prediction

A Plea for More 3D Printer Manufacturers

3D printing aficionado Joris Peels writes a long treatise begging major manufacturers to produce 3D printers. He specifically requests HP, Brother, Xerox, Seiko Epson, Ricoh, RolandDG, IBM, Texas Instruments, Konica Minolta, Fujifilm and Sony to make a line of 3D printers.    Why make such a request when we have several decent manufacturers already in… Continue reading A Plea for More 3D Printer Manufacturers

Co.Design Names 3D Printing a Trend

Design blog Co.Design (part of Fast Company) listed Frog Design’s view of the “20 Tech Trends That Will Define 2013”. Such lists are always interesting to examine, as they usually confirm suspicions and indications observed throughout the year.  But what did Frog believe were the trends?    There are too many to mention, but some… Continue reading Co.Design Names 3D Printing a Trend

Q & A With Bre Pettis

Bre Pettis, CEO of MakerBot talked with Mashable about the 3D printing and his views on the future direction of the industry. He believes in the rise of innovation, partially triggered by the wider accessibility of making equipment, specifically the MakerBot (of course.) He says:    Even on a small scale, you have parents who… Continue reading Q & A With Bre Pettis

HP To Produce 3D Printers?

Seeking Alpha presents a cogent argument for HP producing 3D printers in the near future, even though no such announcements or signals have been emitted from that company, recently or in the past.    HP has had some involvement with 3D printers, in that it had an arrangement with Stratasys to resell HP-labelled Stratasys uPrint… Continue reading HP To Produce 3D Printers?

Two 3D Printing Downers

We’ve just read not one, but two articles from reputable publications that appear to dismiss the notion of personal 3D printing. TechCrunch’s Jon Evans wrote “3D Printers Are Not Like 2D Printers: A Rant”, while Scientific American’s Gary Stix wrote “3-D Printing: The Great American Tchotchke Machine”.    Stix’s premise is that personal 3D printers… Continue reading Two 3D Printing Downers

Preventing 3D Printed Piracy… Or What?

A patent has been awarded to The Invention Science Fund, an organization holding patents for former Microsoft CTO Nathan Myhrvold’s Intellectual Ventures company.   What does this patent do? It’s a method to implement copy-protection on your 3D printer!    Wait a moment – Does this mean we will be unable to print some of… Continue reading Preventing 3D Printed Piracy… Or What?

There is a Reason For Individuals To Have A 3D Printer In Their Home

Jon Evans’ piece on TechCrunch entitled, “There Is No Reason For Any Individual To Have A 3D Printer In Their Home” explains just that. He believes the future of 3D printing (at least in the short term) lies in centralized services rather than personal devices.    Other than “passionate artists/hobbyists and home manufacturing businesses” you… Continue reading There is a Reason For Individuals To Have A 3D Printer In Their Home

Oh, The Hype, The Hype!

It’s beginning to hurt. We’re seeing a minor explosion of wildly excited posts about 3D printing on a wide variety of blogs that attempt to shock and amaze.     But they’re mostly just hype. Consider these recent headlines:   This Incredible 3D Printer Can Produce Entire Rooms Automation poses dilemma in labour market 3D… Continue reading Oh, The Hype, The Hype!

3D Printing Shows Up in 2035

At least that’s the indication from a work commissioned by the US Air Force. The “Welcome to 2035… The Age of Surprise” video attempts to show some of the technologies that will be key in the year 2035. If we look at the frame captured at left, you’ll see “3D Printing” shown prominently among other… Continue reading 3D Printing Shows Up in 2035

3D Printing Tops Gartner’s List

Every year Gartner, one of the leading technology analyst firms, produces what they call “The Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies”. It’s a chart plotting the position of various technologies on the Hype Cycle curve.    The Hype Cycle is a theory proposing that technologies follow a series of stages in their lifecycle: Technology Trigger (the… Continue reading 3D Printing Tops Gartner’s List

A Counterpoint to the Pragmatist

We’ve been reading Todd Grimm’s provocative post, Standing up to Hype: A Pragmatist’s View, in which he describes his position on the capability of 3D printing. Todd is frustrated with mainstream media who all-too-often wildly extrapolate the idea of 3D printing into an unrealistic science fiction future of Star Trek replicators in every kitchen. He frequently plays… Continue reading A Counterpoint to the Pragmatist

AirBus Envisions Gigantic 3D Printer?

The designers at Airbus propose creating a giant 80m x 80m 3D printer to produce entire aircraft. Whoa, that’s a near-outrageous statement, but it appears in an article published in Forbes, where Airbus seems to have a rationalization for such a project: their future visions cannot be easily made with conventional manufacturing approaches, as you… Continue reading AirBus Envisions Gigantic 3D Printer?

DIY Pioneer Dislikes 3D Printing???

A provocative headline at LiveScience proclaims: “Why a DIY Pioneer Dislikes 3D Printing”. The pioneer in this case is Neil Gershenfeld, director of MIT’s Center for Bits and Atoms, someone who should know the space very well indeed.    It seems that Gershenfeld views the current state of “DIY” manufacturing as an extension of 1950’s… Continue reading DIY Pioneer Dislikes 3D Printing???

A Conversation On 3D Printer Piracy

We were reading an interesting article in The Guardian interviewing Steve Purdham, founder of successful internet jukebox service We7. Purdham spoke of how he believes the Jukebox idea is the ultimate destination of what we know today as “radio”. Then suddenly the article says:    In conversation, Purdham veers from the pragmatic to the preposterous.… Continue reading A Conversation On 3D Printer Piracy

3D Printing Produces Abundance?

Peter H. Diamandis is well known as the originator of the recent series of X-Prizes that have launched a couple of new 21st century industries. He also founded the Singularity University, too, which led to a unique extra-terrestrial 3D printing initiative, Made In Space.    Diamandis and partner Steven Kotler have just come out with… Continue reading 3D Printing Produces Abundance?

3D Printer in the Home of the Future

The UK’s Channel 4’s new show “Home of the Future” takes the idea of a futuristic home beyond just and idea; they’re building it for real!    The imaginative home includes numerous 21st century features, some you’d expect to see, like an internet-equipped refrigerator in the kitchen and others you might not expect like the… Continue reading 3D Printer in the Home of the Future

3D Printing To Disappear?

Christopher Mims writes his opinion of 3D printing futures on the MIT Technology Review blog, where he suggests that 3D printing will never become a “mature technology that can reproduce all the goods on which we rely”. He goes on to suggest that to believe so is a “complete denial of the complexities of modern… Continue reading 3D Printing To Disappear?

The Two Titans of Personal 3D Printing

After CES it now seems we have a two-horse race for the lead in personal 3D printing: MakerBot and 3D Systems. Both announced new printers (the MakerBot Replicator and the Cube), while 3D Systems added a comprehensive 3D community/store/service to compete with MakerBot’s Thingiverse.    But that’s about where the similarities end. MakerBot’s philosophy revolves… Continue reading The Two Titans of Personal 3D Printing

Unfold Imagines Streetside 3D Printing

Several design firms specialize in doing amazing things with 3D printing and one of them is Belgium-based Unfold. Their new concept is streetside 3D printing. What? Yeah, it’s exactly that – a street vendor that prints arbitrary stuff on demand. Not hot dogs, but objects.     Possible? Technically yes, but we suspect the clientele… Continue reading Unfold Imagines Streetside 3D Printing

The Economist Discovers 3D Printing’s Killer App

There is perhaps no bigger promoter of 3D printing within the mainstream media than The Economist magazine. Recently they visited the gigantic Euromold conference where many 3D printer manufacturers exhibit their wares – and applications of their tech.    What impressed The Economist was the link between 3D print design and the biological. We’ve written… Continue reading The Economist Discovers 3D Printing’s Killer App

The Cambrian Explosion of 3D Printers

Another new and innovative 3D printer kit available on KickStarter. Venture funding starts up another 3D printer factory. And then we read Rachel Park’s blog post. She reported on her experience at Euromold, where even more low-cost personal 3D printers emerged. That got us thinking about explosions. Cambrian explosions.    But, you ask, what is/was… Continue reading The Cambrian Explosion of 3D Printers

More People Get 3D Printing

Blogger John Geraci’s recent post shows his newfound understanding of the future of 3D printing: he gets it. John’s blog talks about “innovation & entrepreneurship in New York City and beyond”, and this led him, we suspect, to Brooklyn-based MakerBot, the well-known manufacturers of the Thing-O-Matic personal 3D printer and previous models. From there he… Continue reading More People Get 3D Printing

3D Printed Circuit Boards?

Ponoko’s CEO David ten Have believes 3D printers will soon be able to print actual working circuit boards, in a recent chat with Wired. According to ten Have, “most of the assembly tools are completely automated anyway”.    The RepRap project’s design goal is to design a machine that can actually reproduce itself, but automated… Continue reading 3D Printed Circuit Boards?

3D Printing is a Cleantech Innovation

Pike Research, whose tagline is “Cleantech Market Intelligence” posted a report listing “Five Disruptive Cleantech Innovations”. These, we presume, are technologies that should deliver dramatic ecological benefits to future generations as they come online in force later in this century. But what was on the list of five?   Energy Harvesting Energy Storage Fuel Cell… Continue reading 3D Printing is a Cleantech Innovation

3D Printing’s Great Divide

We’ve been observing some of the fantastic features offered by the major 3D printer manufacturers and realized there could be a growing problem.   While all 3D printers can produce objects, some manufacturers use unique (and patented) approaches to getting that done. They also offer some great features:    ZCorp’s printers can print in full… Continue reading 3D Printing’s Great Divide

Foodsafe 3D Printing

Foodsafe is one of those words we keep bumping into. What does it mean, exactly? Well, we’re pretty certain there is an official international standard, complete with a number of specifications, but basically it means you can use the produce for purposes of human consumption. You can eat with it.    “But it’s just plastic… Continue reading Foodsafe 3D Printing

Does 3D Printing Follow Moore’s Law?

Computer geeks are all familiar with Moore’s law, which posits the idea that the number of transistors practically placed on a chip doubles every two years. Of course, more transistors means more power – and that’s exactly what we see: cheaper, more powerful computers every year.    Johnny Ryan wonders whether a similar law (maybe… Continue reading Does 3D Printing Follow Moore’s Law?

BBC Covers 3D Printing

Every few months we see a flurry of articles introducing 3D printing to the general public. While those familiar with the space may find this repetitive, it actually is quite beneficial to the 3D Printing industry, since there are a great many businesses, artists, architects, designers and individuals who don’t completely understand what it’s all… Continue reading BBC Covers 3D Printing

Shapeways Is Three. Is 3D Printing Old?

Shapeways just celebrated its third birthday and while we’re happy to see they’re doing well and continuing to innovate, we asked ourselves if 3D printing is getting old?    Shapeways is three years old.  Fabbaloo has been posting since late 2007, some four years ago.  Objet is twelve years old. Z Corp is sixteen years… Continue reading Shapeways Is Three. Is 3D Printing Old?

3D Printing on xkcd

We’ve seen 3D printing show up on the hallowed pages of BBC, CNN, The Economist and other mass media outlets, but today we see it make an appearance on the highly popular internet comic strip, xkcd.    In the strip, xkcd predicts “widespread deployment”. And other things that, yes, will probably occur – if they… Continue reading 3D Printing on xkcd

Amazing 3D Printing Infographic

We bumped into this totally amazing infographic that explains pretty much all you need to know about 3D printing, including the process, economy, materials, typical uses, timeline of events, consumer and industrial use, food printing, etc. (Click link below for the full infographic view).   The timeline is interesting. It predicts Bioprinted human limbs and… Continue reading Amazing 3D Printing Infographic

Mass Customization is On The List

The Churchill Club is “Silicon Valley’s premier business and technology forum”, with some 6,500 members including many notable tech CEOs. Each year they host a discussion in which panelists attempt to predict the top tech trends for the next few years. This year’s event, apparently the 13th annual, included panelists:   Curt Carlson, President and… Continue reading Mass Customization is On The List

2011: The Year of 3D Printing?

Richard of Capolight Electronics Projects examines the popularity of 3D printing over time and asks the question, “How popular will it be this time next year?”   His investigation involved use of Google Insight, a free service that shows the popularity of terms over time. By searching for typical 3D printing terminology, like “Extruder”, “RepRap”,… Continue reading 2011: The Year of 3D Printing?

Crossing the 3D Printer Chasm

Following up on this post speculating on 10,000 MakerBots in 2011, we’re thinking of what steps MakerBot (or any other 3D Printer company) might consider to “Cross the Chasm”.    The “Chasm” refers to a social scenario that often occurs as a business grows. At first their clients are enthusiastic early adopters, capable of accepting… Continue reading Crossing the 3D Printer Chasm

3D Printing Timelines

TeamTeamUSA prepared two very cool timelines on Dipty, the site that lets you create, well, timelines! The first (pictured) is “2010: The Year in DIY 3D Printing”, and includes many notable events that took place last year. The second is “2011: 3D Printing Predictions”, where speculative events are envisioned, including (at the time of this… Continue reading 3D Printing Timelines

10,000 MakerBots?

Joris Peels of i.Materialise guest-posted 11 provocative predictions for 3D printing on TechCrunch this week, and one of them caused us to ponder whether it could really happen. No, it’s not the “Bre Pettis will appear on the cover of Bloomberg Businessweek magazine in 2011” – that’s entirely unpredictable. We’re more interested in the “Makerbot… Continue reading 10,000 MakerBots?

Do 3D Printers Bypass Customs?

There could be several interesting effects on business and society when 3D printers become widespread, and we’ve discussed a few of them in the past, including possible crime, for example. But here’s another one to think about: Customs Control.    Most countries have some level of customs controls, in which imported goods are inspected for… Continue reading Do 3D Printers Bypass Customs?

Has 3D Printing Hit The Knee Of The Curve?

We’re pondering a couple of recent developments in the low-end 3D printing space that may indicate a change of state in the low-end 3D printing world.   First, Shapeways received a massive investment from top-ranked venture capital firms: USD$5M from Union Square Ventures and Index Ventures. We wrote, and still believe that this means Union… Continue reading Has 3D Printing Hit The Knee Of The Curve?

Mom’s 3D Printer

Open3DP reacted to our reaction to MAKE’s post regarding the future of 3D printer manufacturers. MAKE suggested the hobbyist manufacturers would ultimately be eaten by cheap Asian factories, while we commented on the differences between the hobbyist and commercial 3D printer markets. Open3DP adds an analysis of material costs in the equation, suggesting that the… Continue reading Mom’s 3D Printer

The Manufacturing Revolution Visualized

There’s a great animation made specifically for the FULL PRINT3D exhibition by DHUB http://www.dhub-bcn.cat/ that visualizes what we think might happen in the future when 3D printing becomes widespread. Two images in the animation resonate strongly with us:    The scene of billions of mass-manufactured cups representing what must be behind virtually every object we… Continue reading The Manufacturing Revolution Visualized

The Future Collision of 3D Printer Manufacturers

We read a provocative piece by Make that contrasted the approach by different 3D printer manufacturers. On one hand, we have MakerBot industries leveraging the power of community and open source techniques to improve their product; on the other we have PP2P’s (strongly) closed source Up! 3D printer. And on yet another hand, if we… Continue reading The Future Collision of 3D Printer Manufacturers

Blurring the Distinction Between the Physical and the Virtual

An interesting essay by Portland-based Thomas Schreiber poses a variety of thoughts on the coming digital fabrication revolution. The highlights:   The distance between idea (digital) and real (objects) is becoming very close, and soon will be almost zero as digital fabrication becomes widespread.  Marxism’s definition of power, the means of production, was always relegated… Continue reading Blurring the Distinction Between the Physical and the Virtual

The Future of 3D Printing

Here’s an interesting 50 minute video from the Singularlity University by Scott Summit who speaks of many topics of interesting to our readers. Highlights of the “OK, So You Can Create Anything. Now What?” Talk:   Introduction to the concept of Mass Production – how the making of things became cheap Some things are simply… Continue reading The Future of 3D Printing

Wujec on 3D Printing

Tom Wujec, Fellow at AutoDesk, spoke at the Thinking Digital event earlier this year. In a video of his fascinating talk, Tom speaks of the nature of emerging technologies, specifically tech evolution and tech possibilities.   He describes a special moment in the evolution of technology where the previously “impossible”, suddenly becomes possible. This is… Continue reading Wujec on 3D Printing

The Inevitable Obj Store

After re-reading Bradshaw, Bowyer and Haufe’s paper “The Intellectual Property Implications of Low-Cost 3D Printing”, we’ve been considering where this personal manufacturing space is heading. In the paper, the tangled intellectual property rights scenarios they described involved personal manufacturing of some sort. It occurred to us that at the end of the day, most manufactured… Continue reading The Inevitable Obj Store

The Battle of Big Thinking

We listened to an interesting presentation from John Wilshire on the topic of “Big”. He means the notion of mass production, mass consumption and the resulting mass media, where the goal is simply to have you “buy more” in a “big way”. It’s true. We’ve all been conditioned to think this way as that was… Continue reading The Battle of Big Thinking

3D Printing is Not China on Your Desktop

A 2008 quote attributed to Chris DiBona, Open Source Programs Manager at Google says: “Think of RepRap as a China on your desktop.” We strongly resonate with that image. Instead of receiving goods from China, which evidently manufactures all things these days, you can drop a 3D printer on your desk and manufacture things yourself.… Continue reading 3D Printing is Not China on Your Desktop

Seth Godin’s Vision

We read Seth Godin’s posts often, and recently completed his latest book, Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?. In the book Godin proposes that the industrial model that we’ve lived with for some 250 years is drawing to a close. With painful accuracy, he describes the fruitless struggles and frustrations many people face at work in the… Continue reading Seth Godin’s Vision

3D Jobs of the Future

The Guardian’s Ian Wylie posts an interesting vision of the future, where he extrapolates technologies emerging today into full-on industries and associated job roles. They describe a great many truly interesting jobs of the year 2020, and one of them involves 3D printing: Construction Worker. Actually, they believe that Construction Workers might be at risk,… Continue reading 3D Jobs of the Future

The Third Wave of Industrialization

Alf Rehn is is Chair of Management and Organization (Åbo Akademi University) and formerly Professor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (KTH, Stockholm), and in a recent column he postulates the future for Finland, and by implication the rest of the world.    Rehn writes of the growing troubles in our world today, including climate change, financial… Continue reading The Third Wave of Industrialization

3D Printing Wishes for 2010

  It’s New Year’s Day, 2010. We now have 366 days of progress in fabrication until 2011, and we’re wondering what might happen this year. Here are our wishes for 2010:   A consumer capable 3D printer. Yes, there are very inexpensive 3D printers available today, but they are hardly something you’d drop off at… Continue reading 3D Printing Wishes for 2010

3D Printers: Banned?

Gartner Analyst Nick Jones postulates banning consumer 3D printers in the future due to environmental concerns. He suspects we’ll accumulate vast piles of non-biodegradable plastic bits, much like we accumulate paper today that comes from our 2D paper printers. Jones: But as one of my clients pointed out yesterday, do we really want an affordable… Continue reading 3D Printers: Banned?

The Demise of FedEx?

A provocative article on Quiet Babylon proposes shipping companies such as FedEx may fade away as a result of new technology developments, including 3D Printing. The premise is this: FedEx and similar carriers base their business on two basic needs: Authenticated documents containing “wet signatures” Movement of objects from place to place We agree with… Continue reading The Demise of FedEx?

Home 3D Printers Not Practical?

Plastic Pals recommends not using the current generation of 3D printers (such as Fab@Home, RepRap, RapMan, MakerBot, etc.) for printing quality models: There’s a significant cost:quality/size trade off when dealing with home 3D printers. Even the cheapest commercial-grade printers cost around $15,000 USD. Alternatives such as the aforementioned MakerBot CupCake CNC ($750 + materials), are… Continue reading Home 3D Printers Not Practical?

BitTorrenting Real Things

There’s a great discussion going on at the Ponoko blog, where Duann posed the question, “What will we do when product design files start hitting these peer to peer networks of sharing. The equivalent of ripping a CD and burning it for a friend?” We’ve been contemplating this as well, because it is going to… Continue reading BitTorrenting Real Things

3D Futurism

Futurist Brenda Cooper writes of a revelation she recently had when discussing the current state of 3D print tech. She was shocked to see how fast things are evolving with the technology – “I found myself dreaming of 3D printers for a few days. After all, I could already buy one.” She correctly points out… Continue reading 3D Futurism

Anticipating 3D

Interesting post on JIN SAOTOME’S DANGEROUS BLOG! where John Mallamas describes his state of anticipation of the arrival of practical 3D printers. He’s a “self taught action figure/toy customizer” who saw a sample printed object and realized the potential for his efforts. Interestingly, he predicts a scenario similar to one we’ve espoused: What does this… Continue reading Anticipating 3D

New 3D Economy?

Futurist James Cascio recently examined the effects of “Desktop Manufacturing” in Fast Company, and we tend to agree with all of his key points: Manufacturing is likely to undergo the same kind of “creative destruction” that the printing and media industries have gone through Desktop manufacturing will spur more local production, especially for esoteric objects… Continue reading New 3D Economy?

The Ultimate 3D Printer?

Week after week, our research reveals new features available from 3D printer manufacturers. Printers may be faster, higher quality or have other terrific enhancements. But we realized that sometimes a great feature is available only on from one manufacturer, and we’d like to see it combined with a feature from another manufacturer. That got us… Continue reading The Ultimate 3D Printer?

Nanofactories

Those of us who follow the 3D printing space can envision the likely near future: Bigger build chambers Different, more functional materials (did we say Metal?) Faster printing operations Better resolution Lower costs Greater public awareness More 3D print service bureaus Vast libraries of 3D models But what happens after that? In an provocative post,… Continue reading Nanofactories

The Early Angle on Growth

Martin Stevens, CEO of A1 Technologies (makers of the Rap-Man we covered recently) dropped us a line to follow up on our post regarding the growth of the 3D printing market. Stevens says: … we have been amazed on the response from industrial organisations.  We have taken orders from large corporations, which are interested in… Continue reading The Early Angle on Growth

Reformat Your Shopping

Portfolio.com speculates about the future of mass customization in a recent post examining the footwear industry. The idea is that although people may like a product’s function, they may desire certain superficial changes, such as color or texture. Traditionally we’ve unconsciously accepted the lack of choice when we’re staring at the display case in Wal-Mart… Continue reading Reformat Your Shopping

Five Reasons Why?

Joseph Flaherty at Replicator posits five reasons why 3D printing will never go mainstream. While we agree in principle with many of the positions, we thought we’d take a stab at a rebuttal. Publishing on Demand Didn’t The idea is that while 2D printers became commonplace, their presence in homes didn’t really change the book… Continue reading Five Reasons Why?

Information, Objects and Business

  We just finished reading a fascinating 3-part post on Zeus Jones that resonated with many of the concepts we’ve been pondering. Fabbaloo readers will recall that our vision of the future includes a world where most people have desktop manufacturing equipment in their homes, and “shopping” for some, perhaps many objects is done by… Continue reading Information, Objects and Business

A Question For Readers

  We often write of new applications of 3D printing. Most of the time new applications seem to fall into one of two categories: Faster turnaround time by printing onsite or via 3D printing service than using conventional hand-crafted designs Producing numerous unique items, where previously only a limited number were possible It’s the latter… Continue reading A Question For Readers

Solidworks Predicts…

  At the Solidworks World 2009 conference, the co-founder of Solidworks, John Hirschtick, made four interesting predictions. User interfaces involving touch and motion We’ve noticed this too, as the problem of transforming a 3D idea stored in your brain into a 2D representation on a flat screen is often difficult. We  agree that new interfaces,… Continue reading Solidworks Predicts…

Easton Predicts A Consumer Manufacturing Future

Tom Easton, Professor of Science at the Thomas College in Maine has just released a PDF of an interesting article he’s written for The Futurist magazine. Easton suggests that the combination of low-cost 3D printing technology and new business approaches triggered by commonly available internet connectivity will result in a new world for consumers. Gone… Continue reading Easton Predicts A Consumer Manufacturing Future

A 3D Spime Gateway in Every Home

We noticed an interesting article on the Cisco blog, where author Dennis Mancini postulates the future of Spime technology. Spime? Proposed by author Bruce Sterling, a Spime is “a type of technological device that, through pervasive RFID and GPS tracking, can track its history of use and interact with the world,” according to Wikipedia. While… Continue reading A 3D Spime Gateway in Every Home

The 3D Printer in You

No, we’re not suggesting there’s a ZCorp 510 next to your left kidney. But there ARE 3D printers inside of you. Many of them. That’s a least the analogy suggested by Phun Yan Yan, guest blogger for the NUS School of Computing in his article “Biology for Computer Scientists”. He proposes: This predefined sequence of… Continue reading The 3D Printer in You

3D Printing from Amazon?

That’s the proposition by Tony Hirst in his blog, OUseful.Info. Tony examines the digital assets of Amazon and their growing electronic distribution mechanisms. And then the eureka moment: So here’s where it struck me: Amazon is increasingly capable of turning digital bits into physical stuff. This is good for warehousing, of course – the inventory… Continue reading 3D Printing from Amazon?

ModelMakers Doomed?

An interesting thread at pushpullbar.com debates the future of professional architectural modelmakers. These are the guys that take the blueprints or designs from the architects and create miniature 3D representations in cardboard or other materials. The proposition posed by poster Curlz says: As a current student of a modelmaking degree and hoping to get a… Continue reading ModelMakers Doomed?

Gartner Predicts 3D Printing Future

Each year Gartner, a leading IT research firm, posts a list of technologies they feel that will dramatically affect business over the next decade. This year’s list includes Web2.0, Service-Oriented Architecture and Virtual Worlds, which are all expected to have near-term impact. Meanwhile, RFID, Surface Computing, Augmented Reality, Mobile Robots and our favorite topic, 3D… Continue reading Gartner Predicts 3D Printing Future

The New Way to Take Footprints

  We’ve all seen proud parents taking too many pictures of their newborns. Sometimes people even take plaster casts of their tiny feet, preserving their impression in 3D for eternity – like these folks did here.   This got us thinking. If it were possible to easily perform a 3D scan of baby’s feet, would… Continue reading The New Way to Take Footprints

Are We Ready for 3D Printing?

Simon Wardley asks (and answers) the question: Why would consumers want mass customisation. The answer to that is probably because that they’ve been primed to want it. In order to limit the commoditisation of physical products, advertisers have been pushing the concept of “designed for you” to the public for the past twenty years. The… Continue reading Are We Ready for 3D Printing?

3D In Your Dreams

  Josh Mings from SolidSmack is a prolific blogger, most often found discussing aspects of 3D modeling with SolidWorks, a popular 3D design package. A recent post on SolidSmack caught our eye, in which Josh described his night obsession with 3D modeling:   How are you suppose to get a good nights sleep when your… Continue reading 3D In Your Dreams

Can We Print a Human?

That’s the question being considered by Duncan Graham-Rowe of New Scientist. The premise is whether the components that make up each of us can be replaced using modern technology. Replacement bones are discussed, and as we’ve talked about before, they are a very good candidate for 3D print technology: they are relatively small 3D objects… Continue reading Can We Print a Human?

Additive Manufacturing: The Edge of the Wedge

Stratasys announced the sale of multiple large FDM 900mc 3D printers to “an unnamed Fortune 500 company”. The mysterious company will be using these high-powered devices to produce “plastic parts for end use”. Evidently this form of “Direct Digital Manufacturing” is rapidly increasing for low-volume runs. According to Stratasys CEO Scott Crump: More and more… Continue reading Additive Manufacturing: The Edge of the Wedge

Super Paper 3D Printing?

New Scientist reports on a very intriguing development involving plain paper. Researchers at the Swedish Royal Instititue of Technology have produced a very strong paper product by leveraging nanofibres that naturally occur in cellulose – a material available virtually everywhere. Conventional paper production involves destruction of these nanofibres, but the Swedish research crew developed a… Continue reading Super Paper 3D Printing?

A Future 3D Media Problem

We’ve been thinking about the future world of 3D printing, where theoretically everyone has a 3D printer at home, probably sitting right beside their 2D paper printer. We predict a printing media issue will develop. What might that be? Consider the current situation of 2D paper printers: your 2D printer requires media (ink & paper,… Continue reading A Future 3D Media Problem