Lately, it seems like nearly everything has been reproduced by a 3D printer. Between the group that
3D printed a gun, the people who printed
a drone, and the army of items sold at this
small marketplace for 3D printed goods,
there are plenty of novelty uses for these suddenly trendy machines.
We’re a long way from 3D printing a house, but it’s clear that the hobby
is inching into the mainstream.
Yet it’s difficult not to wonder: at what point will 3D
printing move beyond novelty to industry? Will these machines change the
way we manufacture goods, and subsequently change the global economy,
too? (Is it already happening before our very eyes?)
The answer: yes and no. The term “3D printing” comprises
two very different worlds: hobbyist 3D printing, where people with
relatively inexpensive machines print plastic objects in the comfort of
their homes; and industrial 3D printing, which is usually referred to by
another name: additive manufacturing. They are vastly different and
will likely have divergent impacts on the economy. Both, however, are
poised to alter the way businesses think about production.
Homeward bound
Right now, home 3D printing is relatively exclusive to hobbyists
and makers. A machine for the purpose costs about $4,000, and typically
only prints objects from plastic. For now, those objects tend to verge
on the trivial: bracelets, puzzle games, figurines. But some envision a
future where people will be able to 3D print replacement parts, or even
entire products, at home.
The arc of the 3D printing trend is similar to other
technologies, says Cherie Ann Sherman, an economist at Ramapo College in
New Jersey. In its infancy, the technology is today confined to crafts, hobbyists and hackers. But the path is well-worn. “If you think back to computers, that’s how personal computers started,” Sherman said. “They were being sold in hobby stores.”
In the modern age of mass manufacturing, consumers
aren’t fixers. Most people don’t take their toaster apart to figure out
what’s wrong with it, and even fewer will want to then 3D print a
replacement part. But 3D printing can still have a huge impact on the
home product economy, says Phil Anderson, an inventor and Ramapo
College professor. Rather than each person having their own printer at
home, local businesses and hardware stores could adopt the technology.
Take your faulty toaster to Home Depot or Sears, and a store employee
could isolate the problem and print your solution on the spot.
The development path of 3D printing could resemble that of photo printing, Anderson says. When it became affordable for people to have printers in their homes, people began printing their own photos.
Today, most people don’t print their own photos, despite increasingly
better home technology; instead, they avoid printing at all, and reserve
the special occasions that they do for shops with high quality print
services. The same could hold for 3D printing: if printers become
affordable enough, many people might initially buy them, but they will
eventually turn to specialized shops to get the job done as the
technology becomes ubiquitous.
Still, the economic impact of these kinds of 3D printed
products — one-off components or replacement parts — could be radical,
Anderson says. They could eliminate the need for huge warehouses of
parts and cut the need for shipping different components from place to
place as they’re ordered, in favor of instantly creating a perfect
replica on-site. Three-dimensional printing could reduce or eliminate
some of the steps between product creators and consumers. The existence
of the middle man that buys, sells and ships is threatened.
“I can cost-effectively make a
cell phone cover that is unique to every customer,” explains Ryan
Wicker, a researcher at the University of Texas at El Paso. “I could
build 100 different ones just as cost-effectively as building them all
the same.” That flexibility and direct delivery is why 3D printing might
change the markets for home appliances, jewelry and other small goods.
Sherman likens it to the way the Internet has cut the
middle man from artists who can now promote their art or music online
without a big record label attached to them. Now, people discover
musicians on YouTube as easily as the radio. “You can be the Carly Rae
Jepson of 3D printing,” she laughs.
The factory floor
Far from your living room or office is the world of the
factory — the large, the numerous, at a scale that eclipses that of a
human. This world of 3D printing, or, as industry designers call it,
“additive manufacturing,” is far more mature. Industry has been printing
parts for years now, from plastic vents to airplane parts to cars.
Take U.S. aerospace leader Boeing, for example. The
company has two entire divisions dedicated to additive manufacturing:
one for plastics, and another for metals. The two present quite
different challenges. Plastic 3D printing is a more developed process,
used for simple components such as vents and knobs. Metals, on the other
hard, are far more complex, often used for structural components that
require more safety oversight. Yet parts comprised of either material
are made with the same process. More applications are expected in the
near future.
As adoption increases, the potential impact of additive
manufacturing on the labor force is difficult to understate. Traditional
manufacturing requires a lot of unskilled labor, which is far less
expensive in developing nations such as China and India. As
globalization took hold over the last several decades, international
outsourcing by companies pulled jobs away from former manufacturing hubs
like the United States. In an additive manufacturing-based industry,
that’s not necessary. Plus, the jobs that support it tend to be more,
not less, skilled. “You’re electromagnetically steering an electron beam, which is a very powerful energy source,” says Dave Dietrich, the lead engineer from the metals group at Boeing. “These people are heavily trained technicians.”
Three-dimensional printing also stands to make industrial
design more efficient; with new capabilities comes new processes. Take a
complicated engine piece, for example: what once required several
pieces manufactured separately then fit together can now be designed and
printed as one piece. For the airline industry, for example, that means
lighter parts that translate to reduced fuel costs. “Even
though we live in a 3D world, most of our products are designed in 2D,”
Wicker says. “Just imagine allowing the full creativity of my designer
to take advantage of all three dimensions.”
For big industry, a better bottom line makes additive
manufacturing worth it, allowing for efficiencies in the process, speed
and cost of manufacturing. For now, the costs to research and begin
implementing such a process are large. But the future is clear, says
Michael Hayes, the lead engineer for Boeing’s non-metal based 3D
printing team. Five years from now, designing in three dimensions will
mean that each part will be designed to perform several functions,
rather than just one, he says.
Whether for leisure or line production, the predicted
effects of the 3D printing process are manifold and immense. All it
takes is a few big companies to sign on to set in motion a major shift
in global markets, Sherman says. “These companies don’t
see the technology as ripe yet,” he said. “Once they take a step in
that direction, that’s when it will really have its impact.”
