prediction

Are We Ready for 3D Printing?

Simon Wardley asks (and answers) the question: Why would consumers want mass customisation. The answer to that is probably because that they’ve been primed to want it. In order to limit the commoditisation of physical products, advertisers have been pushing the concept of “designed for you” to the public for the past twenty years. The… Continue reading Are We Ready for 3D Printing?

3D In Your Dreams

  Josh Mings from SolidSmack is a prolific blogger, most often found discussing aspects of 3D modeling with SolidWorks, a popular 3D design package. A recent post on SolidSmack caught our eye, in which Josh described his night obsession with 3D modeling:   How are you suppose to get a good nights sleep when your… Continue reading 3D In Your Dreams

Can We Print a Human?

That’s the question being considered by Duncan Graham-Rowe of New Scientist. The premise is whether the components that make up each of us can be replaced using modern technology. Replacement bones are discussed, and as we’ve talked about before, they are a very good candidate for 3D print technology: they are relatively small 3D objects… Continue reading Can We Print a Human?

Additive Manufacturing: The Edge of the Wedge

Stratasys announced the sale of multiple large FDM 900mc 3D printers to “an unnamed Fortune 500 company”. The mysterious company will be using these high-powered devices to produce “plastic parts for end use”. Evidently this form of “Direct Digital Manufacturing” is rapidly increasing for low-volume runs. According to Stratasys CEO Scott Crump: More and more… Continue reading Additive Manufacturing: The Edge of the Wedge

Super Paper 3D Printing?

New Scientist reports on a very intriguing development involving plain paper. Researchers at the Swedish Royal Instititue of Technology have produced a very strong paper product by leveraging nanofibres that naturally occur in cellulose – a material available virtually everywhere. Conventional paper production involves destruction of these nanofibres, but the Swedish research crew developed a… Continue reading Super Paper 3D Printing?

A Future 3D Media Problem

We’ve been thinking about the future world of 3D printing, where theoretically everyone has a 3D printer at home, probably sitting right beside their 2D paper printer. We predict a printing media issue will develop. What might that be? Consider the current situation of 2D paper printers: your 2D printer requires media (ink & paper,… Continue reading A Future 3D Media Problem

Atoms are the New Bits

Hank Williams is one of many who are discovering the world of 3D printing, and he’s written up his thoughts in a recent post. He’s intrigued by the idea of printing his own tools and clothes, but came up with a very profound notion: the truly more open and explosive playing field is in using… Continue reading Atoms are the New Bits

Hilarious Future of 3D Printing

No, the future isn’t hilarious – that’s the name of the blog we’re talking about today! Hilarious posts an introductory, but well written piece on their view of the future of 3D printing and desktop manufacturing. In the post they, like we, see today’s current cost and effort to achieve home-based manufacturing as difficult barriers.… Continue reading Hilarious Future of 3D Printing

Wohlers on Home Manufacturing

Terry Wohlers of Wohlers Associates, a consulting firm specializing in manufacturing technology, recently offered his opinion of 3D printing’s effects on consumers. The premise of his article is that he disagrees with the notion of home users being able to print arbitrary parts or equipment on demand. We believe this will indeed occur, but agree… Continue reading Wohlers on Home Manufacturing

A Resolution for Resolution

Last week we enjoyed reading Tim Pickup’s excellent review of several contemporary 3D printers. But hidden inside the article was something that we found intriguing. Tim pointed out a chart that compared the 3D print resolutions of various 3D printers. As you can see in the chart, there are vast differences in print quality between… Continue reading A Resolution for Resolution

ZCorp Expands

One of the most popular makers of 3D Printers, ZCorp is expanding. They’ve announced two developments: A new Vice President of Global Sales A new Director of Business Development In addition, their press release reveals they have added 22 more staff since January, and now comprise 161 staff in total. Analysis: 3D Printing continues to… Continue reading ZCorp Expands

Breakthrough Interest?

We’re seeing something happen with increasing frequency: mention of low-cost 3D printing in places where you would not expect it. For example, a recent post on Vdo Tutorials explains all about the basics of 3D printing, fabrication and personal manufacturing potential. But who are Vdo Tutorials? They appear to us to be a Photoshop tutorial… Continue reading Breakthrough Interest?

Who Determines the Future of 3D Printing?

DesignNews discusses the recent “Design and The Elastic Mind” exhibit at MOMA in New York City, with an emphasis on the radical. They indicate that while “engineers who control the practical aspects of design and manufacturing”, “artists and industrial designers can provide some insight into additive fabrication too”. The article goes on to list specific… Continue reading Who Determines the Future of 3D Printing?

3D Printing As Replicator

  Steve Puma posts his thoughts on the future of 3D Printing, and envisions a Star Trek-ish direction. We agree, since the predicted widespread personal manufacturing technology of five years from now will become a fertile field for entrepreneurs to develop all manner of solutions and services. As Steve points out there are energy implications… Continue reading 3D Printing As Replicator

Materialization

Near Future Laboratory argues that manufacturing is giving way to what they term, “materialization”, in which individuals produce unique designs based on their own thoughts and needs. They believe: What makes it worth talking about is that it is the power of creation that manufacturing is able to achieve, but done at an entirely different… Continue reading Materialization

Individuality!

A provocative post by Code Monkey speculates on the future of trends in style. What happens when we can all make the things we want? We already can publish our own newsletters, songs, photos, movies and even books. Who sets the trends? According to Code Monkey, it may not be the elite for much longer.… Continue reading Individuality!

HP On 3D Printing

GigaOm has posted an interesting video interview with Vyomesh Joshi, Executive Vice President of Imaging & Printing at HP. Joshi speaks of new twists in the 2D print industry, but our interest was perked up towards the 10 minute mark in the video, where he speaks of HP’s 3D printing interest. He said HP has… Continue reading HP On 3D Printing

StrataSys Stock Falls

Stratasys, makers of the Dimension series and high-end FDM series of 3D printers, suffered an 18% drop in stock price after fourth-quarter 2008 earnings were announced. Earnings grew a measly 11%, down significantly from earlier quarters. However, we suspect this is simply due to a general slow-down in the US economy that is affecting many… Continue reading StrataSys Stock Falls

Fabbing as a Futuristic Technology?

Melanie Swan, the principal of MS Futures Group, presents an inspiring list of eleven technologies that she believes will dramatically affect the future. Included in her list are such technologies as: biotechnology, nanotech, inexpensive access to outer space, virtual reality and a whole lot on artificial intelligence. Hidden in her list is fabbing, on which… Continue reading Fabbing as a Futuristic Technology?

The Three Modes of 3D Printing

Over the past few months we’ve been observing developments in the 3D printing space, and it is becoming apparent that there are are three delivery modes for this technology: Industrial – This mode is common today, where high-quality, terribly expensive, difficult to operate fabbing devices are typically owned and operated by industrial designers, architectural firms… Continue reading The Three Modes of 3D Printing

Free Stuff

Chris Anderson, editor of Wired Magazine and proponent of the Long Tail theory, speaks at Nokia World 2007 regarding his newest theory: Free. That’s what happens to business, the economy and indeed civilization itself when advanced technologies, including 3D printing and its inherent one-to-one manufacturing capability become widespread. Anderson speaks on the effects these developments… Continue reading Free Stuff

Kids and 3D Printers

A technology center in Wahpeton, North Dakota, USA, now offers students the use of a 3D printer. We’re quite certain this isn’t the only school doing so, but we suspect a trend is beginning. In fact, it isn’t the only one. Thorpe St Andrew School in Norfolk, UK is also installing a 3D printer, specifically… Continue reading Kids and 3D Printers

Fab-onomics

We’ve been wondering how property rights will work in the future, when anyone will be able to punch out objects on their 3D printer as necessary. Will you go to Home Depot to get that bolt? Or perhaps you will just print one? Do you have the design for the bolt? Maybe you need to… Continue reading Fab-onomics

The Future of Personal Manufacturing

Platform Design has an interesting article and video on the topic of personal fabrication. Presenter Neil Gershenfeld speaks less on specific device and technologies, but more on the social aspects – including the sense personal power that appears when individuals have the ability to create the things they want. He also discusses the issues that… Continue reading The Future of Personal Manufacturing

Printable Computers?

HowStuffWorks has an interesting article describing methods of “printing computers”. Now you’d think at first this is simply printing out the semiconductor chips, but the article describes how MIT and others are attempting to use 3D printing to print the rest of the computer as well! So far MIT has managed to print thermal actuators,… Continue reading Printable Computers?

Not Quite a 3D Library

Over at the Adobe Design Center Think Tank, Allan Chochinov posts an interesting analysis of “fictional products” from the design point of view. Fictional products are those which don’t actually exist but parallel existing products. Consider a speculative version of a future iPod, for example. Chochinov points us to online services where designers of such… Continue reading Not Quite a 3D Library

Three Three Dimensional Wishes for 2008

It’s that time of year when we must reflect on the past and look forward to the future. While there were many interesting developments in 3D printing during 2007, the most newsworthy item was far and away DesktopFactory’s announcement of their sub-$5000 3D printer. But what about 2008? What should we expect to see? We’re… Continue reading Three Three Dimensional Wishes for 2008

Considerations for 3D Printing

We frequently scan the Internet to find the latest on Fabbing, and lately we keep finding many postings regarding DesktopFactory’s sub-$5000 3D printer. We’re guilty of that ourselves.Many of these postings imply that 3D printing is going to be relatively straightforward. Just purchase the now-inexpensive printer and you’re good to go! But it’s not like… Continue reading Considerations for 3D Printing

3D Trendwatching

Trendwatching.com has selected Desktop Fabbing (or as they call it, “Make It Yourself”, MIY) as one of their eight Important Consumer Trends to Watch in 2008. They mention the several 3D printing or fabbing services such as Ponoko and of course the omnipresent yet-to-be-seen-in-the-wild DesktopFactory USD$5000 desktop fab. Along with “MIY”, the seven other consumer… Continue reading 3D Trendwatching

Simon Wardley Speaks

Simon Wardley posts a 24 minute video of his talk from the September 2006 EuroOscon, in which he speculates about the affects of 3D printing technology on the future of manufacturing – including the revolutionary concept of a kind of “hardware compiler”. This simultaneously interesting and amusing presentation covers the historical view of how such… Continue reading Simon Wardley Speaks

3D Trainwreck?

Tom Easton blogs about how 3D printing could potentially be very disruptive to industry, specifically by disturbing traditional business models when vast amounts of items are printed at home instead of sold in stores (online or offline). Apparently he’s considering writing a book on the topic. I agree with this premise; we will likely see… Continue reading 3D Trainwreck?

Center for Responsible Nanotechnology

Jamais Cascio, Director of Impacts Analysis at the Center for Responsible Nanotechnology (CRN), describes his thoughts on the implications of future “nanofactories”, which to me sounds a lot like my vision of the eventual end-goal of 3D printing and fabbing. Among the topics covered by Jamais were design, distribution, “toner” or its 3d printing equivalent,… Continue reading Center for Responsible Nanotechnology

Personal Fabbing In Science Fiction

Cory Doctorow, notable science fiction writer and Boing Boing blogger, published a futuristic story last month in Forbes magazine. The story paints an interesting picture of how important personal manufacturing may become – and also how venture capitalists may fail. EscapePod also has an audio version of this story. Via Forbes, EscapePod and Craphound

Wired Writes Up 3D Printing

WIRED magazine has published an article describing how 3D Printers will (and are) being used for various interesting purposes. In the article a worker at Frog Design (famous for designing the iPod and other Apple enclosures) uses 3D equipment to produce a unique ring for his fiance. The article goes on to describe how they… Continue reading Wired Writes Up 3D Printing

Metal Fabbing

Interesting speculation on how fabs could create metal objects in the future. Today fabs use simple powdered or liquid media that is easily melted (see CandyFab – it uses kitchen sugar!) This makes it easy, but produces objects that can be fragile or at least not particularly durable. The idea is that by depositing metallic… Continue reading Metal Fabbing

Garage Fabbing?

As fabbing equipment continues to fall, the ability to create becomes available to more and more people. While I envision a future where people have 3D printing equipment in their homes right beside their 2D (paper) printers, this forum discussion suggests a future in which fabbing equipment is dispersed to the public – but only… Continue reading Garage Fabbing?

Gartner Predicts Widespread Fabbing

Jackie Fenn, Gartner’s Emerging Trends analyst, predicted widespread use of desktop manufacturing tools within several years. While the prices of personal fabbing equipment today are still out of reach of most consumers, it is expected that prices will continue to drop. With new equipment poised for release at USD$5000 per unit, this may be already… Continue reading Gartner Predicts Widespread Fabbing