Political power grows out of the nozzle of a 3-D Printer.
Ping
This is the more practical article on 3D printing, that I have been waiting for.
Political power grows out of the nozzle of a 3-D Printer.
BookMark
Good article. It kind of puts some of the hurdles of 3D printing in perspective. I don’t think they will ever be so ubiquitous that the average person just prints out what they need instead of going to the hardware store. Heck most VCRs blinked 12:00 the entire time people owned them. I have a friend who doesn’t have a clue how to retrieve his messages out of his cell phone. There is however a lot of untapped creativity out in the hinterlands. People that had a really good idea but never had a way of producing a working prototype. This could change that. They might have a hobbyist friend or they may pay some entrepreneur that started up a small business to print their dream.
Maybe not yet, but it’s heading that way. Replicators...
Speed is one problem with 3D printing.
If you make a single item then 3D printing a complex shape is faster than other methods.
But there is no reason why an industrial 3D printer could not create molds for making parts when a large number of the same item is required. One part of the machine could make the molds and another part could use the mold to crank out a large number of parts very quickly.
An advanced 3D printer would combine the best of the old methods and the new methods. There is no reason why a 3D printer could not do injection molding from molds it has created from a design file.
The magic of 3D printing is that it replaces human labor. People are too valuable, to have them make products by hand is just such a waste.
It would take a lot of energy but a 3D printer that used sand as it’s main raw material could make items for almost no cost...think smooth glass with selectable tensile strength...lightweight items containing many internal empty spaces.
Low-cost energy is what will really enable cheap automated production.
Thanks!