3-D printing is inevitable, and it will change our lives

The Austin American-Statesman ^ | April 14, 2013 | Omar L. Gallaga

[2ndDivisionVet]

Thanks for the link.

[Mad Dawgg]

"Waiting for the price of 3d scanners to come down. And they are starting to."

When the manufacturers can get both units down under the $299 price point the tech will snowball.

The cheap Chinese Plastic Housewares market will be the first to implode.

[bigbob]

sure, if you figure people are willing to pay $10 or more for the material to 3D print a plastic houseware item that sells for $1 today.

Not a literal example, but while SLA is going to have impact, it’s not going to displace every other form of manufacturing. Especially for things used in high volume that are readily available and cheap.

One off. Prototype. Low-medium volume. Quick turnaround. Those have been the advantages of SLA for the past 30 years. The cost is just drastically coming down.

[latina4dubya]

If you are old enough to have experienced it, you probably had that moment in the ’90s or early 2000s when you realized everything was about to change. The sweeping Internet was changing music, reading, how we processed information, even the words we used to communicate. The change was fundamental and it happened so quickly, many of us had to catch our breath and keep ourselves from getting dizzy when we realized its significance.

for some reason, i don't remember it this way at all... i didn't experience it all as having to catch my breath... i can remember first using pcs, and macs (the teeny-tiny ones) and windows, and fax machines, and email... and car phones and then cell phones and palm pilots... using the internet... i was introduced to most of these things at work... and while it all happened in a short amount of time, i don't ever remember that "dizzying" feeling about it all...

[LibWhacker]

But who owns a 3-D design if it’s modeled after, say, a Disney character?

Yeah, I think just about the time 3-D printing starts taking off and the printers become more powerful and capable, they're going to be crippled by lawsuits and gov't interference. Printers will probably come with a huge ROM database of things the printer is not allowed to print: guns, anything with a patent, anything with a copyright, keys, etc. The list will be endless. Hard to be wildly optimistic.

[Wonder Warthog]

"Waiting for the price of 3d scanners to come down. And they are starting to."

Check out the QU-BD "printer". It is set up to do both extrusion AND milling. Assembled....$1699.

http://store.qu-bd.com/category.php?id_category=23

[tomkat]

Seriesly

[from occupied ga]

Who needs government when a 3D printer that can even replicate itself can create food, ... Eventually it will create biological body parts ...

What have you been smoking? Or is this sarcasm?