Helping the manufacturing sector to upgrade

Abu, a six-year-old boy with underdeveloped ribs, from Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, underwent a life-saving heart surgery in Shanghai earlier this month, thanks to 3D, or three-dimensional, printing technology.

Using specially designed equipment, Shanghai Children's Medical Center 3D-printed an 8x12 cm metal part to cover the patient's exposed heart, according to China Youth Daily.

As the cover story of this section documents, by adding layer upon layer of material, a 3D printer can print, or create, anything drawn on paper from scratch into a 3D object.