3D printing: the shape of things to come

Three-dimensional printing is one of those technologies that is allowing us to witness an explosive development and application potential in real time.

The first 3D printers date back to the 1980s, but it was not until around two years ago that the process began to become popular, due to the appearance of increasingly simpler and cheaper models, matched by new technologies that have increased their usefulness and possibilities.

On the one hand, we have seen how some 3D printers are now available even in department stores, offered by companies focused on consumer goods, and that are now part of ever-bigger conglomerates. If you add this phenomenon with high street retailers, along with the reality that just about anybody able to read a manual can now make their own 3D printer using DIY kits produced by companies such as RepRap, and add to that the spread of so-called hackerspaces, this multi-dimensionality and variety of players has created a kind of primordial soup that looks increasingly interesting.

On the other hand, we are now seeing that the initial limitations pointed out by critics are disappearing: from early models that could only work with thermoplastics, we are now moving towards models able to print with carbon fiber or metal, either on a workshop basis, or at industrial scale. There are also 3D printers that can print different colors and with different materials at the same time.

Three-dimensional printing is already being used for more than 30 conceptually different applications, saving time and money: from fighter aircraft components, as well as artificial limbs, or even selfies and decorative figurines (including fetuses along the lines of “print your baby”), scale models, and even body parts. Or a house. The much-talked about fear that petty criminals would be printing up their own Saturday night specials has proved baseless: if you want to get your hands on a gun, there are a thousand easier ways than printing your own in a 3D printer.

Easier access to, and greater familiarity with, these kind of technologies will shape many aspects of our future, and will affect the way that a wide range of industries do things, either because they need to come up with a prototype quickly or to directly manufacture limited numbers of components, or unique products. Remember: if you can’t see this coming, you need your eyes testing.

(En español, aquí)