What's a 3D printer?

This activity will take 30 minutes, is for ages 7 to 10 with no supervision needed. You can do this activity anywhere!

3D printers help us make loads of different kinds of things – but how do they actually work?

👀 Watch this space – there’s a video coming soon.

At the Crick, scientists use lots of tools to build new equipment for doing science. One of the most useful tools is the 3D printer.

Something from nothing

3D printers let people make three-dimensional objects in almost any shape they want. 3D printers make it easy for our scientists to build new equipment, tools or whatever else they might need.

It might look a bit like magic, but they work in a simple way. The first thing we need is a 3D design of the object we want. We use a computer to design our idea. We make sure it is exactly the right shape and size.

This design is sent through a piece of software called a slicer. The slicer chops the design up into thin layers. By printing each thin layer on top of each other one by one, we can make our design. To print each layer, the machine squeezes out a string of melted plastic.

3D printers at the Crick

The most complicated things we 3D print are microfluidics systems. These are tiny dishes with pipes for liquids to go through. The pipes can be tiny – even smaller than a hair. They are so tiny that they can hold really small things such as cells in one place. When we know exactly where the cells are, we can add things to them and see what happens. We use this for testing new medicines. We can add different amounts of the medicine to a cell and see which amount works best.