Can 3D Print Change the World?
Posted on Tue, Feb 15, 2011
The Technology Is Improving. What Will Be Its Long-Term Impact?
File this under: Watch closely, see what happens.
OutputLinks just read a Feb. 10 article in The Economist that looks at 3D print and considers some powerful, game-changing implications for the world.
The article states that “Three-dimensional printing makes it as cheap to create single items as it is to produce thousands and thus undermines economies of scale.” The article goes on to say that “It may have as profound an impact on the world as the coming of the factory did.”
That’s bold. And we’re keen on thinking about the potential impact of 3D print.
Dennis Mason, principal of Mason Consulting Inc. and an associate editor of The Greensheet, offers this opinion to OutputLinks: “This is not an especially new or technologically astounding concept. In the Xerox booth at the last drupa, a couple of partner companies were showing how this is done. Small complex machine parts have been made this way for some time, using plastic which can be displaced using a process similar to the lost wax method of making jewelry. Using sintered metal to produce the parts directly is a logical extension of this.”
What do you think? How does this affect our world of print? Should we pay attention?
Check out this article on 3D print in The Economist and then share your thoughts here or by email.