Category:3D Printers
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The Vision
In the late 1990s, 3D printing technology was barely known. It was mainly being used to make medical and auto parts. The vision was to introduce a means whereby people could design products themselves and sell them strictly over the Internet. Production would be fast, design would be key, and individual customization would be easy. (Daniel Terdiman)
- See also 3D Printing and 3D Printing updates for more info.
Implementing the Vision
With 3D printing, the custom nature of products has gone further than ever before. The printers can produce models based on nearly any 3D model fed into them, almost regardless of complexity, meaning that what comes out of the machines is limited mainly by the imagination of those using them. (Terdiman 2)
The 3D printing "industry" grew 24% last year. Wohlers Associates conservatively forecasts industry-wide growth to be $3.1 billion by 2016 and $5.2 billion by 2020. 3D printing is breaking out of the hobbyist market. (John Robb)
The Power of the 3D Printing Model
The real power of a 3D printing product industry is that consumers can have just about anything they want, especially if they have the skills to create the 3D models themselves. But even if they can't, if they're willing to pay a company to create the digital files, then they can describe what they want, and within a matter of weeks, it will arrive in the mail. (Terdiman 3)
Small Business Opportunities for 3D Designers
They are machines straight out of Star Trek or The Jetsons.
It's now possible for anyone with an idea to create tangible items -- flowerpots, cell phone cases, jewelry, or nearly anything -- from 3-D printers. All the person has to do is send a design for a product to a 3-D printer and out pops a real 3-D object.
Most 3-D printer owners are big businesses or tinkerers, because the machines are so expensive. But some innovators are using this technology to start new businesses and earn money.
Andreas, an IT guy in Austria who didn't want his last name used for this article, started out as a hobbyist. He customizes Lego minifigs -- the plastic characters that come with a Lego toy set -- to create historically accurate dioramas, or three-dimensional models.
Lego had stopped making a specific hat that made his Napoleonic figures accurate. With no experience in product design and no access to a factory, he designed a new hat and had it 3-D printed.
The resulting product was so popular among other Lego customizers, he now sells the hats along with hundreds of other items through a service called Shapeways, which manufactures items with its 3-D printers and sells and distributes them through its website.
About 10% of the 2,000 designers selling through Shapeways are making decent money -- with the most popular bringing in excess of thousands of dollars a month, says CEO Peter Weijmarshausen. He concedes that's not really a lot of money yet, "but I see this year, the more successful designers will make a living at it.
This is very cool. It is obviously price deflationary as well. What used to be extremely expensive to model and work through design changes in terms of both price and time, is now easy and inexpensive. (CNN Money via Mike 'Mish' Shedlock)
Links to leading companies that make 3D Printers
Implications
3D printer technology will lower prices and quickly change the way we make most things. It will also change the way we buy things. Therefore, it may change the way you make your living.
What happens when a 3D printer or several of them are in 20% of the homes on earth. This is the same 20% that owns 80% of the wealth. What will the other 80% do for a living?
Human labor is versatile. There are always things that need to be done. But at what price? At what wage?
We hear the laments about America's loss of manufacturing. But if you could buy one of these machines for $1,000, would you? Of course, they would stick you for the "toner." But so what? Would you buy one? Then you are saying to workers in manufacturing, "Sorry, Charlie."
This is coming. Get ready.
This is the future of shopping. You will watch a video on YouTube. You will buy the formula-in-a-program for a few bucks. If the original designer charges too much, you will buy the knock-off design, which is posted on a server in some newly created nation that ignores the laws of copyright and patents. Then you will upload the program into your personal Home Depot in a box. You will click the MAKE IT SO button.
Sales taxes? Forget about it.
Tariffs? Immaterial.
The technology is here. Now it's only a matter of price. The price will fall. We can be sure of that.
What else can we be sure of? Not much. Not now.
These machines are used by engineering firms to to create prototypes. At some point, they will produce types. At that point, the current arrangement will change. garynorth.com
Keywords
3D printer, Star Wars, shopping, sales taxes, tariffs, prototypes, engineering firms
External Links
- YouTube video of a 3D printer in action
- 3D printing - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- 3D Printers, FDM Prototyping, 3D Models | Dimension Printers
- YouTube - 3D Printer
- Z Corp 3D Printer Cost | Z Corporation
- New Yorks Times article: The Wow Factor of 3-D Printing
- 3D printing - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- YouTube - 3D Printer
- 3D printing creating 'a whole new world' | Geek Gestalt - CNET News
- Links to recent articles about 3D printers
Pages in category "3D Printers"
The following 11 pages are in this category, out of 11 total.
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