Over the last few years, 3D printing has become a hype. At the start, almost 40 years ago, these printers were only suitable for creating plastic. These printers have been undergoing quite some changes the last years. Up until only a few years ago, modern 3D printers had essentially three big limitations:
- The speed of the printers;
- The type of materials they could print.
- The cost of the printers.
The speed of the printers
Since the developments from the last few years, 3D printers have gotten 40 or 50 times as fast as conventional printers. Machine parts that used to be made in 12 hours now only take 15 minutes to create. This improvement opened up a lot of options for the usage of 3D printers.
The type of materials
The oldest 3D printers could not print many different metals. This means that products couldn’t be created with the same characteristics that would be possible in a factory. This however, is changing as 3D printers become more and more capable. Nowadays, 3D printers can create products of the same quality, and can create products made of metal and fiber instead of just plastic.
The cost of the printers
The cheapest quality 3D printers in 2014 used to cost at least $2000. Nowadays, not even 5 years later, they are available for less than half of that. Technological progress and increased demand has caused a plummet in prices, it is likely that the prices will decrease even more as time passes.
How 3D printers will disrupt the industry
It is incredibly difficult to assess what the future impact of this development will be. Businesses will start and have started using 3D printers to manufacture specific products. It is entirely possible that 3D printers will replace some factories, as the printers are more flexible and can produce small amounts for less. Another possibility is that 3D printers eventually become so advanced and cheap that it becomes a household product, like a pc is now. If that happens, entire industries would change, as a lot of companies would become obsolete when people get the possibility to create, for example, their own clothes. Clothing companies would have to start selling designs instead of the clothes themselves.
There are many more possibilities for 3D printing, what do you think will happen once 3D printers become cheap and mainstream?
Sources:
Goldberg, D. (2018). History of 3D printing: it’s older than you are. Available at https://www.autodesk.com/redshift/history-of-3d-printing/
Reichental, A. (2018). The future of 3-D printing. Available at https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2018/01/23/the-future-of-3-d-printing/#2f7ac3b65f65
3Dinsider, (2018). How Much Does a 3D Printer Cost? Available at https://3dinsider.com/cost-of-3d-printer/
