The 3D Manufacturing Revolution
By Jim Pinto
The industrial revolution ofthe late 18th century brought the mass production of goods and created economies of scale which changed the economy and society in ways that nobody could have imagined at the time.
Now a new manufacturing technology is emerging which does the opposite. Three-dimensional printing makes it as cheap to create single items as it is to produce thousands and thus undermines economies of scale. It will have as profound an impact on the world as the factory did.
Most of today’s manufacturing is “subtractive” — it trims chunks of material to required shapes — cutting, grinding, shaving, trimming. Then the parts are assembled into final products.
3D printing is an additive manufacturing technology. A 3D printer works by using a computer to create a series of cross-section slices. Each slice is then printed one on top of the other to create the 3D object.
The additive approach to manufacturing has many big advantages. It cuts costs by getting rid of production lines. It reduces waste enormously, requiring as little as one-tenth of the amount of material. It enables the production of a single item quickly and cheaply. Parts can be created in shapes that cannot be achieved with conventional techniques, resulting in new, much more efficient designs.
Parts and assemblies can be made of several materials with different mechanical and physical properties in a single build The 3D Manufacturing Revolution process. It’s as cheap to create single items as it is to produce thousands, so it undermines economies of scale. It may have as profound an impact on the world as the factory did more than a century ago.
3D printing is already competitive with plastic injection-molding for runs of up to 1,000 items, and this number will rise as the technology matures. Because each item is created individually, each one can be made slightly differently at almost no extra cost. Mass production could give way to mass customization for all kinds of products.
Today, the 3D process is possible only with plastics, resins and some metals, with a precision of around a tenth of a millimeter. It is currently used just by hobbyists and in a few academic and industrial niches.
Since 2003 there has been large growth in the sale of 3D printers. A basic 3D printer, also known as a fabricator or “fabber”, now costs less than a laser printer did in 1985. But 3D printing is spreading fast. The technology will improve and costs will fall.
The beauty of 3D technology is that it does not need to happen in a factory. Small items can be made by a machine like a desktop printer, in the corner of an office, a shop or even a house; of course, big items need a larger machine.
Nobody could have predicted the impact of the printing press in 1450, the steam engine in 1750, or the transistor in 1950. It’s impossible to forecast the long-term impact of 3D printing. But the technology is coming, and it is likely to cause a significant disruption. This will be a major inflection point of progress.
