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Most significant tech advance in 3D printing?

torrcircuit

Kirk,

What do you think is the most significant advance in additive manufacturing since it's inception that has allowed it to become the almost household technology that it has become today?

  • I know I am not who you asked but I would say the most significant advance is the reprap by Adrain Bowyer, this is what has brought the idea to a place that smaller companies and home startups can afford to use a 3d printer.  Also most advances after this were due to the affordability of 3d printers due to the reprap.  I am not one that thinks in 3 years everyone will have a 3d printer, that is to me a ridiculous idea at least in the short term.  To be able to use a 3d printer you would have to be able to design 3d objects to print, and be able to understand the capabilities of the printers you are using.  However this will allow those that can use the technology to be able to start a smaller manufacturing company or an inventor to prototype his invention without requiring the resources of a larger company.  I fully expect this will shrink the sizes of the corporations and spread the wealth a little more to the people that are earning it.

  • I would have to support Robert's idea that Adrian Bowyer's development of the self-REPlicating RAPid protoryping system (REP-RAP) following the expiration of numerous fundamental patents around FDM/FFF fabrication was the catalyst to move from ultra-costly laboratory grade equipment to the plethora of personal 3D printers you can now find at Staples, etc. The evolution of many boutique design shops is due to the evolution of on-demand manufacturing (iMaterialize, Shapeways, Ponoko, Shapeko, etc with even Amazon talking about getting into this business), but the explosion that turned a 25-year-old concept into the myriad solutions emerging in the past few years is due to the loss of patent control and exploration via elements of the Maker Movement and Crowdfunded alternatives - those two elements combined to allow the free exploration and sharing of ideas that has taken the basic RepRap and turned it into so many derivatives - from printing in felt and concrete to blood vessels and foods made from sugar and other biological materials.

     

    Kirk