Gartner Says 3D Printers Will Cost Less Than $2,000 By 2016 170
colinneagle writes "Widespread adoption of 3D printing technology may not be that far away, according to a Gartner report predicting that enterprise-class 3D printers will be available for less than $2,000 by 2016. 3D printers are already in use among many businesses, from manufacturing to pharmaceuticals to consumers goods, and have generated a diverse set of use cases. As a result, the capabilities of the technology have evolved to meet customer needs, and will continue to develop to target those in additional markets, Gartner says."
Skynet and Graham Cairnes-Smith (Score:2)
It's interesting how much of the technology for Skynet is being built by humans as tools.
It's very reminiscent of this
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graham_Cairns-Smith [wikipedia.org]
In simplified form, this is the clay hypothesis: Clays form naturally from silicates in solution. Clay crystals, as other crystals, preserve their external formal arrangement as they grow, snap, and grow further. Clay crystal masses of a particular external form may happen to affect their environment in ways that affect their chances of further replication. For example, a 'stickier' clay crystal is more likely to silt a stream bed, creating an environment conducive to further sedimentation. It is conceivable that such effects could extend to the creation of flat areas likely to be exposed to air, dry, and turn to wind-borne dust, which could fall randomly in other streams. Thus - by simple, inorganic, physical processes - a selection environment might exist for the reproduction of clay crystals of the 'stickier' shape.
There follows a process of natural selection for clay crystals that trap certain forms of molecules to their surfaces (those that enhance their replication potential). Quite complex proto-organic molecules can be catalysed by the surface properties of silicates. The final step occurs when these complex molecules perform a 'Genetic Takeover' from their clay 'vehicle', becoming an independent locus of replication - an evolutionary moment that might be understood as the first exaptation.
Despite its frequent citation as a useful model of the kind of process that might have been involved in the prehistory of DNA, the 'clay hypothesis' of abiogenesis is not so popular, as with several other abiogenesis hypotheses. As it was current and fashionable at that time, Richard Dawkins used it as the example model of abiogenesis in his 1986 book The Blind Watchmaker.
Dawkins poetically talks of a future "robot Cairns-Smith" working out that life has gone from being silicon based to carbon based and back again and each transition has vastly increased the speed at which it can develop. I.e. from the pseudo heredity of clay based 'life' to DNA protein based life and Darwinian evolution and finally to machines
Yeah... but what will that 2k get me? (Score:2)
If it only gets me something with clunky 0.2mm resolution or worse... meh.
I want something that is precise enough to print detailed D&D miniatures and creatures, which means that the smallest details need to be in the neighborhood of about 20microns or so.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3)
I regularly print at 0.1 mm layer height, and generally find that it could be better. If I had the patience for it, I'd go for 0.05 or 0.025.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I use Blender for anything organic or smooth, or anything that can be done with a bit of simple vertex-pushing. I might look into Openscad for customizable or technical designs, or Sketchup for anything architectural that doesn't have to be very precise.
There's also tools for repairing STL files. You should ask on #reprap on freenode IRC about it. I don't need it very much, forgot the name.
Re:Yeah... but what will that 2k get me? (Score:5, Interesting)
Oh, and this replicator was less than 2000$.
Re: (Score:3)
Where do you get the plans for those miniatures? I was thinking about doing the same thing.
Re: (Score:2)
If it only gets me something with clunky 0.2mm resolution or worse... meh.
I want something that is precise enough to print detailed D&D miniatures and creatures, which means that the smallest details need to be in the neighborhood of about 20microns or so.
Maybe this is what you are looking for?
http://www.sandboxr.com/ [sandboxr.com]
I am not associated with either sandboxr or kickstarter.
Re: (Score:2)
OK, (Score:3)
Questionable if it's fair right now and in future???
Re: (Score:2)
How about the ink? Probably the same game as with current printer ink cartridges - ongoing profit maker...ripoff Questionable if it's fair right now and in future???
That's the great thing, make your own, or buy a device that makes it: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/833191773/filastruder-a-robust-inexpensive-filament-extruder [kickstarter.com]
Re: (Score:3)
FDM printers can already be had for less than $1000, and I built my own Mendel90 for about 500 euros. The PLA I use cost 32 euros per 2.3 kg, although it's a pretty cheap type. Been using it for a while now, still haven't run out. And even if I did find myself lacking material, I could chuck all my failed prints into a filabot or something and recycle it.
Re: (Score:2)
I use an Objet which is like an inkjet printer but uses UV cured epoxy. A 3 kg cartridge is about $1500. Plus you need support material so maybe double that cost.
LYMAN FILAMENT EXTRUDER II (Score:3)
The 'ink' isn't going to be a problem. Someone already thought of that as one of the things that might hold back 3D printing. There is a great article on it: http://techland.time.com/2013/03/04/how-an-83-year-old-inventor-beat-the-high-cost-of-3d-printing/ [time.com]
From the article:
"In May of 2012, the contest, dubbed the Desktop Factory Competition, debuted on iStart.org, a Kauffman-owned platform for entrepreneurial competitions. Sponsored by Inventables, Kauffman and the Maker Education Initiative, it offer
Re: (Score:2)
The real advance will be ultrasonic welding of metallic-glass beads.
I'm serious :)
Re: (Score:2)
TonerDeal via Amazon has dropped their price on a 10-pack of Canon compatible PGI-225/CLI-226 inkjet cartridges to $2.42 plus $4.99 S&H. (Avgs out @ $3.71/5-pack or about $0.74/cart shipped.)
With each 10-pack order, you'll receive:
Qty.2 - PGI-225 Black (PGBK)
Qty.2 - CL
Plastic stuff? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3)
So... All stuff that would have been cheaper to just buy from China. Like he said.
I could download, print and bind a book today. It would be cheaper to just buy the damn thing in most cases and I'd end up with a better product.
Re: (Score:2)
Not really. Traditional methods are cheaper if you need 1000 of something. If you need one or ten of something then 3D printing starts to make sense.
As for the quality of the prints, I remember owning and using a 6 pin dot matrix printer back in the 1980s. That one would never replace real prints. A decade later small laser printers could produce prints that rivaled traditional print jobs.
Re: (Score:2)
Companies like Gartner ... (Score:3)
McKinsey, same product, often the same methodology.
And it is *astonishing* how many of those reports you cannot find on the Internet later, when you want to make fun of them.
2016? (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:3)
Gartner exists to tell companies what they want to hear. You say to them "we make 3D printers but they cost about $10k, maybe in a few years they will be down to $2k and everyone will buy one". They do a nice press release saying they have "studied" the situation and concluded that in a few years 3D printers will be available for under $2k and everyone will buy one.
In other words they try to modify the world to suit your companies desires and timescales by issuing bullshit studies and articles to major sour
You can already buy them for sub-$2000 (Score:3)
I could do with some sub $2k laser sintering (Score:2)
Waiting for the day.. (Score:2)
I'm waiting for 3d printers that can print metal.
Re: (Score:2)
Well, so much for 3D printing then (Score:3, Insightful)
If Gartner predicts it will be a success, it won't. They never ever been right on anything. You would think that even a broken clock is right twice a day but Gartners clock isn't.
And for all the 3D printing fans, right now there is a cheap home production system out there. It is called the sewing machine. It used to be common in every house because producing your own clothes was cheaper and you could make what you needed, when you needed it. Brilliant! There was an entire eco-system around it with fabric stores and even stores that sold nothing but buttons.
Do you own a sewing machine? No? Why not? Because it takes to much skill? Because it is cheaper to buy crappy fall apart stuff made in sweatshops around the world and marked up 1000%?
Well then what makes you think 3D printing will take off as a home production system? Yes yes, you can print your own gun... GUN. SINGLE. So you going to buy a 2000 dollar printer to print a 100 dollar gun... And if you really want to make your own gun, there are already plenty of metal working tools out there that can do it for you. You can already buy all the tools to build a gun. Even in countries with strict gun laws.
3D printing is an amazing invention and will completely change how things are prototyped or how unique items are created. BUT it is the sewing machine, hand sewing machines are STILL used by those prototyping clothing AND artists that want to make something unique. The rest of us buy our crap of the rack.
Same as I don't have a vegetable patch, don't grow my own herbs in a window box, don't make my own soap, don't gather my own firewood, don't cut my own bread, don't generate my own electricity, don't make own compost for plants, fix my own car, paint my apartment.
Hell, how many here even build their own PC anymore? And if you go "oh but that is way to complex and time consuming"
EX-FUCKING-ACTLY
I actually have used 3d printing services to create some cases for Arduino projects. I used a hobby club where a member helped me (well, did all the work for me really) and created some cases from scratch. Very nice, very useful but really, no different from me going to a tailor and asking for a suit to be made (which is not as expensive as people think it is). I don't have a sewing machine and I don't see a future of me owning a 3D printing machine. Why would I? I can pay someone to do it or me, and they can then afford a much better one then I can afford and we are all happy and laughing at Gartners made up statistics.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Similarly, I have a Reprap printer. It takes work and knowledge to get it to work and keep working, needing attention like a spoiled little baby, but it's fun to mess around with. I also built my computer from parts, about 4 or 5 years ago. It still serves every purpose I use it for. It also has its share of weirdness sometimes, but I can deal with it.
To those with the patience for it, DIY can be a beautiful kind of project to work on. To those without, surely there's someone nearby who has the right skills
Re: (Score:2)
The substantial difference between a sewing machine and a 3d printer is that you cannot simply feed a sewing machine a design and have it spit out an article of clothing. As near as you get to that is embroidery machines which you must carefully set up, which will embroider onto a garment or piece of material. Most of them don't even make their own thread changes, but hobbyists are now building 3d printers with multiple extruder heads, or extruder heads in which materials are mixed directly before extrusion
Re: (Score:2)
We've (humanity) been injection molding for about 100 years now and nozzles still freeze off.
Printing is just an easier problem. There are CNC sewing machines, it's just that they aren't used much as people are more versatile and cheaper.
Sewing is a better analogy to 3d printing then printing is.
And even with printing, nobody home prints paperback books.
Re: (Score:2)
There are CNC sewing machines, it's just that they aren't used much as people are more versatile and cheaper.
My understanding is that they are only really capable of doing simple jobs on their own, and for anything interesting you need humans to do a lot of complex setup anyway. That's not really much of a CNC sewing machine, is it? It's more semi-automatic than automatic.
Sewing is a better analogy to 3d printing then printing is.
3d printing of the type commonly done with cheap printers today is so much simpler than sewing that it doesn't even bear comparing.
And even with printing, nobody home prints paperback books.
False. People print out books' worth of information all the time. Most of the time they bind them with a binder. I
Re: (Score:2)
I'll see your home book printing and raise you hand made paper and caligraphy. Some people have too much time on their hands (see below). Those aren't paperback books.
I haven't printed a whole book worth of information (at a time) sense I started paying for my own printer supplies.
On the flip side I know a dude with a burster and an industrial scanner. Last I talked to him he was working on posting a metric shitload of obsolete computer docs and falling behind the queue. He's weird even by geek standar
Re: (Score:2)
Your assuming that they will become ubiquitous. Justify why this would happen, beyond just that it could? Given the quality of the FDM process, why would a user want to sit back and wait 4 hours for a towel hanger for their bathroom that will look like it was made up of small strings of plastic?
FDM based 3d printers will NEVER be trouble free. The companies which sell them sell you contracts with technicians who are on call to maintain them. It is a glue gun with a small hole. And it prints out in a fe
Re: (Score:2)
You make some good points on sewing machines, guns and Gartner, and I would have to add that the inevitable cost of "toner" is another in to make on your side of things. I really have to disagree with how far you take things against the the do it yourself ethos though.
I'm pretty far from what you would call a prepper, yet I have my own vegetable patch, grow my own herbs, fix my own car, gather my own herbs, make my own compost and paint my own house. You might think I live in the country, however I live in
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
You don't own a sewing machine? How do you get your pants to fit?
Gartner?! (Score:2)
Holy shit, those coke-snorting peons at Gartner still have a pulse? (I remember trying to explain the importance of - and future prospects for - 3D accelerators... to some of their analysts back in '95 or '96... they didn't get it and damn were they sure I didn't!) ROFL...
SSD Drive (Score:2)
I am going to wait before I buy one of these 3D printers. Once they can print 256Gig SSD drives, they will be worth buying...
Re: (Score:2)
Patents patents patents... (Score:2)
The difference between consumer-class and enterprise-class 3D printers are minor. Controlled temperature environment is one of them.
As soon as one of the small fish is advertising features of the so called enterprise-class 3D printers, they are sued into oblivion by Stratasys and others using their patents.
Re: (Score:2)
And I'm very happy with my Up! PP3DP printer!
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Put your prices up. Wild-ass predictions are obviously a Veblen Good [wikipedia.org]
Re: (Score:2)
Open source too
+300 mods points!
We're Saved! (Score:4, Funny)
Oh thank goodness! We'll now be able to print plastic dogshit cheaper than the cost of mass-producing it in China!
Then nobody will be able to take that away from us - short of prying it out of our cold dead hands.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Gartner is actually correct, if not late to the party.
You can already find them on line for under $1000. Serious ones for under 2000 are easy to find.
Does Gartner not know about Google?
Re:Wow (Score:5, Informative)
I think the keyword you missed was "enterprise class", implying that its prints will be of higher quality. Or that it has a voice module and regular printer attached to spew our corporate bullshit and white papers.
Re:Wow (Score:5, Funny)
An "enterprise class" 3D printer is one that will be able to make 3D models from descriptions such as "synergetic, cloud-integrated proactive out-of-the-box social media mindshare ". It will be able to take corporate bullshit as valid input and turn it into accurate 3D models. Essentially it just prints a hardcoded model of a dildo every time.
Re: Wow (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
The better hobby printers already desktop Stratasys models in quality. I would imagine that enterprise quality printers are a lot less fiddly in their use though. (and a cartridge will cost ten times what a roll of ABS currently costs.)
Re: (Score:2)
You were on the right track with the voice module aspect, but went off the track with the white papers and corporate BS. "Enterprise class" means a 3D printer that is used in a ship like the USS Enterprise. This means that Gartner is predicting that we will have sub $2000 replicators. You are correct that a voice module is required for this technology, specifically one that uses Majel Barret's voice.
I know, I know ... you are saying to yourself, but the Enterprise is a Galaxy class starship. Shouldn't t
Re: (Score:3)
No, no... the voice module on an enterprise class printer allows you to say
"Make it so!"
Re: (Score:2)
Enterprise class simply means:
PC LOAD PLASTIC
will be displayed at random intervals.
Re:Wow (Score:5, Informative)
Gartner don't know a fucking thing except how to sell useless and obvious information to businesses.
Re: (Score:3)
they said enterprise class.
basically, if you have to put 3d printers into two classes and one of them is enterprise then FDM(the usual home) or resin based systems wouldn't be it.
enterprise class would be objet/polyjet style machines or laser sintering machines.
neither of which will be under 2k in 3 years. unfortunately.
Re: (Score:2)
It's a little silly to arbitrarily say something is "enterprise class" isn't it? InvisAlign has been using resin-laser printers to print molds for their aligners since 1999 and prints tens of thousands of unique pieces of plastic a day. It's really about what it lets you do. I think a better distinction is probably "prototyping class" versus "manufacturing class". A $2200 Replicator 2 is a fantastic prototyping, modeling, replacement part, artwork machine, but it's probably not going to be part of an as
Re: (Score:2)
Gartner knows what Microsoft tells them to know.
Re: (Score:2)
Basically Gartner will do reports to make things look like however some large company wants. Even now, this is likely meant to slow down MarketBot and other's inroad into corporate desktop while some
Re: (Score:2)
Still upset about one Gartner report from 20 years ago? And convinced it's all a conspiracy to keep the little guy down? Sad, man, just sad. But I'm sure this is the year of Linux on the desktop, this time for sure!
Re: (Score:2)
My printer can do that.
Of course the reproduction isn't perfect yet, but I'm getting there. [tumblr.com]
Re: (Score:2)
Re:3D printers will not be popular at any price (Score:4, Insightful)
Lets be honest, we barely use our home printers.
Who is "we"? I don't have a printer at all so I use it less than you do. But I know some people who print all kinds of things. Like most other activities that are optional, there are huge variations in what people do.
So "let's be honest". You're not going to use a 3-D printer much. I probably won't either. But there probably will be a significant minority that prints out all kinds of things.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:3D printers will not be popular at any price (Score:5, Insightful)
And 640k should be enough for anyone.
People like you predicted no on would have a use for a computer in the home.
Re: (Score:2)
Thanks for proving me right.
Thin clients are everywhere. EVERY-Friggen-WHERE!!!
Hint: Check your Smartphone or Tablet. Check out Google Drive, SkyDrive, Dropbox. Thin clients morphed while you were asleep.
And Google Glass [androidcentral.com] is already being heavily developed even when its not out of beta yet.
Time to wake up from your long winter's nap AC, and stop telling other people to shut up until you get a clue. Final products don't always look like the speculative products. 3D printers won't always be making toys. Th
Re: (Score:2)
I suspect you're trolling but just in case you're not. The important thing about 3D printers is not how they're currently being applied but how they could be applied. I personally have zero interest in 3D printing in it's current state. I also probably wouldn't have been interested in computers in the 80s. The thing to understand is the technology will progress to the point where you can print just about anything in a 3D printer (a car, an assault rifle, medicine or even entire buildings). At that point eve
Re: (Score:2)
what about an automatic sandwich-maker?
Re: (Score:3)
Those cost about half your income and the price of a diamond ring.
Re: (Score:2)
Yea but you get a free dishwasher, and clothes washer too.
Still using the old dishwasher, clothes washer, and sandwich-maker as before with only the cost of most of my income and diamond ring. . . .
Re:3D printers will not be popular at any price (Score:5, Insightful)
Waiting for it to be a service at e.g. my local Walgreen's (as lab-quality photo printing is today). Doesn't need to be in my house, just convenient.
Never underestimate the appeal of cheap junk (Score:2)
When 3d printers can custom make kitsch of all sorts in minutes at a local store, it is a revolution. Then its not just junk its YOUR personal junk :)
Re: (Score:2)
don't these printers take hours to make even small things? doesn't seem like a good investment for someone trying to make a living in a over-priced tourist town
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Waiting for it to be a service at e.g. my local Walgreen's (as lab-quality photo printing is today). Doesn't need to be in my house, just convenient.
That actually might be a double-plus for them. Get rid of the cheap plastic gimmicks that they sell and put some 3-D printers there. With quick-access buttons to print out the cheap plastic gimmicks.
No need for inventory or shipping them in from China!
Re: (Score:2)
they already have injection molding machines that do that; they've had that for decades (since the 90s at least)
i remember going to brookfield zoo, and having a gorilla made to order in '90 and then again in '03
i could probably go and get another one once the zoo opens
Re: (Score:3)
they already have injection molding machines that do that; they've had that for decades (since the 90s at least)
i remember going to brookfield zoo, and having a gorilla made to order in '90 and then again in '03
i could probably go and get another one once the zoo opens
They've had them at rest stops on the Florida Turnpike since it was built (1960's, I think). I believe they had them at the local zoo, at least for a while.
But there's an essential difference. The injection molding machines each have the ability to manufacture ONE thing, which is whatever the dies installed on it shaped. And due to their construction, they made objects that were mostly hollow.
An actual 3D printer can make anything that you can provide viable blueprints for, hollow or not, subject to the lim
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: the comment about "$5 per cubic inch". I just calculated the material cost of a calibration object of volume 4cm^3, with a fairly moderate infill. On my printer it consumed 3g of plastic, which costs $40/kg. This object cost $0.12 in plastic, or about $0.03/cm^3. Continuing.... 1 cubic inch is 16.4 cm^3, or an equivalent cost of about $0.49. Five dollars is a bit high for a personal machine cost, even including the electricity.
Printing services will double or triple the material cost to account for was
Re: (Score:2)
the little models and small items I've seen people print could have been bought for a few dollars
http://www.amazon.com/Chaos-Space-Marine-Terminator-Warhammer/dp/B000VT45O2 [amazon.com]
Just picked an example at random. Just a few dollars?
Re: (Score:2)
Oh gosh you got me, one of the most likely type of "little model" to be printed is irrelevant to the discussion.
Re:3D printers will not be popular at any price (Score:5, Interesting)
So your point is..because paper documents have gone out of fashion...all physical objects are also useless? Or do you think paper printers aren't cheap and ubiquitous ? I built a 3D printer, and I don't print toys/models.
I broke a wheel on my dishwasher? I just drew one up and printed it, good as new. I broke a handle on my fileting knife..I printed one nicer than the original which has a fish gut scooper on the handle. I've printed brackets for my truck, pieces for the printer itself, and if I got really enterprising, I could use the printed plastic to make a lost-plastic casting and cast myself metal versions of anything I wanted. (See here: http://3dtopo.com/lostPLA/ [3dtopo.com] )
My printer was under a thousand start to finish but that was self built so a lot more work than something you just unbox. (Mendelmax 2.0 from makerstoolworks.com if anyone cares(no affil))
Anyways, does it make pure financial sense? Maybe, maybe not. Does the ability to make any physical object that fits within my printers dimensions within a few minutes or hours make it worth it for me? Definitely. Some things take weeks when you need them now, sometimes you need to try 10 versions of something before it would make sense to pay for a final high quality one to be made. Sometimes its an object not important enough to spend the time and money on if you need to send away for it, but it would be neat to have. There are a million reasons I think 3D printers can work for the average Joe and see regular use.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Lost PLA works just as well, but yes printers can extrude wax. There have been DIY versions, and there are commercial ones as well. Shapeways uses commercial wax printers to do lost wax casts of prints commercially. Just upload your file to em and they will give you a silver version of your file !
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Lets be honest, we barely use our home printers. I'm glad I have it, but I bought my color laser in 2009 and have never changed the toners.
Sure, but I think for many people, printers fall into the "not often needed but occasionally really nice" category.
This would explain why the printer market has developed the way it has, with super incredibly cheap printers that quickly get expensive if you use them a lot.
For some people, a better method of achieving this is easily availabled shared printers (e.g. there are still plenty of internet/manga cafes around here with printers, and the convenience stores all have copiers that can do printing or s
Re:3D printers will not be popular at any price (Score:5, Interesting)
Lets be honest, we barely use our home printers. I'm glad I have it, but I bought my color laser in 2009 and have never changed the toners. I print everything to PDF. I have no desire to own a 3D printer because I see no use for it, the little models and small items I've seen people print could have been bought for a few dollars rather than buying a $2,000+ printer and the plastic it uses. If I really need a 3D model I imagine paying someone a few bucks on ebay or craiglist to print custom items. Sorry 3D printer makers, but these will always be for a very niche market, never mainstream.
Turn in your nerd card! You can only print stuff ordered that others designed. If you design yourself, you need to prototype. This is no different from making software versus using software. Everybody who makes software needs a device to work on, instead of only consume, everybody who makes objects needs a printer to try it on, instead of a service that delivers prints at home.
What you claim is hence: "I don't make or design stuff, so I don't need a 3D printer." Yes, but there are many people out there that do make things, probably more than there are software coders. 3D design is also easier than programming, so schools will quicker pick this up than adding coding to the curriculum.
This is indeed not mainstream, but most houses have kids at a certain time, so a 3D printer will be handy, and if people are fed up waiting for a package or the 3D services are not that good, buying one will be an option. In the end, it will come down to ease of use of the printer. I'm able to service my 3D printer, 95% of the population would not manage with the printers in use today. My first order to shapeways took 2 weeks before they notified it could not be printed, and refunded me. Second order took 1.5 weeks to arrive.
Re: (Score:3)
Nerd that works in the fashion industry here, funny story on that one, but any rate we just bought a mid-range 3d printer. Reason, so the fashion designer could create 3D models of button designs and with a little paint get an idea of how it would look on a design sample. From there you can make a casting for a mold to send to a metal or glass maker to make the real thing. Right now we're making a little extra because other area designers are coming in to use it to prototype things like jewelry, belt buc
Re: (Score:2)
Sorry 3D printer makers, but these will always be for a very niche market, never mainstream.
I imagine much the same was said back when Wozniak was working on the Apple I and Apple II computers
Sure, while it's still a fernickerty process requiring some skill it'll be niche. When it's developed to be quicker, reliable and more accessible then I think we'll see them becoming more mainstream.
Re: (Score:2)
When it becomes an appliance it will be mainstream. Prior to that it will continue to be something for enthusiasts, artists, home professionals and made to order providers.
To be an appliance it will need to have a catalog of stock products. The expensive versions will have customization options and use more expensive or better quality materials and higher quality output. Very likely it will not allow original creations though there will be hacks to enable it (rootkits) - think mobile devices and media playe
Re: (Score:2)
3D printing is going to change manufacturing and distribution of parts.
Re: (Score:2)
I hope that 3D printers create a new class of tinker: I take my broken gearwheel to him. He does a 3D scan or downloads the specifications and then prints a new part. Repair mechanics don't need to carry inventory of spares. Plus, spare parts aren't declared 'obsolete' once the model is 2 years old.
But i think your saying that not everyone will have them. Only some will.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Just recycle. They'll be brand new every time.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
- in automotive service departments to print trim pieces in the right colour
A friend of mine has a ferrari of some kind, and I asked about maintenance costs since I was curious how it was. Overall, he said it was certainly more than a ford, but his car had been well maintained and hadn't had any big problems. But recently, a plastic clip inside the door broke, and it rendered the outside handle useless.
To fix it, the shop got a replacement part to the tune of US$1200, plus labor to install it.
It's parts
Re: (Score:2)
Because the quality of the part printed by FDM is horrible. No one wants this sort of quality. An engineer needs to touch up any 3d models generated with scanning.
It's ridiculous that people think that this sort of technology is ready for what your talking about. Do you actually own one?