3D printing, also known as Additive Manufacturing is a process which involves the layer by layer manufacturing of a part. It is different from other conventional techniques because it does not require any cutting tools or molds to produce the part, rather the part is directly printed onto the print bed. The ability to print any complex shape without worrying about upper or lower limits on quantity are the most significant benefits of 3D printing. It has endless applications, be it automotive, medical science, aerospace, consumer goods, anything that you can imagine in your head, it can be manufactured using a 3D printer.

This process involves mainly three steps - the first being the creation of a 3D CAD (Computer Aided Design) model and saving it in a printable file format (usually .STL or .OBJ), followed by slicing process which divides the CAD model into thousands of thin layers, and lastly the 3D printing itself which prints the model, layer upon layer maintaining the precision and strength.
Various techniques are used in the 3D printing of a part, SLA (Sterolithography), SLS(Selective Laser Sintering), Polyjet, DMLS(Direct Laser Metal Sintering) and Multi Jet Fusion are some of them.