Printing the future
The social and environmental benefits of the 3D-printing revolution
In 2018, social and environmental issues are at the forefront of the public consciousness. A seemingly never-ending list of problems challenge (some of) the great minds of the 21st century to solve them. We regularly hear the phrase “think outside the box” when it comes to dreaming up new and innovative ways to find a solution. Sometimes, however, the old ideas are best. This could not be truer than for three-dimensional printing.
Hardly new, 3D printing (also known as additive manufacturing) has been around since the 1980s. It was pioneered by 3D Systems (founded in 1986) and Stratasys (founded in 1989), which are still around today. Early applications were primarily confined to rapid prototyping and accessible only to corporations with large R&D budgets. Then in 2014, a renaissance occurred, driven by affordable consumer versions and free design software. While the explosion in consumer 3D printers garnered a lot of media attention, the market was ultimately a red herring.
Today, most 3D-printer companies have pivoted toward the enterprise space, where flexibility of the available solutions has greatly expanded the market opportunity. Perhaps evidence of this is the presence of “unicorns.” So far, three unicorns are focused on additive manufacturing, namely Carbon, Desktop Metal and Formlabs.
The benefits of 3D printing over traditional manufacturing processes are obvious: It allows for rapid prototyping that reduces a product’s development timeline and is often cheaper than other methods. Most significantly, due to the ability to print almost any shape, a designer can realize the product’s optimal design — from the number of parts and the amount of support structure required to maximizing a material’s property limits, such as tensile and compressive strength. All of this leads to cost savings and superior performance. Furthermore, when designers use machine learning, the benefits are greatly magnified and the result is (sometimes) completely alien to what a human designer might create.
Evolution of part design: Artificial intelligence meets 3D printing
General Electric (GE), one of the largest industrial companies in the world, acquired metal-3D-printing companies Arcam and SLM Solutions for $1.4 billion in 2016. Why? Because GE found that metal 3D printing could save massive amounts of money while yielding stronger, more efficient airplane parts. For the Advanced Turboprop Engine (ATP) proof of concept, 3D printing allowed for a design that dropped the number of parts from 855 to just 12, reduced fuel burn by 20 percent, decreased weight by 5 percent, dropped the test schedule from 12 months to six and eliminated structural casting. More than any other industry, aerospace is finding very real opportunities for 3D printing applications that are giving companies like GE a significant advantage. As such, the aerospace 3D-printing market is projected to grow from $714.5 million in 2017 to $3.1 billion by 2022.
Example of a 3D-printed rocket engine
With all the innovation taking place and the benefits that 3D printing yields, the market opportunity is growing significantly. The global 3D-printing market is estimated to be worth anywhere from $20 billion to $32 billion in the next few years — and that’s based just on the applications we are seeing today.
Global 3D-printing market forecasts
But what about tomorrow? The localization of manufacturing in the future is key. Hyperlocalized manufacturing — where, for instance, your iPhone is printed down the street instead of being shipped around the world — would help reduce the 932 million tons (in 2015) of CO2 added to the atmosphere each year. An aspect of 3D printing that is really exciting is its potential for solving societal and communal problems. Already, applications of the technology for good are emerging.
Given the current rate of technical advancement, capabilities 30 years from now may well be astounding and their impact on humanity life-changing. For instance, 3D-printed prosthetics could greatly improve the lives of many. The World Health Organization estimates that there are 40 million amputees in the developing world, and only 5 percent of them have access to any form of prosthetic care. Consider a project like the one Not Impossible Labs took on: They traveled to Sudan to 3D-print a prosthetic arm for a boy who had lost both of his. It is easy to imagine how the adoption of this solution could greatly increase access to prosthetics.
Project Daniel by Not Impossible Labs
Similarly, access to medical devices in developing countries is being tackled by a nonprofit organization called Field Ready. The nonprofit uses portable 3D printing to create much-needed medical supplies or other tools in remote, often disaster-struck locations that do not have access to electricity on a regular basis, much less advanced medical technology or sophisticated factories.
According to WASHwatch.org, 10.4 percent of the global population — 790 million people — do not have access to “at least basic” water. Much of this has to do with filtration, which is where 3D printing could come in to produce filtration systems in situ. Another major issue is shelter. The last time a global survey was attempted — by the United Nations in 2005 — an estimated 100 million people were homeless worldwide; as many as 1.6 billion people lacked adequate housing, according to Habitat for Humanity. Once again, people are experimenting with 3D printing to see if structures can be built inexpensively from native regolith. The nonprofit New Story collaborated with ICON, a construction technologies company, to develop a 3D printer designed to print a home for less than $4,000 in under 24 hours. So far, in less than four years the organization has funded more than 2,000 homes for families in Bolivia, El Salvador, Haiti, and Mexico.
3D-printed communities
These examples are just the tip of the iceberg. The importance of technology in shaping the future of humanity cannot be overstated. The problems arise when the pursuit of profit runs counter to providing a social good. With 3D printing, every advance creates more opportunity to solve a problem. At Silicon Valley Bank, this is something we appreciate and support — and I for one hope to play my part. If you are working with any emerging technology, please reach out — we would love to help support your vision.
