seconds before turning it back on. This may have the effect of resetting the ink level readers so that they read correctly.

If this does not work, the next step is to remove the power cord and completely unplug the printer. This may serve the same reset function as turning the printer on and off but might do the trick if the first step fails.

If the printer is plugged directly into an outlet and none of the above is working, try the following fix: turn the printer off, press the stop button and hold it down for 2 seconds, press the ON button, hold it and release the stop button, press the stop button five times then release together with the on button. The LCD screen will be blank and the printer will reset. The computer may say that new hardware is detected – you can just ignore that. Turn the printer off then turn it on one more time.

If you have tried all of the above and there is still no improvement to the error 5200 situation, you need to move on to changing out all of the ink cartridges. Even if they are mostly full, you need to just go ahead and put in all new ink. This can cause a reset in the ink level gauges as well, which might solve the problem.

Contact Canon directly if you cannot get the error 5200 code to go away. Your printer may still be under warranty and you may be able to get additional help to solve the error, or you might be entitled to a new printer.

Angry Birds is brain candy

The angry bird phenomenon effects people of all ages. The goal of the game is to launch birds using a variety of sling shots into structures to knock them down. This simplistic game with easy clear cut goals is attractive to many people.
 
Kids especially seem to go crazy for these Angry Birds! The Birds are a full blown phenomenon with kids. There are lunch boxes, blankets, sheets, pillows, clothing and other apparel. It is just one of those things that has really taken hold in pop culture!
 
Both adults and children can be seen playing the Angry Birds. It is an easy game that is entertaining and passes the time. It would seem that kids jumped on the band wagon after young adults were already on it.
The brand is simply booming and although the trend has quieted some there are still millions of devotees to the Angry Birds. It is a pop culture phenomenon and like any other pop culture phenomenon there is simply no rhyme or real reason that makes it popular.
 
It is hard to say what really drives the success of the Angry Birds. It is likely that their simplicity is what attracts people in droves to the brand. Their bright colors may play a role in why people are attracted to them or at least why kids seem to be so head over heels over them.
 
Most parents do not object to Angry Birds because there is no real violence, no foul language and no real threat to anyone's well being by playing the game. It is a form of good clean fun for anyone that plays it.

A lot of people can not understand the pull of the game because there is no violence or real life type of tie to the game other than it is just fun. Most people that do not understand the draw have not really given themselves the opportunity to get hooked.

Angry Birds is like the PacMan of the 2000's! It does not have any real meaning, it does not make sense to those that don't play it but to those that do it seems the most natural thing in the world to be doing.

Maybe Angry Birds just showed up at the right time. Maybe kids and adults were tired of playing the heavy commitment time management type games like SIMS life and they just needed brain candy? Angry Birds is brain candy!

Turn Your Smartphone Into Document Scanner

Scanning documents has quickly become a common practice for most businesses that are looking to increase productivity and efficiency. Scanned documents allow you to store more information and communicate at quicker speeds. With the introduction of scanning software, the document scanning process has been transformed and made even more convenient. All of the advantages of traditional document scanning can now be accessed on-the-go with the use of your smartphone. Documents and data are an integral part of everyday business and now you can access these documents from any location by simply using scanner software.

Easy Storage of Information
 
Instead of having to deal with countless paper documents or have to wait until you get back in the office, you can now read and interpret important information on-the-go. You can store and retrieve documents with little effort and save enormous amounts of time during the process. You have the ability to backup and sync documents with ease by simply using scanner software. 

Improve Communication
 
Communication is an important component of any successful business and with the use of document scanning software for mobile devices, you have the ability to improve the sharing of information. Being accessible is one thing, but now you can make information and documents more highly accessible. Scanning a document with your smartphone can allow information to be sent across the world with one click of a button. The productivity and efficiency of your business will increase immensely and lead to increased profitability.

Organization 
 
With the use of this innovative scanning software, you can have access to data at all times and don’t have to sort through countless paper documents or old fashioned filing systems. Intelligent document management allows you to manage your documents on-the-go and sort documents with ease by using tags, lists and thumbnail modes. You can even use passwords to increase security for confidential documents and data. 

Backup Advantages of Scanned Documents
 
You will no longer have to worry about data loss or the organization of paper documents. You now have the ability to access more cloud space for free and can scan, sync, edit and share documents on a variety of devices securely.
Document scanning software will quickly transform the way that documents are both accessed and shared.
You may search apps stores to find a suitable software for your device. I'm using CamScanner and it's really great.

How to improve copy/print quality

Copiers are an essential part of today’s office. A lot of work is done with multifunction products like copying, printing and scanning documents. Did you ever notice that most users just press the start button when they make copy, scan or print skipping their first chance to optimize the image quality?

Every copier machine has different modes for different kind of documents. Copier machines can’t decide the type of original itself. You need to tell the device what kind of document you are going to scan. Applying wrong setting may give poor results.

If you look on to the operational panel you will find a mode labeled “original type” or something like that. Under this mode several sub-settings are available like “Text”, “Photo” and “Text/Photo”. In case you want to scan a page that contains only text you should select “Text” mode so that characters print with high contrast and sharpness. “Photo mode” is ideal for photos. Some advanced copiers may ask more details like whether the “photo” is glossy, printed or a copied photo etc.

This is an example of what you can do to improve your copier experience. For detailed instructions and available functions refer to the user guide of your device.

Override toner low alarm on Brother laser printer

Laser printers have a lot of advantages. The biggest advantage is that they can print thousands of pages by using only one toner cartridge. If you are a user of Brother’s laser printer you can print thousands of pages even after low toner alarm displays on the panel. Let’s see how to override the alarm.

Open front door of the printer

Take the cartridge out of the printer.

Press green tab on left side of the cartridge and take the toner unit out.

On right side of the printer you’ll find a clear plastic lens. A laser beam shines through this lens and detected by a sensor on the other side. In case sufficient toner is present in the cartridge the beam is blocked and can’t hit the sensor. However if it successfully passes through the lens it means that toner is near to end. In this condition printer will display a message to replace the toner cartridge even some amount of toner is still there. You can consume the remaining toner if you prevent the laser beam to reach to the detector. Masking tape, a piece of paper or any other hard material can be used for this purpose. Some youtube videos suggest that you might print more than 3000 prints on MFC-7860DW, TN-450bcartridge and other models.

Scanning with Paint in Windows 8

When you install a printer driver in windows 8, you can scan from your computer without installing additional HP software. This article will show you how to scan with your HP printer using Paint. First, place the item you want to scan on the printer’s scanner glass or load into the automatic document feeder if your printer has one. From your computer, right-click the lower left corner of the computer screen to display the menu, click search, click Apps if not already selected. In the search box, type Paint. From the results, click Paint. Once Paint opens, click on File. Click “From scanner or camera”. If you have more than one printer drivers installed on your computer, you must choose the printer you would like to scan from. Click on your desired printer’s name and then click OK. Change any settings necessary to customize your scan. Make sure to select either the Flatbed of Document Feeder from Paper Source. Once all desired options have been adjusted, click Scan. When the scan completes, it will show in the Paint window. You can edit or save the image from Paint.

How To Reset A Canon MP240 Printer

A lot of printer problems can be fixed by just resetting the printer to factory defaults. In this article, I'm going to show you how to reset Canon MP240 printer. First of all turn off your printer than press and hold the reset button (the red button at bottom right) and the ON button simultaneously. Now release the red button and press it twice while holding the ON button. Now release the ON button. Wait for a while and a zero should come up on the display. Now press the red button four times than press the ON button twice. The printer will turn off automatically. Turn on your printer; a paper should come out with a report. Here you are done.

Toshiba E-Studio Administrator login

Copiers and printers have usually several access levels. An end user may change simple settings like paper size, paper tray selection, zoom, darkness and number of copies etc. There might be some other adjustments which are not available in user mode and only an administrator can change them. Most commonly network settings are hidden behind administrator privileges. If you’re running a home network and need to configure Toshiba E Studio printer on your local network, you must be aware of the administrator username and password.  
Initially you need to configure the IP from the printer itself. Press the "User Functions" key, go to the Admin tab and enter the password. Default password is provided in the user manual of the copier/printer but mostly it is 123456. Here you will be able to make adjustments for printer and scanner configurations. 
In case you want to access IP configuration via web page (Top Access as they call it) user name is admin and password is 123456.

What Samsung is really selling in Galaxy S4

The Samsung Galaxy S4 has come with a lot of new hardware and software features, but if you have looked into the features you can find easily that Samsung has given more attention to software instead of hardware. They think that adding value via software is really attracting customers. Samsung has realized that an average person doesn’t flip out over the fact that a Smartphone has 2GB RAM or it has android 4.2 VS 4.1. They look at the fact that they can turn the page without touching the screen and other cool features like that.
Let’s have a brief look upon new features of Galaxy S4. First of them is “smart Pause” which will pause the video when you look away from the display and resume playing it when you look back. The next one is called “air view” which controls the device without touching it. “Watch ON” feature can be used to control the TV. There is an optical reader to scan business cards. “Group play” allows you to play music together on multiple devices or you can also play the same game on multiple devices. “Dual Shot” allows you to use the front facing camera and back facing camera at the same time. By using “ChatON” you can video chat with your friends and share screen with them. “S Translator” can translate your text into many languages. It does exactly what Google translator does live. “S Health” has been added to monitor physical goals.
If you look at all these things, it is pretty obvious that Samsung is clearly making a move towards value-added by software instead of value added by hardware. That’s what Galaxy S4 features explain. Do you agree?

4D printing will change our World

4D printing is one of the most exciting ideas of today’s technology. 3D printing is not enough anymore. We need something that we can print through space and time. The good news is that someone has just made it. MIT’s Skylar Tibbits has presented his work on 4D printing. What that actually means? It means printing objects that change their shape after they are printed. The idea is to print the raw material that folds into the shape of the final object like printing a sheet of paper that turns itself into origami. Basically it works by printing a long strand of plastic that is made of two different polymers that react differently to water i;e one expands and the other contracts.  By mixing them intelligently the strand folds itself into the shape of the final object.  Right now it only makes two tiny objects but the big idea that eventually will be able to send a huge printer down into the ocean that could build us a raft or up into space to build a space station. The other big advancement is the idea of environmental manufacturing. We won’t need to use tons of energy fuel or man-hours to assemble things anymore.
However there are some limitations right now. The folding only happens in one direction one-time. Tibetsts is hoping to make a polymer that will be constantly reacting.  So you will be able to make things like water pipes that expand and contract which will eliminate the need for pumps. Imagine machines that have no moving parts to repair and don’t need any humans or computers to control them. This idea is the most exciting thing I have seen in a long time. Smart materials are going to change every object in the world around us. How awesome is that and what would be the first thing that you will do with one of these?

How to save time while printing on Windows 8

When you need to print a file you can save some time by printing it directly from windows 8 file explorer. In other words you don’t need to launch a program to open up the file and print it from there. A Word document doesn’t need Microsoft Word to be printed and if you are printing a photo you don’t need to open up one of the photo apps to print it from there. You can do it from file explorer very easily.  Open the folder which contains the files to be printed. Left click on your desired file and select “Share” from the ribbon. Here you will find print button. Another option is to right click on the file itself and choose “print” from the pop-up menu. Either way you are going to see the same thing which is the print picture dialogue box with a number of print option at your disposal as well as you can see a preview of what you are going to get. Now if you have some printers connected to your PC, just click the printer drop-down and select your desired printer. Also notice some options at the dialogue box. You can select the number of copies, auto fit to the selected paper size, print quality (DPI) etc. The quality of my printer and particular image for me is set to 600x600 DPI. Depending on the printer you have selected you may see other options here. The paper type can also be selected. You can put photo-paper into your printer to get a better result while printing a photo.
Over to the right hand side we also have some configurations. By default you are looking at a four page layout, but if you actually want smaller copies you can scroll down the list and find other options. For example there is one with 3.5’x5’ that will allow four copies on a letter size paper. All you need to do is to bump up the number of copies to 4 instead of 1. Just wait a second to preview what that’s going to look like. When you’re ready to print click the print button and off it goes.
This works for text files, documents, images and other famous file formats. Of course we can open these up in their native programs by just double clicking them and printing from there. But why not save yourself a few clicks by printing directly from file explorer.

E000019-0000 on Canon

E000019-0000 is “waste toner box full” error message. It can be reset by removing and cleaning the waste toner box.
What is Waste toner?
Some amount of toner still remains on drum even after image has been transferred to paper. This toner is not reused and sent to waste toner box instead. When waste toner container is full, E000019-0000 displays on the display panel to alert the user.
Where is Waste toner box?
Location of the container might be different for each model. In Canon IR 2200, it is located on left rear corner, just behind the cover. Dispose off the toner and clean the container thoroughly. Don’t forget to clean the neck area of the bottle. After reinserting the container, restart the machine and error E000019-0000 should have vanished.

Print less to help the planet

The universe consists of millions of planets, stars and galaxies. In this vast universe our only home is the lonely planet, the earth. It is full of resources, beautiful scenes and lovely creatures but all of its beauty is in danger due to rapid global deforestation. According to a research 3 billion to 6 billion trees are cut down every year.

Think of a young high school student prints a worksheet of 5 pages because he lost the one the teacher gave him. Somebody prints out a 10 page video game guide yet it turns out they only needed a paragraph from it to get past the point they were struggling. An employee prints out 50 pages for his boss, and one typo means he needs an extra 50 pages. But a sheet of paper is just a sheet of paper and wasting a few thousand per year (it has probably much more than that) doesn’t matter, right? The answer is no. As many of you have probably already heard, saving paper is an important part of a green earth and we should definitely print less to save the earth’s resources.
As we all know, paper comes from trees. But it is often quite hard for people to think or care about that when they are just printing out a few sheets of paper. There is often an attitude of neglect all too common in modern society regarding printing paper less. Every single person seems to think “I only printed 5 pieces of paper, this doesn’t matter.” But au contraire. Each single piece of paper, when combined with the millions of other sheets wasted each year, have a direct effect on the earth. HowStuffWorks looked at a Pine Tree that was 1 foot in diameter and 60 feet tall, and estimated it to be about 80,500 pieces of paper. Admittedly, that is a ton. But when you and another million Americans waste 5 sheets of paper each year, that is over 5 million sheets. More trees will be cut down, more rainforests will disappear, more medicinal and other resources will disappear, and animals that are keystones of ecosystems will vanish from the face of the earth.
Before printing a paper, ask yourself “Do I really need this” and “Are there any typos?” Don’t print right away either. Look at your paper in 1 hour later and in that hour add anything you may have forgotten. Not only does this save paper but it also saves trees from being cut down and rainforests from being destroyed.
Share this message if you agree.

error 6A00 on Canon Pixma

The error 6A00 on canon ink jet printers points to a problem with hardware. According to the service manual of Pixma MP800 error 6A00 means:
"An error occurred in the AP motor during purging operation".
Parts which are likely to be faulty are: 

1.Sheet feed Unit 

2.Logic Board Assembly 

3.Purge Unit 

"Faulty" does not mean that they always needed to be replaced. There might be simple reasons which can be resolved by following simple steps. Most commonly error 6A00 appears when print head carriage is stuck. Open printer cover and examine if a piece of paper or some other foreign object resides inside the printer preventing free movement of the carriage. Move the print head left and right than restart the printer. In case the printer is exposed to dust, clean the sliding section of the purge unit and apply some grease on it.  The purge unit is the assembly where the print head parks when not in use. It's function is to clean the print head after every job cycle to maintain print quality.

Will Samsun Youm (Ubreakable Display) change life style?

Being just a few months behind schedule Samsung showed at the 2013 CES show a flexible display. The technology is already 'pretty cool status' and they promise to make it even better.

 

For a long time the holy Grail in display technology has been chasing the Organic LED otherwise known as an OLED. Years ago it was predicted that Sony would be the first out with this technology. Clearly Samsung has beat them to the punch. If you have ever used a compact camera or digital video camera out in sunlight you know how you cannot see the screen unless you have an eyepiece to block out the light or have a display that is OLED.

Samsung managed to bring together OLED and a flexible plastic instead of glass. To my mind a display you can't break because it's flexible beats Corning's Gorilla Glass. While the display right now is only about 5 inches and about 720 pixels I wouldn't take any bets that they will not get to 1080 P and a larger display.

Samsung Youm Flexible Display

Some people question what is good for? The stage presentation where a smart phone had the display wrapped around the edge spoke volumes to me. By having the display being able to wrap onto the edge of the phone the unit can be closed and have a Times Square type one line message scrolling across the display without the need to open the unit.

It also is not difficult to imagine having a 7 inch or 10 inch tablet that wraps up as an armband and still be in service while being worn as such. When you want to use it as a traditional tablet just lie it flat.

While Samsung is clearly in the Android camp it was interesting to see Samsung with Microsoft talking about Windows Phone. As Windows 8 (under the hood NT version 6.2) and Windows RT both support services that are essentially 'disconnected' (no resource consumption) yet can be poked to wake up on-demand. This means no energy drain as well as resources such as CPU time and RAM being released.

Having your instant message service such as Skype 'on' without using any resources is a pretty good trick Microsoft has pulled off. It does not take a rocket scientist to envision Skype silently displaying an incoming connection request on the edge of the display, leaving you free to decide if you want to take the connection request.

Google Cloud Printing, Print anywhere

The Motley Fool is very bullish on Google's stock price. They're of the opinion that you ain't seen nothing yet. After looking at Google cloud print services I have to agree. While there are a smattering of new printers available that come out of the box ready for Google Cloud Printing Services chances are you don't own one of those. Fear not. Google has you covered.

You have to use the Chrome web browser. Go to the upper right-hand corner where you see three horizontal bars. Click on that and select settings. Go to the bottom and pick advanced settings. From there you scroll way down until you find that Google Cloud Printing Services is available to you in the web browser and turned off by default.

When you turn it on and you have a printer that is not 'Cloud Ready' you simply click that you want to register your 'legacy' printer. This only takes a few seconds and you are set.

Mac users (OS X) actually go to the iTunes store and download an application. Currently printing from OS X is not quite as sophisticated as the Windows side. However the developer seems to be making progress all the time. See this image:

Your printing out in the ethers is actually safe because it is done via HTTP with SSL (Secure Socket Layers), seeing as HTTPS. The benefits of being able to print from any computer or smart phone is of course convenience delivered in spades.

Let's say you're a road warrior and in a distant city, hundreds or thousands of miles away from any printer at home or at work. No problem. You can print to any Kinko's/FedEx location and pick your work up there.

Certainly Google Cloud Print Services Is in Beta. However the only issues that seem to be coming up are when you are not logged into your Google account. It seems to tie seamlessly together with Google Drive and the Google Apps.

I was even able to send a color test page to my fake Microsoft printer on Windows 8.

First we had cloud storage and then we got cloud computing. Cloud printing services really puts a neat bow on top of the cloud.

What to Consider When Buying a Photo Printer

The main thing to consider when buying a photo printer is what you're going to use it for. If you are going to be only using this printer for only printing a certain type or only actual picture photos then you'll want a very specific type of printer. This kind of printer is known as a dedicated printer since it is, well dedicated to printing photos. If you want a printer that can print great quality photos but can also handle a number of other printing tasks you'll be in the market for a near-dedicated printer.

That is the first big step in realizing what you'll be getting because there's no point in using that near dedicated printer as both a photo printer and a printer for all of your faxes. It will simply be a waste of the expensive ink and the potential of the printer. A near dedicated printer isn't just for an all in one home use printer, and photo quality prints it is simply meant to be a photo printer as well as handle other high quality printing needs. If you need a printer to print documents and photos you're probably not in the market for an actual “photo printer”, but a normal everyday printer.

Black and white Photos:

A photo printer may need to be tuned specifically for black and white photos since the grayscale and many minute shades can be very difficult to get smoothly in a printer designed for photos. Make sure that if you are going to be doing a large amount of black and white that you check out the printer and how it can handle those demands.

Resolution:

Photo resolution is a huge topic. If you are a photographer or need prints to be nothing less than perfect quality, then you'll need to spend the extra money investing in a printer that can cater to those needs. If you think that you could get away with something that isn't the best and greatest right now, then save your money for the next printer you'll buy. Look for the dots per inch, but consider that the rates are different for thermal and for ink jet!

Research:

These days the internet is your best friend when buying expensive electronics. There are expansive sites which their only purpose is to rate and supply buyer's information on the products out there. Here you can find people who needed exactly what you did and see how they fared and what they recommend.

Does Gutenberg Get the Last Laugh or Is He Spinning in His Grave?

The debate about print versus digital delivery of everything from college textbooks to newspapers and magazines has seen enough discussion to take out in the traditional print form, an entire forest. On the surface it would appear a foregone conclusion that the printed word (or picture) is going the way of the carrier pigeon.

While the financial motivation might be there there is more to this than meets the eye. The endgame will probably be some sort of coexistence for the foreseeable future. Let's look at both sides of the coin.

One area of division can clearly be found in the demographics along the lines of age. People who grew up with print generally like print. Certainly there are age related issues where larger type becomes required. This is an area where e-books can really shine. It is easy to adjust the font size and even the font in many cases.

Digital delivery absolutely crushes the cost overhead of traditional print. Of course making corrections is also clearly superior. The naysayers say that the displays are not up to snuff for print to be snuffed out. Clearly the folks holding that position have not looked at the latest versions of E-ink and E-display. Both the monochrome and color versions are becoming quite snappy.

Displays using Gorilla Glass and IPS (In Plane Switching) are replacing TFT displays in all but the lowest end devices.

If you've ever been involved in the details of putting out a technical manual you understand they thousands of dollars it must be paid to the professional indexer for creating the back of the book. An e-book eliminates this job niche. Annotation and notes can accompany hyperlinks in the E versions.

As a professional career author I switched over to E versions only several years ago. And even with this I am still not a complete bear in my view about print. Print will still be around, admittedly in a slightly different form. What is getting completely demolished is print and ship in large volume. In many cities entire newspapers have either gone completely digital (Seattle Post-Intelligencer), along with news-magazines (Newsweek).

Yet print will still be with us because of a new creation from Hewlett-Packard. Some years back they discovered the technical limits of the laser printer. They determined in the print process the fastest they will be able to go is one page a second (letter-size/A4). This is because the part known as fusing (where the toner is heated and pressed into the media) cannot go any faster than that.

However they have had some success with a two-part printing process of incredible color vibrancy and resolution. It is not unlike mixing two-part epoxy glue. First the media gets sprayed with a part A and then has a reaction (chemically) with a part B. if you have used one of the instant photo printers in one of the department stores you have probably experienced this technology and not known it.

It does not take a rocket scientist to see where digital delivery can be married to a localized print on demand.

There is a far larger force at work here that is accelerating an e-world. Is the ability for an author to work either solo or in a small team and not be beholden to a publishing company for getting their work out. Certainly that means there will be considerably more subpar material. It will also give the small diamond a chance to shine in its own niche.

Our near-term future seems less about print versus e-book. Rather far more about a change in the delivery methodology which includes much of the traditional book publishing joining the record industry in the La Brea tar pits along with the dinosaurs.

How 3d printing could change our lives

 3D printing, also known as additive manufacturing, allows a person to create an object based strictly on the concept as it exists in the creator’s mind. The object is built layer by layer until the complete object is formed. Unlike standard paper printing, where a two dimensional image is formed by ink on paper, 3D printing can take a three dimensional “real world” object and create it out of plastic or metal.

How Was 3D Printing Developed?

3D printing technology first developed in the 1980s by Charles W. “Chuck” Hull. He patented a solid imaging process that he called “stereo-lithography” or “3D printing”. In his patent, Hull defined stereo-lithography as a method and an apparatus for making solid objects by repeatedly “printing” thin layers of an ultraviolet curable material, one on top of the other. Using this method, a beam of concentrated ultraviolet light is focused on a container or vat filled with a liquid photopolymer. A computer controls the movement of the light beam, and the layers of the object are drawn onto the surface of the liquid material. When the beam hits the surface, the polymer solidifies in the shape defined by the computer program. Automobile manufacturers, aerospace companies, and the medical field, amongst others, are using this type of technology every day for a variety of uses.

3D Printing in Manufacturing and Other Fields

3D printers have been used extensively by designers in many fields to quickly create models and prototypes for testing new designs and modifications. But they are now also being used to create finished products. These revolutionary printers are now being used to manufacture furniture, tools, gift and novelty items, and even toys. Medical technologists can produce hearing aids, artificial teeth, prosthetics, and models of organs, tumors, or other internal components for study before invasive surgery.

3D Printing at Home?

As with so many other types of technology that were developed for large scale industrial uses, 3D printing is now available for home use. Artists use 3D printers to create sculptures, and jewelry makers develop wax castings for new jewelry designs. The possibility for home improvement use is almost endless: do-it-yourselfers can produce doorknobs, picture frames, drain stoppers, curtain hooks, and many more items. The range of uses for 3D printing is sure to grow and the cost of the technology will likely drop over the coming years.

Will 3D Printing Change Our Lives?

It is entirely possible that 3D printing will lead to a new industrial revolution. However, predictions of a world where every consumer is their own manufacturer have to be tempered with considerations of the cost of hardware and software, production materials, availability of templates or design capabilities, and numerous other factors.

The 3D printing technology has become a staple amongst industries and its uses help develop new items or help individuals get a closer look at things that aren’t normally able to be seen in a 3D manner. While 3D printing is still rising in popularity, it is one technology that is certainly different and definitely interesting.