Over the last few years there has been a bunch of discussion around 3D printing and how everyone who has an inkjet in their homes today will have 3D printer in the future. I don’t buy it. It just feels too novel. I imagine though we will see them in businesses and every office supply/copy store.
My 2 primary reasons:
- Most people have trouble designing in 2D much less 3D. Sure they could use templates, although see #2…
- The variety of materials for printing to meet most needs would be too vast. I.e.-polyethylene, polypropylene, polyvinyl chloride, polystyrene, nylon, polycarbonate, acrylics, polyurethanes, melamine, silicone, epoxies, coatings, rubber, adhesives, elastomers, color…
Yes it’s likely I’ve overcomplicated what you could get by with as far as materials. But it just seems like it’s the Suzy Bake Oven of the future. Not to say I won’t want to make a custom Christmas ornament of a tiny me with an elf hat, or have the ability to print a new handle for my broken bucket. I’ll do this by “preparing” the items at home and picking them up at the local Kinko’s.
3D printing will however change the face of manufacturing allowing many of the parts needed for products currently shipped from overseas to be made locally. And we’ll see more customization of things that used to be standard.
10 years ago we made a prototype 3D printer for the Microsoft Home. We used it in a scenario for the home hobbyist. We showed printing the back cover of a remote control. I still believe it’s the home hobbyist who will buy one as they become more readily available, not the average consumer.
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p.s. – More plastic crap is not what this world needs, much less the thing to print the crap on.