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3D Printers as "household appliances" in the near future?

summerella

A very interesting study on the potential for consumers to own a 3D printer for household uses.  Do you think this is realistic/feasible?  I want one for my house! image


 

"The team printed a variety of doodads for the study, including an iPhone case, garlic press, safety razor, perogi mold and spoon holder. Smaller mass-produced objects saved the least amount of money - a dozen 3-D printed shower rings cost $1.20 to print and $2.99 to purchase from a store. The iPhone 5 case cost 27 cents to print, a huge improvement over the inflated $20 price tags found in Apple Stores and other retailers.

 

Printing all 20 objects took about 25 hours and cost a grand total of $18 in plastic and electricity. The savings came out to between $294 and $1,926, depending on the quality of the comparable retail products."

 

http://whatsnext.blogs.cnn.com/2013/07/31/study-at-home-3-d-printing-could-save-consumers-thousands/?hpt=hp_bn5

  • I don’t see this as a mainstream household item for a few years but with that said it is a realistic/feasible idea.  Currently the only consumer Printer (what I consider ones that are within a price point that the average person can afford) is using fused deposition which is currently limited to mostly printing plastic.   Now when patents run out in the next couple of years and printing material evolves these will be more appealing to consumers.  Having numerous printers to my disposal I must say that they are very useful to have.  I can’t tell you how many times a little plastic piece has broken and I just printed a new one off for cents compared to dollars from the manufacturer.

     

    Nate

  • Thanks for pointing that article.  I found this very interesting:

    Smaller mass-produced objects saved the least amount of money - a dozen 3-D printed shower rings cost $1.20 to print and $2.99 to purchase from a store. The iPhone 5 case cost 27 cents to print, a huge improvement over the inflated $20 price tags found in Apple Stores and other retailers.

    The key to adoption would seem to be showing consumers they can print these higher margin items on their own for less.  Also, as patents for higher resolution 3D printing technology expire, we may see affordable printers which can achieve the same level of detail and finish of a mass manufacturer project.

     

    cheers,

    drew

  • in reply to fustini

    Personally I think the price point hasn;t been met for day to day use and probably more importantly they are too complicated to produce original parts.

    Obviously sites like thinkyverse provide items but to be honest remember how 30 years ago they said that every one would become a programmer due to PCs....... how many of normal users program a PC???

     

    Unless they are integrated with scanners and some one can just put in an original and say I want another one I think it will beyond many people!

  • in reply to fustini

    Since western Economies in particular seem to rely on intelectual property rights of all sorts, will we see a big dip in the econonomies of these countries expecially of the super size Corps such as Apple who make giant mark ups on products based on their IP. If you can just copy it  what happens then does apple shares suddenly become like $0.50 a share or does Apple lobby govenments to have some sort of copy protection built into the machine like we see on PCs.

     

    I do think we are on the cusp of these things been an issue and we are due  some type of Kazza vs iTunes type bun fight .

  • in reply to Problemchild

    John

    Like with any new technology comes new business opportunities.  Yes Apple will not be able to sell you the marked up item directly but they will be able to sell you for example the 3D model to print.  Like with all the past industrial revolutions some will fall, some with survive and some will be new.  Thats how its always been.  These companies have to know its comming so figure how you can shift your business model to meet these needs.

     

    Nate

  • It would save a lot of money for the average working family. $18 is a lot of money saved compared to $294 and $1,926.

  • in reply to Nate1616

    Yes they  will be looking after their busness not mine and we are already in IP is king  economy .

    The next Hacker won't be the music downloader but some granny nicking a pattern for some fork or household item