prediction

We’ve been reading Dalton Caldwell’s take on entrepreneur Marc Andreessen’s position that physical retail stores are in a bad position as they have to pay for not only inventory but also real estate, whereas online retail does not. Caldwell, who’s currently the CEO of app.net, believes that 3D printing could eventually affect physical retail as… Continue reading 3D Printing’s Effect on Retail

An article on Business Insider by Dylan Love entitled “This Is What It Will Take For 3D Printing To Go Mainstream” proposes a shift in machine capability may lead to deeper mainstream use. He says:    Up until now, much of desktop 3D printing revolved around simply getting the machines up and running, just to… Continue reading Mainstream 3D Printing?

3D printing aficionado Joris Peels writes a long treatise begging major manufacturers to produce 3D printers. He specifically requests HP, Brother, Xerox, Seiko Epson, Ricoh, RolandDG, IBM, Texas Instruments, Konica Minolta, Fujifilm and Sony to make a line of 3D printers.    Why make such a request when we have several decent manufacturers already in… Continue reading A Plea for More 3D Printer Manufacturers

Seeking Alpha presents a cogent argument for HP producing 3D printers in the near future, even though no such announcements or signals have been emitted from that company, recently or in the past.    HP has had some involvement with 3D printers, in that it had an arrangement with Stratasys to resell HP-labelled Stratasys uPrint… Continue reading HP To Produce 3D Printers?

Jon Evans’ piece on TechCrunch entitled, “There Is No Reason For Any Individual To Have A 3D Printer In Their Home” explains just that. He believes the future of 3D printing (at least in the short term) lies in centralized services rather than personal devices.    Other than “passionate artists/hobbyists and home manufacturing businesses” you… Continue reading There is a Reason For Individuals To Have A 3D Printer In Their Home

It’s beginning to hurt. We’re seeing a minor explosion of wildly excited posts about 3D printing on a wide variety of blogs that attempt to shock and amaze.     But they’re mostly just hype. Consider these recent headlines:   This Incredible 3D Printer Can Produce Entire Rooms Automation poses dilemma in labour market 3D… Continue reading Oh, The Hype, The Hype!

At least that’s the indication from a work commissioned by the US Air Force. The “Welcome to 2035… The Age of Surprise” video attempts to show some of the technologies that will be key in the year 2035. If we look at the frame captured at left, you’ll see “3D Printing” shown prominently among other… Continue reading 3D Printing Shows Up in 2035

We’ve been reading Todd Grimm’s provocative post, Standing up to Hype: A Pragmatist’s View, in which he describes his position on the capability of 3D printing. Todd is frustrated with mainstream media who all-too-often wildly extrapolate the idea of 3D printing into an unrealistic science fiction future of Star Trek replicators in every kitchen. He frequently plays… Continue reading A Counterpoint to the Pragmatist

Last summer we contemplated the idea that China could be harmed by 3D printing, based on a post in Forbes. The idea was that legions of inexpensive Asian workers who’ve been displacing expensive North American workers would have the tables turned when 3D printing takes hold in North America, permitting consumers to simply print their… Continue reading Will China Be Harmed By 3D Printing?

CNET published an interesting article on Quirky, the New York based startup that crowdsources inventions. Reporter Rich Brown visited the company in hopes of seeing how they make use of 3D printing technology in a design firm. He describes his thoughts on the collision design firms such as Quirky vs. up and coming 3D model… Continue reading The Case for Finer 3D Printer Resolution

Peter H. Diamandis is well known as the originator of the recent series of X-Prizes that have launched a couple of new 21st century industries. He also founded the Singularity University, too, which led to a unique extra-terrestrial 3D printing initiative, Made In Space.    Diamandis and partner Steven Kotler have just come out with… Continue reading 3D Printing Produces Abundance?

Slashgear predicts 3D printing will “explode at a rate incomparable to its 2D predecessor”. We all hope so, but will this actually come true? Things happen when they’re easy – and that might not be the case just yet in the world of personal 3D printing. We considered some of the major barriers to mass… Continue reading The 10 Barriers to 3D Printing In Your Home

Christopher Mims writes his opinion of 3D printing futures on the MIT Technology Review blog, where he suggests that 3D printing will never become a “mature technology that can reproduce all the goods on which we rely”. He goes on to suggest that to believe so is a “complete denial of the complexities of modern… Continue reading 3D Printing To Disappear?

After CES it now seems we have a two-horse race for the lead in personal 3D printing: MakerBot and 3D Systems. Both announced new printers (the MakerBot Replicator and the Cube), while 3D Systems added a comprehensive 3D community/store/service to compete with MakerBot’s Thingiverse.    But that’s about where the similarities end. MakerBot’s philosophy revolves… Continue reading The Two Titans of Personal 3D Printing

Entrepreneur Anil Dash recently posted his thoughts on the world of 3D printing as we find it at the end of year 2011. We agree with most of his propositions, which basically boil down to the fact that personal 3D printing is at the most early stages of development. Here are his positions and our… Continue reading Anil Dash on 3D Printing Futures

Another new and innovative 3D printer kit available on KickStarter. Venture funding starts up another 3D printer factory. And then we read Rachel Park’s blog post. She reported on her experience at Euromold, where even more low-cost personal 3D printers emerged. That got us thinking about explosions. Cambrian explosions.    But, you ask, what is/was… Continue reading The Cambrian Explosion of 3D Printers

Ponoko’s CEO David ten Have believes 3D printers will soon be able to print actual working circuit boards, in a recent chat with Wired. According to ten Have, “most of the assembly tools are completely automated anyway”.    The RepRap project’s design goal is to design a machine that can actually reproduce itself, but automated… Continue reading 3D Printed Circuit Boards?

3D print service Sculpteo poses the question, “Would you rather have a personal 3D printer or simply use a 3D print service?” Based on a column from industry consultant Terry Wohlers, it seems that Sculpteo might agree with Wohlers when he says:    most people would not want to mess with an AM (additive manufacturing)… Continue reading Sculpteo Asks: 3D Printer or 3D Service?

Computer geeks are all familiar with Moore’s law, which posits the idea that the number of transistors practically placed on a chip doubles every two years. Of course, more transistors means more power – and that’s exactly what we see: cheaper, more powerful computers every year.    Johnny Ryan wonders whether a similar law (maybe… Continue reading Does 3D Printing Follow Moore’s Law?

Richard of Capolight Electronics Projects examines the popularity of 3D printing over time and asks the question, “How popular will it be this time next year?”   His investigation involved use of Google Insight, a free service that shows the popularity of terms over time. By searching for typical 3D printing terminology, like “Extruder”, “RepRap”,… Continue reading 2011: The Year of 3D Printing?

There could be several interesting effects on business and society when 3D printers become widespread, and we’ve discussed a few of them in the past, including possible crime, for example. But here’s another one to think about: Customs Control.    Most countries have some level of customs controls, in which imported goods are inspected for… Continue reading Do 3D Printers Bypass Customs?

An interesting essay by Portland-based Thomas Schreiber poses a variety of thoughts on the coming digital fabrication revolution. The highlights:   The distance between idea (digital) and real (objects) is becoming very close, and soon will be almost zero as digital fabrication becomes widespread.  Marxism’s definition of power, the means of production, was always relegated… Continue reading Blurring the Distinction Between the Physical and the Virtual

A 2008 quote attributed to Chris DiBona, Open Source Programs Manager at Google says: “Think of RepRap as a China on your desktop.” We strongly resonate with that image. Instead of receiving goods from China, which evidently manufactures all things these days, you can drop a 3D printer on your desk and manufacture things yourself.… Continue reading 3D Printing is Not China on Your Desktop

We read Seth Godin’s posts often, and recently completed his latest book, Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?. In the book Godin proposes that the industrial model that we’ve lived with for some 250 years is drawing to a close. With painful accuracy, he describes the fruitless struggles and frustrations many people face at work in the… Continue reading Seth Godin’s Vision

Alf Rehn is is Chair of Management and Organization (Åbo Akademi University) and formerly Professor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (KTH, Stockholm), and in a recent column he postulates the future for Finland, and by implication the rest of the world.    Rehn writes of the growing troubles in our world today, including climate change, financial… Continue reading The Third Wave of Industrialization