About three years ago I was the archetype of what plagues 3D Printing to this day. Working for a humanitarian tech non-profit, I was exploring wearable air quality sensors. Tasked with prototyping an enclosure for our wearable, I used a Dimension Elite printer to do what seemed to be the only practical use for these machines…
Prototype.
Just a step in the process. A means to an end — but this is changing.
Additive Manufacturing (3D Printing) is not about creating existing products with a new manufacturing process; it’s about engineering without limitations of existing processes and materials.
My cofounder and I founded Printocracy because we want to make an impact on an industry that will change how we design, manufacture and distribute parts. We want to be a part of the next industrial revolution — the one that’s happening right now.
Just this month, the first 3D Printed human heart was created, paper thin printed PCB’s infused with conductive silver ink was put into smart clothing, GE announced a $4.2 Billion effort to acquire to two leading companies in metal 3D Printing (Arcam and SLM) and for the first time in manufacturing, we have the ability to configure parts at the voxel level (three dimensional pixels) with an endless selection of material properties.
The tipping point is here as additive manufacturing begins to make it’s shift towards end-use parts and we want to empower service bureaus to be there as demand increases for production parts. There is no better time to be a service bureau as on-demand manufacturing becomes increasingly accessible.
Pretty cool.
