My first time… with a 3D printer | Maximiliano Bertotto | TEDxUTN

This talk was given at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences.
While he was working on his thesis in the Engineering Faculty of the University of Buenos Aires, Maximiliano finds himself developing, together with a team, the first 3D printer of Argentina. He did it as a co-founder of Trimaker, that won an innovation prize in 2012. Passionate about teaching, he also helps his students discover the wonders of technology.

This here is the Trimaker I, a 3D printer.

3D printers are machines
that allow us to make things,

to build our own objects.

I think 3D printers will change
the world in the next few years,

they will change our lives.

As a child I always liked
working with my hands.

I liked to build my own toys.

I remember how
the feeling of building my own toy

was totally different
from having one that was bought.

I used dad's tools for this,

which were my inspiration.

At the age of 6, I remember
electrocuting myself for the first time.

I was fixing a small Christmas tree.

It happened again when I was 14,
and it was more powerful.

I remember I was fixing granddad's drill.

I didn't notice I was barefoot.

I plugged it in, and immediately
my body started shaking.

I felt how the electricity
went through my hands,

my body, then my feet,

and I was thrown to the ground.

Somebody helped me.

After such a practical lesson,
my Italian granddad came and said:

"Ma, bambino, siediti qui."

"I am going to give you
the theoretical lesson."

I can promise you I never forgot

what the power wire
and a ground discharge were.

Time passed

and I kept building my own toys,

but each time a bit more complex.

A friend of mine, Dan Etenberg,
built this turbine.

We loved getting together
to do this kind of crazy stuff.

He calls and says: "Hey, Maxi,
listen: I finished the turbine,

I finished solving that thing
we had to mill...

I'm going to your granddad's!

Can you imagine granddad's face

when we told him we were putting
a turbine in the garden?

Granddad shut himself in the kitchen.

We were bringing a device this big,
that could turn at 130,000 rpm.,

that needed protection
in case the blades went flying out

and it also threw a 16-inch flame.
And the noise it made...

I can't push it out of my mind...

It was as if a Sky Harrier
was landing in granddad's garden.

I think he might have thought that,
that a helicopter was landing.

I asked Dan afterwards:
"Hey, Dan, what can we build now?

How about building a laser?"

We were good boys,
but we enjoyed these things.

Of course, a laser beam.
We had to be very careful.

If we touched that aluminum part
in the discharge tube...

There were 30,000 volts going through it!

But we liked these things
and we wanted to do what we enjoyed.

That lab was like Frankenstein's.

After some time I said,
among other things:

"Well, I don't want to keep asking
for dad's tools,

and this time I will build
my own stuff, with a milling machine."

A milling machine is a Cartesian robot
that withdraws material

from a plastic or wooden block
until it builds what you can see there

which can be any kind of object.

It was around 10 months of building
to obtain the object in 1 hour.

We were just watching the machine work.

There was an incredible intensity.

But there was a question
I could not answer myself:

Can one live off what's fun to do?

Or are entertainment and work
like water and oil?

Do they mix?

Can you mix fun with business opportunity?

This is how I started getting into
the subject of 3D printers.

Because it was a technology
that kept me awake at night

and that, additionally, I saw
as a possible business opportunity.

But, I recall I started out saying

I was here to tell you
about my first time, right?

The first time I printed
with a 3D printer I made by myself.

Let me introduce you: This is Marsi 1.

Yes, it looks like
an ice-cream machine.

But believe me, it was a 3D printer.

My first time was disastrous.

I tried for 3 months
and nothing happened, nothing at all.

I remember I had already
spoken with investors,

I was giving talks
at the University of Buenos Aires,

telling everyone that I was building
a 3D printer that did not print

and that the only thing it did was this.

I wanted to do a bracelet,
all I got was that smashed thing.

I wanted to do Star-Wars' Yoda,

I got that fried egg you can see there.

Every time that happened to me,
it felt like being stabbed in the chest.

I went to bed very sad.

Until one day, I decided
not to pay any attention to it any more.

This story is 100% true.

I would always stand there,
watching for two hours,

and this would come out.

This time I went
to the supermarket and left her.

As if on purpose,
when I came back I found this.

You don't know how I felt!

I was literally jumping for joy.

Imagine arriving and seeing
"Venus de Milo" hanging there.

It was 2 x 2 x 3 cm,

but to me, it was like touching heaven
with my hands.

It improved, little by little.

And we started printing other things.

I am going to talk a bit
about the technology.

Can you see that white pan?

A photosensitive resin is placed there.

And it is illuminated from beneath,
layer by layer,

the level surfaces are projected

until the morphology
one has programmed and designed is built.

There you can see my favorite figure,
which is "The Clay Bottle."

And over there, that green figure, is me.

Don't tell, but I want to give it
to my girlfriend as a birthday present.

Good idea?

What we are building with now

are different types of rubber
and wax components,

we are printing in plastic,
different colours.

Here you can see
the "Venus de Milo" keyring.

That was the first.
It brings good luck, I hope.

So you can see that not only
about the useless things I just showed you

but this technology, nowadays,
is changing people's lives.

That small girl had
parts of her body scanned.

An exoskeleton was printed

and it was able to alleviate
the mobility problem she had.

Below that, you can see a jaw.

That mandible was built
using selective laser melting technology

with aluminum powder.

It was created for an 83 year-old woman,
who can now move her jaw.

This is Marina.

She is my cousin.

In 2006, she had a very serious accident,

a car accident.

The doctors weren't very optimistic.

The truth is it shocked
the whole family very badly.

She had multiple injuries of all kinds.

One of the worst was a head injury.

She had lost part
of the bone structure in her head.

There were 2 options.

One was to stick
to traditional treatments.

It meant taking a kind of
bio-compatible coating texture

and putting it in place
in an almost manual fashion,

until the part of the skull
that was missing was covered.

The second option

was taking a CT scan

and digitally building the cranium
directly from that scan.

And afterwards, the part that was missing

would be rebuilt in software
to be finally printed in 3D.

They went with the second option.

Today, Marina enjoys a splendid life,

she has 2 children,
enjoys time with her family

and has just run a marathon.

I hope that what started out
as simply having fun,

can help people in the future.

This makes me think
it is possible to do what makes you happy,

and that it's possible
to change the world,

while feeling like it's the first time.

Thank you.