3D printing: the new, bottom-up industrial revolution

The London Telegraph ^ | May 7, 2013 | Allister Heath

[2ndDivisionVet]

When Joseph Schumpeter described capitalism as a process of creative destruction more than 70 years ago, he couldn’t have conceived of the miracle that is 3D printing.

Yet this hair-raising technology is about to tear apart existing structures in a way that would undoubtedly have shocked even Schumpeter, a great economist struck by the free market’s revolutionary, anti-conservative tendencies.

Remarkably, 3D printing allows actual objects to be designed and created (or “printed”) surprisingly quickly with a computer connected to a printer-like device, using special material (often plastic, but increasingly almost anything) as “ink” and “paper”. With the costs of the machinery nearing mass-market levels, 3D printing is poised to take off, blurring the distinction between digital and physical realms, democratising manufacturing and turning large chunks of the global economy upside-down.

Yet the news that the first workable gun has been produced with a 3D printer will have reawakened the inner Luddite in many Britons....

[JRandomFreeper]

I've sorta been surfing on the leading edge of this tech for a while. Yeah. Lots of smart guys out there, and they come up with some amazing solutions.

/johnny

[visualops]

I kinda wish they wouldn’t call it printing, because it isn’t really. It’s building.
It’s going to (heck, probably already is beginning) to be a major time and money saver in product development leading up to mold making. molds are really expensive and to be able to pre-produce and test parts, short run parts, etc, is invaluable.

[visualops]

There are some extremely precise printers, but this isn’t what you’ll commonly see people making their own jewelery and baubles with, those machines are still very expensive and will likely stay expensive for a good while. The low end stuff is a different story.

[JRandomFreeper]

The actual driver code sure uses a lot of code in common with 2-D paper printing from what I've seen. I suppose it depends on how you look at it.

/johnny

[JRandomFreeper]

“The world potential market for copying machines is 5000 at most.” — IBM, to the eventual founders of Xerox, saying the photocopier had no market large enough to justify production, 1959.

/johnny

[Lurkina.n.Learnin]

This tech is going to evolve. Now that they are becoming affordable there will be a lot of people just playing around with them. There will be a lot of useless trinkets made but there will be some real gems also. Innovation will abound.

[JRandomFreeper]

I figure 80% of the internet is for porn. The rest makes trillions of dollars.

/johnny

[familyop]

Will a shortage of 3D printers begin in a matter hours????

[seowulf]

I wonder what a 3D printed hamburger tastes like.

[JRandomFreeper]

Good 3-D printers can print copies of themselves. That's the whole concept behind RepRap. ;)

/johnny

[roadcat]

I wonder what a 3D printed hamburger tastes like.

Probably like McDonalds. Nasty burgers.

[JRandomFreeper]

Don't know, but they are using 3-D printers to print flask-grown human organ cells into things like functioning bits of liver and kidney.

Eventually, maybe they can replace my left kidney with cells grown from my own body. Some people are out there trying, instead of throwing rocks from the sidelines.

/johnny

[roadcat]

Everything will change, few will need to work

Sort of happening now, with Obama running things. So where will the taxes to pay for welfare come from? Maybe that's why Obama wants to shut down 3D printing!

[seowulf]

Don't know, but they are using 3-D printers to print flask-grown human organ cells into things like functioning bits of liver and kidney.

More power to 'em. I hope they do great and wonderful things.

The skeptic in me, however, seems to hear the ring of nuclear power in the 50's saying that soon "electricity will be too cheap to meter."

There's always some new technology out there that promises to be the savior of the world. So far they've been false saviors.

[JRandomFreeper]

Government got involved with nukes.

I do have to ask if you are reading and posting from a phone or a notepad.

“We will never make a 32 bit operating system.” — Bill Gates

Personally, I'm skeptical of nay-saying anything until it all washes out in the end.

/johnny

[JRandomFreeper]

There has been a larynx that was constructed as a scaffold with a 3-D printer, allowed to grow cells from the patient in the scaffolding, and then implanted into the patient. A scan from the patient provided the initial data for the artificial cartilage. The patient provided the cells.

Some structures are already being done.

Kidneys and livers are more difficult.

/johnny

[seowulf]

Government got involved with nukes.

You've got me there.

Of course government always gets involved with everything. It appears to be already starting with 3D printing.

Of course there's always a "rational" reason for it. Can't have printed guns in the hands of the peasants; it's for the children after all. What ever made up excuse there is, there must be a way for government to screw it up. Politicians must profit.

My skepticism is more about human nature than human technology.

[JRandomFreeper]

My skepticism is more about human nature than human technology.

There have always been bootleggers. That, too is human nature. ;)

/johnny

[marktwain]

Will I be able to print a Silver American Eagle someday?

You can do it now. You have to supply the raw silver, of course, and at present, the machine is quite expensive.

These machines can do quite a bit, but they do not create something out of nothing.

[marktwain]

Labor will become expensive and in demand. Land will be expensive. Prime real estate moreso.

Raw materials will still be needed.

Rare materials such as gold and silver will become relatively more valuable because of the demand for their intrinsic qualities and their scarcity.