3D printers and additive manufacturing are becoming increasingly more common and popular in modern society. Nowadays, we can print using all kinds of materials like plastics, rubbers, concrete, chocolate, pancake mix, metal, and even stem cells! The use of additive manufacturing is continuing to grow; and because of that, it is important to understand the basics of 3D printing, and some of the problems engineers face when building these machines.

Selective laser sintering allows for difficult materials like titanium to be made into complex geometries by using additive manufacturing techniques.

  Since a 3D printer is an electronic device, it generates heat in unwanted areas like the motherboard and motors during its use. This is the case for all electronic components, there will always be a loss of energy in the form of heat during the operation of an electronic circuit. This is the same reason your phone and laptop get hot during use! When electronics heat up, they start to slow down, and they can even degrade if they get hot enough. The energy they contain in the form of heat is also known as thermal energy. It is important that engineers know how to keep these key components cool while they are operating; thus, they need to figure out ways to cool these electronic components and dissipate the thermal energy they contain. One way of accomplishing this is by using passive cooling in the form of heatsinks. 

   Heatsinks work by transferring heat from an active electronic component to another mass of metal with a very large surface area. This large surface area is in contact with a lot of air molecules, and it can transfer the thermal energy of the component to the air molecules at a faster rate than if it had a smaller surface area. This is one of the most common methods of cooling, as it is relatively cheap, simple, and does not require active cooling, like fans or water pumps.