3D Printing Everything: Ultra-Cheap, Zero-Waste Products Are Coming

We as a society might as well face it there are changes coming in the near future that many of us can not imagine. The article is fairly long and talks about the cost of getting one pound of weight to the ISS space station ($10,000) Which if they can get a 3D printer to work in Zero "G" it will pay for itself in short order..

3D printing is about to transform manufacturing as we know it, decimating waste, multiplying speed to market, and harnessing never-before-used materials.

Additive manufacturing products and services are projected to more than double by 2024, just five years from today. But not only will 3D printing turn supply chains on their heads here on Earth—shifting how and who manufactures our products—but it will be the vital catalyst for making space colonies (and their infrastructure) possible.

Welcome to the 2030 era of tailor-made, rapid-fire, ultra-cheap, and zero-waste product creation… on our planet, and far beyond.

singularityhub.com...

Today, these machines have colonized most of the periodic table. We can now print in over 500 different materials, in full color, in metals, rubber, plastic, glass, concrete, and even in organic materials, such as cells, leather, and chocolate.

That is something I was unaware of and even if the article's time frame is off by a few years I would bet it is coming.

a reply to: 727Sky

It is definitely off by a few years. There have been huge advances recently, in both materials, and techniques, but it is certainly not at the point where it is going to accomplish what the article describes, in the timeframe purported.

Yes, metals, among other materials can be 3D printed, but the strength, and therefore the usefulness, is nowhere near that of drawn, rolled, or extruded materials that dominate manufacturing today, not to mention the fact that many specialized alloys are not available for 3D printers at all.

They are pretty cool, for prototypes, and product development, but there is a long way to go, before it replaces conventional production methods.

I will give an example. It takes, literally, seconds for a punch press to "stamp" a finished production part, while it would take hours, if not days (depending on size), to do the same part with a 3D printer.

It is not direct energy/matter conversion. Now that wounld be truly impressive.

I am pretty sure they already have a 3D printer on the ISS and they have used it to print things like wrenches.

a reply to: BrianFlanders

You are correct.
ISS makes it's first 3D printed Tool 2016

originally posted by: BrianFlanders
I am pretty sure they already have a 3D printer on the ISS and they have used it to print things like wrenches.

Yes, but it was more of an experiment, than out of necessity.

They even have the tech to print circuit boards, but are now where close to printing one with working components installed.

The impact to supply chain will be huge.

I used to be an avid remote control car hobbyist. Hobby shops have to stock a lot of inventory of spare parts for various brands. Most of them are plastic compounds.

It is only a matter of time before you will be able to just "print" the replacement part. This means the store doesn't have to keep shelf space for parts that may or may not sell. It also removes a huge cost from the manufacturer of having the make X amount of parts. It would be true on demand manufacturing at the retail level.

a reply to: 727Sky

What about the mass unemployment that will also materialize with the introduction of such technologies?

Need to get some form of universal credit in place before this type of production ever becomes mainstream, else it will consign the better part of humanity to stagnation.

On the plus side if done right imagine the time we will have on our hands to address the real problems we face as a race and what we can achieve?

I have a (cheap) 3d printer for almost a year now. I love it !

Almost daily i use it , sometimes for usefull stuff, for example, i printed a few raingutter adapters they other day.
Sometimes for fun. And also for prototyping my little inventions.

The price/quality blew my mind!

I do have the advantage that i'm an experienced 3D CAD/CAM user, so that i can design, draw and print very fast any idear that comes to mind.

A lot of people get stuck because they can only print bought or free downloadable designs.

I use plastic now, but when the metal ones become affordable, the sky is the limit for ordinairy people!

I work with 3d resin printers on a daily basis. We have gotten to see some of the stem cell and ceramic printers in action. The technology is really mind blowing some times, there are limitations and restrictions to keep in mind but that will be solved in the future I imagine. Humans are still needed for machine maintenance, setting up the jobs, and finishing but I imagine a lot of that will be automated at some point. Adapt and survive I imagine hand made authentic material items and objects will become coveted and desired again at some point, but the materials costs will probably be out of reach for most of us. It's kind of weird how things change. Ex; was watching Blade Runner the other day, supposed to be set in 2019! while things are not as advanced as they dreamed, there were many retro things in the film that are basically obsolete even now. (Fans, cigarettes, watches etc) Was interesting.

a reply to: Starcrossd

Hey, about resin printers.. you might like this, this guy is trying to solve the problem of scaling resin printers and he wants to let the resin fluid float on a complimentary fluid.

a reply to: Starcrossd
You are right about maintenance. I have to drill out (clean) the nozzle after every real of filament.

a reply to: graysquirrel

That does not sound well... i never had to do that.

Maybe your feeding hose is not far enough into the hot end? That seems to be a common problem , but easily fixed!

originally posted by: EartOccupant - I do have the advantage that i'm an experienced 3D CAD/CAM user, so that i can design, draw and print very fast any idear that comes to mind. A lot of people get stuck because they can only print bought or free downloadable designs. I use plastic now, but when the metal ones become affordable, the sky is the limit for ordinairy people!

Yes, that is a huge advantage. I've had one for a couple of years but I cannot "get" the CAD software even though I used to be really good at drafting and can still draw by hand fairly well. I have a million ideas in my head but can't get them to that doggoned digital file.

a reply to: EartOccupant
It gets hot enough alright. It accumulates this hard black burnt plastic which constricts the flow. The temperature is set of at 205 for PLA.

a reply to: HalWesten

Try blender! Totally FREE, open source. I use it for most of my designing. Blender has a total new, more user frendly GUI. Look op some tutorials or introductions about Blender 2.8, it will blow your mind.

Disclaimer: Blender is not a cad cam software, but i use it a lot for 3D printing as well. It is capable of doing totally acucrate designing, as well as free hand drawing ( search for Blender grease pencil ).As you pointed out your difficulty with other software, this might be more in your intuitive path. There are also some free plugins (addons) available for 3D printing purpose. And did i mention it is free?

a reply to: graysquirrel

Temp seems to be ok.

Where is the problem? Around here?

The nozzle isn't loose, is it? It shouldn't be so tight that it won't come off but they do loosen up. At least mine does.

a reply to: EartOccupant
The nozzle is tight. Yes, in the nozzle its self, where it transition form 1/16 in to .4mm.

a reply to: graysquirrel

I'm sorry Sir, i do not know.
I do know my cheap nozzle is performing a lot better so you might want to invest in another (cheap) one and try.
As it does sounds like either a temperature control problem or a connection problem.
Oh.. and i read that nozzles do where out, so you could just try a new nozzle for e few cents.

Happy Printing.

a reply to: EartOccupant

It's not a problem. I am able to get done what I need to do.

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