When will everything be 3D printed?
Short answer-probably never.
If you asked pretty much anyone in manufacturing that question 3 or 4 years ago, you would’ve got the answer of “Definitely never”. So what has changed, and what’s creating the uncertainty?
3D printing has actually been around since 1981 in industry, however machines were massive, incredibly expensive and really slow. They were almost exclusively used for Rapid Prototyping-Taking a digital design for a product and making it physical. Machines like this continued to operate in big factories away from the prying eyes of Joe public until 10 or so years ago when the first domestic machines came out.
These were still serving a similar function to those early industrial machines- prototyping. The parts produced are of low strength and often fairly low quality surface finish, nothing like the products that you see on shop shelves.
Around the same time, however, there was a new generation of industrial machine being produced.These were no longer for prototyping, these were for Additive Manufacturing.
Additive Manufacturing uses exactly the same core technology as those old Rapid Prototyping machines, but has the ability to produce final production parts in a fraction of the time. The latest fighter jets are now starting to incorporate key engine parts made in this way. A couple of years ago that would be absolutely unthinkable!
But it’s not only for fighter jets,the world of prosthetics is being revolutionised by the different structural compositions that parts can have, and the ability to combine different materials onto one part. This means that flexible haptic skin replacements or bones with electronic circuits as part of their very fabric are possible.
Ultimately Additive Manufacturing is looking way more useful than anyone realised a few years ago, so who knows what will happen in the next 4 years with it?
