General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWill 3D printing change the world?
http://video.pbs.org/video/2339671486MineralMan
(146,317 posts)It may even change how we build structures like homes and other buildings. Change the world? I don't know quite what that means.
randome
(34,845 posts)I think some look for an abrupt paradigm shift that transforms us all overnight. I doubt things will happen that quickly.
MineralMan
(146,317 posts)I don't see 3D printing as one of those abrupt paradigm shifts, though. It may well become a major manufacturing method, though, at some point. It's an extension of automated manufacturing, which has already changed manufacturing to a large degree.
TeeYiYi
(8,028 posts)Oh, that was a rhetorical question...
TYY
Johonny
(20,851 posts)Working on two projects using it and the technology is just getting better...
randome
(34,845 posts)Johonny
(20,851 posts)that simply aren't possible using traditional casting/molding and machining techniques. As people have posted as this technology improves the kinds of materials you can print will add serious novel devices. There is some safety aspects and pollution aspects although ATM I don't think these are big drivers.
aristocles
(594 posts)I have significant positions in DDD and SSYS. So far good paper profits on them both.
I'll hold for the long term unless either has negative news.
DainBramaged
(39,191 posts)randome
(34,845 posts)DainBramaged
(39,191 posts)marketing makes the world go round. Those of you buying stock for dividend or post-sale profits contribute nothing to the process, just your own pocketbooks.
If you had been an investor 10 years ago I'd be impressed, but for buying stock, not a chance.
aristocles
(594 posts)And the ultimate success of this technology. It is indeed all about my profits.
DainBramaged
(39,191 posts)sales funds their success, not the egos of the investor class...........
NYC_SKP
(68,644 posts)Mostly, people use them to make crap.
So we just use more energy and resources making crap.
Better we take up carving or pottery.
Duer 157099
(17,742 posts)I mean, if we're gonna have crap, may as well have the home grown variety instead of shipping it in from China.
antigone382
(3,682 posts)Where does the raw material that is rendered into a product come from?
Duer 157099
(17,742 posts)factory in the USA!
antigone382
(3,682 posts)There materials that make certain resources come from the earth. Plastic comes from petroleum. Metal comes from mining. Wood comes from trees. If 3-D printing doesn't cut our resource consumption then it will not improve our ecological problems.
I'm not saying it won't cut our resource use--I don't know enough about it to judge either way. But that must be the criteria by which we determine whether it is a technology worth adopting or not, because our fates depend on it.
Duer 157099
(17,742 posts)It's called recycling and we could stand to do more of it.
antigone382
(3,682 posts)However, even recycling requires a lot of energy and resources, and very often the product that results from recycling is a lower grade material that must be used to create an inferior good--a phenomenon known as "downcycling."
Duer 157099
(17,742 posts)Gotta find the silver lining...
antigone382
(3,682 posts)However, in the long term I think we have to figure out a way not to produce the plastic in the first place.
NYC_SKP
(68,644 posts)antigone382
(3,682 posts)lumberjack_jeff
(33,224 posts)NYC_SKP
(68,644 posts)jberryhill
(62,444 posts)lumberjack_jeff
(33,224 posts)jberryhill
(62,444 posts)Duer 157099
(17,742 posts)I wonder what it's supposed to be?
liberal N proud
(60,336 posts)tridim
(45,358 posts)But I do like how 3d printers are spitting out items that are normally impossible to manufacture with traditional methods.
Duer 157099
(17,742 posts)First thing I'm gonna do is print me up a fresh batch of telomeres.
randome
(34,845 posts)Duer 157099
(17,742 posts)all the time in the world?
And, how do you know?
Motown_Johnny
(22,308 posts)I'll tell you one thing that they might do that would make a big change. For people who do in home repairs the need to run out and get one stupid little part that you don't have on your truck may be eliminated.
If you can have a 3D printer on the truck and create the part you need in a short period of time it will change things.
I work for a landscape company and part of what we do is install and maintain irrigation systems (automatic sprinklers). We have a special truck set up with a wide selection of stupid little parts that might be needed any time we go to a job. There are so many different manufacturers and so many different sizes and styles of parts that all do pretty much the same thing, it is really a pain in the ass. If we could cut our inventory of parts on hand by 3/4 and have a printer available for the dumb little 15 year old part that finally needs replacing, it would change the way we run that division. Right now we are trying to work out a way to use a smaller, more fuel efficient truck to help cut fuel costs. It isn't easy because of all the stock you need to keep on hand and making 2 trips because you don't have the part is just going to run up fuel costs, and labor costs, and vehicle maintenance and paperwork... etc. (besides the customer not being happy that you needed to show up twice to make the repair).
I'm not sure that everyone will have them in their home because the need for odds and ends simply do not arise that often. But for the guy who you want to fix your 30 year old furnace, or your 12 year old dishwasher... it could be a game changer.
Duer 157099
(17,742 posts)Totally agree
1-Old-Man
(2,667 posts)3d printing will be very useful, but many things can be created less expensively and faster by conventional means. So it will find its place. By the way, as an example of the above, say you are making a car door. Its got a lot of parts. The lock and maybe some fancy bracketry might well be made best by 3d printing (rather than conventional machine or casting work) but how about the door skin, which will most likely continue to be either stamped from metal (very fast and inexpensive) or created inside injection molds. A place for everything, everything in its place.
snagglepuss
(12,704 posts)Bosonic
(3,746 posts)Will mobile phones change the world?
aristocles
(594 posts)In 50 years, there will be no significant manufacturing that will be done by human hands.
Machinists? Robots. Craftsmen? Robots. Pottery? Robots. Art? Robots.
Technology follows its own imperative. You have no idea how smart these circuits are.
Response to DainBramaged (Original post)
aristocles This message was self-deleted by its author.
GreenStormCloud
(12,072 posts)As the technology matures it will get better and cheaper. When the TSR-80 came out people could have asked if personal computers would change the world. Some did ask that.
The Straight Story
(48,121 posts)Can't have such technology in the hands of potential citizen terrorists.
There will be a few who misuse it for bad means, we will get scared, and insist on only those who are wealthy, a business, or a person who works in a government job can be trusted.
Hell, we cannot even accompany loved ones to the terminal anymore and watch them board planes because we are so damned scared of one another (and, correct me if I am wrong, but didn't the hijackers have tickets to board the planes?).
DainBramaged
(39,191 posts)ONE it's in it's commercial infancy
TWO the same was said when the Kindle came out........and the IPad...............that books were far better
Progress marches on.........................
antigone382
(3,682 posts)I do not know enough about the specific manufacturing processes that will be affected, so I cannot really draw any solid conclusions. My inclination, however, is that any time human labor is replaced by a machine, energy use increases. I do not believe we can maintain our current energy consumption levels, much less increase them, without devastating climate effects.
I see no viable form of renewable energy that is fully capable of replacing fossil fuels. Biofuels displace food crops and have very poor EROI when agricultural emissions and processing are taken into account. Solar and wind are not consistent. Nuclear has great risk, and still generates considerable emissions when the full life cycle of extraction, processing, plant construction and maintenance, and decommissioning are taken into account. Hydropower has terrible effects on ecology, and the anaerobic decomposition that occurs in accumulating sediments at the dam generate methane emissions.
In short, it seems to me that we are facing the necessity of radical change in terms of the resources we consume and the waste that we generate, particularly our energy use. If 3d printing contributes to reduction in consumption and waste, then perhaps it is viable. If it results in an increase, then adopting 3D printing is just one more factor in our global suicide.
liberal N proud
(60,336 posts)We have been using 3D printing for many years already and they are acting like it is a totally new technology.
What is new, is it is finally becoming affordable.
Duer 157099
(17,742 posts)do you imagine that will also create some sort of excitement?
Because access is the issue. It's nice to know we can sequence the human genome. It will be exciting when we can sequence MY genome at an affordable price.
Nuclear Unicorn
(19,497 posts)Ellipsis
(9,124 posts)struggle4progress
(118,295 posts)Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)Hugely.
XRubicon
(2,212 posts)When they are able to print in steel or in aluminum with the same properties as other methods then it will be something.
jsr
(7,712 posts)or maybe a 3D-printed suspension bridge.
Warpy
(111,275 posts)so it's difficult to say how far it will go.
It could be the technology of the future or it could be too expensive and cumbersome to bother with. My best guess is that it will be somewhere in the middle.
Lint Head
(15,064 posts)Not that it would function mentally but that is a possibility.