The hype around 3D printing seems to have died down – a good time to think about what’s actually going to happen.
3D PRINTING & MANUFACTURING
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20 JULY
08:30 – 11:30AM
From hype to reality
A recent article in TechCrunch argues that the hype around 3D printing has died down. Instead we are, according to TechCrunch, facing the long-haul reality of turning a significant change in technology into a significant societal change – the way most intellectual advances propagate through history.
Good 3D printers cost money
Creating a whole new desktop manufacturing revolution turned out to be more difficult than assumed, as the prize of an adequately good 3D printer would never really go below $1,000. The actual running of a 3D printer is strenuous on all its moving parts and the cheap printers that came to market broke too easily and didn’t let you change the parts yourself.
Prototyping the future
Skipping the home and amateur-market, 3D printing has really helped the professional designer prototype much faster and better. Even stalwarts of good old design, like Herman Miller are now using the technology to move more seamlessly from idea to prototype to finished product.
3D printing seems not to offer a revolution as much as a stepping-up of speed of traditional manufacturing.
Amateurs will still be making things at home and selling them on Etsy, but that’s not where the big bucks will be 3D printed.
Libraries of designs
For one, creating really good 3D designs is still very difficult and most amateurs with a simple 3D printer at home won’t have the skill to design something that can be widely used and sold. They also won’t have access to all the types of material needed and won’t know how to assemble the parts, should they be able to actually print them, or design them.
Secondly, the 3D designs that are increasingly available in the vast libraries of designs, like Thingiverse are not useful. The really helpful stuff is copyright-protected and not available. You won’t be able to print a new AppleTV when the old one’s broken, just a new wall-mount.
Specialisation at scale and speed
Like most advances in hard-ware technology, 3D printing will offer the most benefits to those who have the resources to specialise in higher-quality production, at a certain scale. But at that level, the gains will be plentiful and delivered at speed.
Of course, in years to come, lower-level printers will keep improving and the substances you can print with will increase and become more available. But the big hurdle to manufacturing your own future will always be your lack of designer-skills or your lack of funds to buy the really useful copyrighted designs and machines.
Any evolution in the manufacturing of objects will take place within the parameters of the industry that is in place at any given moment. You cannot create something from nothing.
But if you’ve got capital, the world is yours to 3D design and print, as long as people want to buy what you make, that is. The more it changes, the more it stays the same thing, as Alphonse Karr famously said.
Want to find out more about 3D Printing and Manufacturing? Make sure you sign up to the DSMLF meeting on 20th July and join your peers for a lively debate on the matter.