First cab off the rank is affordable laser cutting. I've got several projects i'd love to do once that becomes feasible. Then CNC mills, and 3d printing... the future is bright!
How 3D Printing Will Save American Manufacturing
11–20 of 35 posts
Re: How 3D Printing Will Save American Manufacturing
#12Earlier quoted context omitted.
Take those little 3d printers and then make it the side of a 4 story house. Now make it print using sand/glass/metal all in one pass. Now increase the resolution up to 5000dpi or so.
There is some research going on the UK (I can't remember the University now) to do with printing buildings. The potential for reducing raw material and labour costs must be huge.
I believe you're thinking of this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfbhdZKPHro
Also related: http://inhabitat.com/3-d-printer-creates-entire-buildings-fr...
Re: How 3D Printing Will Save American Manufacturing
#13This could put IKEA out of business. I wonder how long it'll be until companies start suing.
The cost, per unit, of printing a chair will be orders of magnitude higher than the cost of making millions of the same chair in huge factories specifically tooled for the job. IKEA has nothing to worry about.
Re: How 3D Printing Will Save American Manufacturing
#14> and there is no nation on earth with the inventiveness found on such a massive scale as in America.
Citation needed? This sentence and the next just made me stop reading. It's borderline supremacism. Whether the rest of the article has valid points or not such a sweeping statement can not be taken seriously.
Re: How 3D Printing Will Save American Manufacturing
#15This could put IKEA out of business. I wonder how long it'll be until companies start suing.
The cost, per unit, of printing a chair will be orders of magnitude higher than the cost of making millions of the same chair in huge factories specifically tooled for the job. IKEA has nothing to worry about.
What you cite is the manufacturing cost. Then you have distribution and retail cost. The huge factories and stores need capital, so financing cost as well.
Re: How 3D Printing Will Save American Manufacturing
#16Earlier quoted context omitted.
The cost, per unit, of printing a chair will be orders of magnitude higher than the cost of making millions of the same chair in huge factories specifically tooled for the job. IKEA has nothing to worry about.
What you cite is the manufacturing cost. Then you have distribution and retail cost. The huge factories and stores need capital, so financing cost as well.
Even ignoring all that, it cost me more to build my own bookshelf from lumber and materials at Home Depot than it would have cost to buy a nice, pre-made bookshelf from Ikea. Presumably Ikea has factored their costs into the resulting price.
Re: How 3D Printing Will Save American Manufacturing
#17Earlier quoted context omitted.
The cost, per unit, of printing a chair will be orders of magnitude higher than the cost of making millions of the same chair in huge factories specifically tooled for the job. IKEA has nothing to worry about.
What you cite is the manufacturing cost. Then you have distribution and retail cost. The huge factories and stores need capital, so financing cost as well.
Companies like IKEA will probably switch to using 3D printing too, if it becomes that much better.
Re: How 3D Printing Will Save American Manufacturing
#18Forget AutoCAD, use Tinkercad (http://www.tinkercad.com/) which lets you do solid modelling in your browser using WebGL.
(I have no association w/ Tinkercad; just think it's very cool technology w/ WebGL in the front end and Go in the back end.)
Re: How 3D Printing Will Save American Manufacturing
#19> and there is no nation on earth with the inventiveness found on such a massive scale as in America. Citation needed? This sentence and the next just made me stop reading. It's borderline supremacism. Whether the rest of the article has valid points or not such a sweeping statement can not be taken seriously.
So is this statement :
"Creative and industrious Americans will no longer be challenged by the low-cost assembly line workers of Southeast Asia and third world countries."
It almost feels like political speech.
Re: How 3D Printing Will Save American Manufacturing
#20The big question: how long will it take for this form of manufacturing to achieve the cost effectiveness of current methods? The bottom line for everyone, including consumers, is cost. Don't forget about quality control.
Let's also not assume that we will always be the most innovative. We have to make sure that the current and next generation of students get the quality education they need in math and science to keep us dominant in Tech. Interesting article but lots of assumptions and unanswered questions.