3D printers have come a long way from being used to produce things like spoons, nuts, hammers, and other simple household items. We have seen the technology make its way into a number of different market industry spaces: medical, architecture, dental, automotive, and many more.

3D printers are now printing cars, pizza, chocolate designs, cheese, cakes, braces, and even houses.

They've also decreased in price over the years as more competition has entered the market. You can now find a 3D printer for less than $100, and then there are commercial scale set-ups that can easily cost thousands. It depends on the size that you want and the quality etc.

Some folks who've still found them too expensive have even taken to building their own. Like one student at UC San Diego who recently custom built his own because he thought others were too costly.

One area where 3D printers have proved to be incredibly useful is in the area of producing human tissues. They can print skin, ears, bones, and other organ tissue (like liver and heart etc). It really is incredible to see the potential for 3D printing technology and to think about the various ways that it can be utilized in order to bring value to the market, it almost seems limitless.

And researchers in South Korea say that they have recently made a breakthrough in the way of advanced skin models and 3D printing technology. The new method that they've established allegedly shortens the time and decreases the cost of printing human skin with a 3D printer.

Researchers estimate that it reduces the cost by 50x and requires roughly 10x less base material.

The researchers have detailed their single step process in the journal Biofabriciation, and the process involved creating a hybrid 3D cell-printing system. They hope that one day their newly established system will be used as the platform one day, for research that is geared toward engineering human skin models that are fully functioning.

At the moment, South Korea is one of the biggest investors in this technology. They recently pledged to invest at least $37 million into 3D printing technology for 2017 alone. That funding is going to be coming from the Ministry of Science, ICT, and Future Planning.

banner thanks to @son-of-satire

Pics:
Pixabay
makeagif
Shutterstock via Menshealth menshealth.com/health/3d-printer-human-skin

Sources:
http://triton.news/2017/06/3740/
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/06/170611204318.htm
https://steemit.com/science/@doitvoluntarily/3d-bioprinter-for-printing-human-skin
http://www.reuters.com/video/2017/03/15/madrid-scientists-create-human-skin-with?videoId=371303216
http://www.tctmagazine.com/3D-printing-news/south-korea-invest-37-million-3d-printing-2017/

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