3D printers - 6 Minute English — Transcript

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1. 0:07Hello. This is 6 Minute English
2. 0:08from BBC Learning English.
3. 0:10I'm Sam.
4. 0:11And I'm Neil.
5. 0:12In 1436 in Germany, Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press
6. 0:17- a machine capable of making
7. 0:20many copies of the same page of text.
8. 0:23Ever since,
9. 0:24printing has been used around the world
10. 0:26to produce books, newspapers and magazines.
11. 0:29Printing technology has come a long way
12. 0:32since Gutenberg's time, but even today's most
13. 0:35advanced laser printers have only printed flat,
14. 0:38two-dimensional objects... until now.
15. 0:42In this programme, we're discussing 3D printers
16. 0:45– printers which can build solid,
17. 0:46three-dimensional objects out of
18. 0:48a variety of materials including plastic,
19. 0:51concrete and metal.
20. 0:53Now, Neil, when you say a printer that
21. 0:56can make solid objects, I guess you're not
22. 0:58talking about a normal printer...
23. 1:00That's right, Sam.
24. 1:02These large and
25. 1:03complex 3D printers work in a completely different way.
26. 1:07Unlike a sculptor who chips away at a block of stone
27. 1:10to reveal a shape underneath, 3D printers work in
28. 1:14the opposite way, building up physical objects by adding
29. 1:17material layer on layer.
30. 1:20And the ability to print objects
31. 1:22in this way is providing solutions to many problems,
32. 1:26as we'll be finding out...
33. 1:27But first I have a question for you, Neil.
34. 1:30Before Johannes Gutenberg invented his printing press,
35. 1:33copies of texts were made by block printing, using hand-carved
36. 1:37wooden blocks pressed into ink.
37. 1:40So - what was the oldest
38. 1:41known text to be printed this way?
39. 1:44Was it:
40. 1:45a) a religious teaching?, b) a cooking recipe? or,
41. 1:48c) a love letter?
42. 1:49I think it might have been a recipe.
43. 1:52OK, Neil.
44. 1:53I'll reveal the answer later in the programme.
45. 1:55The idea of printing solid objects is not new,
46. 1:58but it was only after the millennium that tech
47. 2:01companies began to realise how it could be done.
48. 2:04Here's Professor Mark Miodownik,
49. 2:06a material scientist at University College, London,
50. 2:09explaining more to BBC World Service programme,
51. 2:12People Fixing The World:
52. 2:14As the millennium turned, patents expired
53. 2:17and that meant people started making really
54. 2:18cheap 3D printers.
55. 2:20And people started mucking
56. 2:21about with them and going, 'Hold on a minute!
57. 2:23- it's not just an industrial tool...
58. 2:25You can put them in schools,
59. 2:26you can put them in universities...
60. 2:28Ohh, it's actually
61. 2:29really great for prototyping'.
62. 2:31And then people
63. 2:32got excited about it and it became
64. 2:33the answer to everything.
65. 2:34Everything
66. 2:35was going to be 3D-printed!
67. 2:36After the year 2000, 3D printers
68. 2:38suddenly got much cheaper and tech
69. 2:41companies started mucking about with them –
70. 2:44spending time playing with them in a fun way.
71. 2:46They realised that 3D printers had many uses
72. 2:49- for example, they discovered that 3D printers
73. 2:52were great at making prototypes –
74. 2:55models of a product that can be tested,
75. 2:57improved and used to develop better products.
76. 3:00Professor Miodownik thinks these tech companies
77. 3:02were surprised at how useful 3D printing was.
78. 3:06He uses the phrase Hold on a minute!
79. 3:09to express
80. 3:10this surprise or disbelief.
81. 3:12In fact, in turned out that 3D printers
82. 3:14were excellent at making bespoke things
83. 3:17– objects which are made specially for
84. 3:19a particular person.
85. 3:21One area which
86. 3:223D printing dramatically improved was
87. 3:24medical prosthetics - artificial body parts
88. 3:28made specially for someone who has lost
89. 3:30an arm, a leg or a foot, for example.
90. 3:33In 2021, Stephen Verze, who lost an eye
91. 3:36in a childhood accident, became the first person
92. 3:39to be fitted with a 3D-printed prosthetic eye.
93. 3:43It's prosthetic, so the new eye doesn't restore
94. 3:46Stephen's sight, but it has boosted his confidence.
95. 3:51Surgeon Mandeep Sagoo, led the team at Moorsfield Hospital
96. 3:54that operated on Stephen's eye.
97. 3:56Here he is
98. 3:57explaining more to BBC World Service's,
99. 4:00People Fixing The World:
100. 4:02In many countries, particularly the developed world,
101. 4:04there are facilities for custom-making
102. 4:06a prosthetic eye to match the other eye,
103. 4:09and that's an artisan process which
104. 4:11is very time-consuming and requires real
105. 4:14artistry on the part of the ocularist –
106. 4:17the ocularist is the person who fits the prosthetic eye –
107. 4:20and so what we have been developing is
108. 4:23a technique to automate the whole process.
109. 4:27Even before 3D printers, prosthetic eyes
110. 4:29were custom-made, a word similar to 'bespoke'
111. 4:33which means specially made according to
112. 4:35a particular person's requirements.
113. 4:38But the traditional way of making artificial eyes
114. 4:41by hand is very time-consuming –
115. 4:43it takes a lot of time to do.
116. 4:46Nowadays, 3D printing can complete the
117. 4:48whole process in just thirty minutes.
118. 4:50It's great to see technology helping people,
119. 4:53and amazing how far new inventions like
120. 4:553D printers have come since the days
121. 4:58of Johannes Gutenberg... speaking of which,
122. 5:00Neil, it's time to reveal the answer to my question.
123. 5:03Right.
124. 5:04You asked me about the earliest known text to
125. 5:07have been printed using wooden blocks,
126. 5:09and I guesses it was a cooking recipe...
127. 5:12So, was I right?
128. 5:13You were... wrong, I'm afraid, Neil!
129. 5:16The oldest known wooden block print was
130. 5:18actually a religious text –
131. 5:20the Buddha's Diamond Sutra.
132. 5:22OK, let's recap the vocabulary from this programme,
133. 5:26starting with mucking about, an informal way to say
134. 5:29playing with something carelessly, not for a serious reason.
135. 5:33A prototype is a model of a product
136. 5:35that can be tested, improved and used to
137. 5:37develop a better product.
138. 5:39The phrase Hold on a minute!
139. 5:41can be
140. 5:42used to express surprise or disbelief.
141. 5:44Prosthetics refer to artificial body parts
142. 5:46such as arms, legs, feet or eyes, which are
143. 5:49used to replace a missing natural part.
144. 5:52The words bespoke, and custom-made describe something
145. 5:56specially made for a particular person.
146. 5:59And finally, if something is time-consuming,
147. 6:01it takes a lot of time to do.
148. 6:03Goodbye for now!
149. 6:06Goodbye!