![]() ![]() The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), The Zero Marginal Cost Society: The Internet of Things, the Collaborative Commons, and the Eclipse of Capitalism * Percentages are of respondents from the Sculpteo survey. Current usage areas for 3D printing (Figure VII) indicate several sectors related to developing and producing consumer products (proof of concept, prototype and production).įigure VII: Use of 3D Printing in Various Areas (% of respondents*) This further reduces the cost of accessing consumer goods and increases the availability of 3D printed objects. A 3D printer will eventually be an office or even a home appliance. The tipping point: 5% of consumer products printed in 3Dīy 2025: 81% of respondents expected this tipping point to have occurredīecause 3D printing can be done by anyone with a 3D printer, it creates opportunities for typical consumer products to be printed locally and on demand, instead of having to be bought at shops. ![]() Shift 21: 3D Printing and Consumer Products Source: “Boy Given a 3-D Printed Spine Implant, Loren Grush, Popular Science, 26 August 2014, 3D printing has the potential to create very complex products without complex equipment.94 Eventually, many different kinds of materials will be used in the 3D printer, such as plastic, aluminium, stainless steel, ceramic or even advanced alloys, and the printer will be able to do what a whole factory was once required to accomplish. Imagine creating a loaf of bread, slice by slice. The tipping point: The first 3D-printed car in productionīy 2025: 84% of respondents expected this tipping point to have occurredģD printing, or additive manufacturing, is the process of creating a physical object by printing it layer upon layer from a digital 3D drawing or model. ĩ9 “An image of the future”, The Economist. 3d-printing-is-years-ahead-of-consumer-uptakeĩ6 “The 3D Printing Startup Ecosystem”,, 31 July 2014.ĩ7 Alban Leandri, “A Look at Metal 3D Printing and the Medical Implants Industry”,, 20 March 2015.ĩ8 “The Need is Real: Data”, US Department of Health and Human Services,. Watson beat the top human players on Jeopardy!,ĩ5 Dan Worth, “Business use of 3D printing is years ahead of consumer uptake”, V3.co.uk, 19 August 2014. John Maynard Keynes: technological unemployment, John Maynard Keynes: Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren, The design file is 3D printed into soft rubber, hard and shiny ceramic, or soft flexible transparent plastic.Īpproximately 50,000 custom Invisalign braces are 3D printed every day. The scan data is sent to a special lab where it’s adjusted into a viable design file. The process for teeth, hearing aids, and braces is similar: the body part in question is scanned. Like high-end 3D printed titanium airplane parts, 3D printed human body parts represent the ultimate in small batch, direct to digital custom manufacturing. There are an estimated half to three-quarters of a million 3D printed dental implants travelling around in people’s mouths right now.5 Phil Reeves, the managing director of Econolyst, a consulting company dedicated to the 3D printing industry, estimates that today there are “ten million 3D printed hearing aids in circulation worldwide.”4 Invisalign braces- 3D printed, custom-made, clear disposable plastic braces that hide over a patient’s teeth to pull them into alignment-have been a tremendous commercial success. Non-living prosthetics such as 3D printed bone implants, dental crowns, contact lenses, and hearing aids reside in thousands of humans worldwide. The first wave of commercially available 3D printed body parts are already out there walking around inside the bodies or regular people, perhaps even in yours. Let’s start with the lowest rungs on the ladder-inanimate replacement “body parts” such as dental crowns or artificial limbs. If we’re ever going to 3D print a “real” rock, fully functioning robot, or new kidney, design software will need to raise its game. There’s only so much a design file can tell a 3D printer. In fact, design software is only now starting to take 3D printing seriously as a viable medium for design. Yet design software did not grow up reliant on 3D printing. 3D printing grew up reliant on design software. However, their relationship has been largely one-sided. Yet the physical world doesn’t break down easily into a set of finite possibilities.ĭesign software and 3D printing technologies are together leaping forward and changing the way people design and make things. A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away,
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