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3D printing could reduce raw material needs by 90%

economist.com

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Re: 3D printing could reduce raw material needs by 90%

#21

Post by steveklabnik »

tomjen3 wrote: post #12
steveklabnik wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Generally, those from the engineering community sneer at the MakerBot and the RepRap. Just listen for the word "tolerances." Now, they're totally right: the home printers have a significantly lower resolution than the professional ones. But unless you're making professional grade parts, you probably don't care, and they use the same materials. (I'm assuming you're making the comparison to other FDM machines.)

Assuming the tolerances for the cheap 3D printers will improve, isn't this a classic case of disruption we are seeing here? Sure they aren't great enough for everything yet, but there has to be things you can create even with the cheap bots that are good enough to be useful.

Oh yeah, totally, on both counts.

Re: 3D printing could reduce raw material needs by 90%

#22

Post by steveklabnik »

yxhuvud wrote: post #16

This claim seem about as believeable as the claim that computers would create the paperless society.

The biggest thing that people forget when dreaming about 3D printers is that it doesn't making something from nothing: the materials have to come from somewhere.

Even once we get a printer that's easy enough for 'normal' people to use (hard) and a way for them to design the prints that go in the machine (hard) and we make them small and reliable enough that it's acceptable for normal people (hard) you _still_ have to have a big vat of plastic or whatever lying around, and feed it into the machine.

We've got a long way to go before 'a printer in every home' is reality, if it ever does.

My thoughts: it's like water. A big pipe of raw materials. Just imagine how long that'd take...

Re: 3D printing could reduce raw material needs by 90%

#23

Post by StavrosK »

steveklabnik wrote: post #20
StavrosK wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah, that makes sense. However, it sounds very good for the price.

Oh totally. It's like the state of the art in the 80s, or something. And they're rapidly improving. I'm excited to see what happens as the patents in this space expire. I'm expecting it to be similar to what happened with steam engines.

I expect it to be similar to what happened with the printing press and computers in that you'll be able to download (/pirate) actual objects. The revolution will be huge.

Re: 3D printing could reduce raw material needs by 90%

#24

Post by Retric »

steveklabnik wrote: post #22
yxhuvud wrote: post #16

This claim seem about as believeable as the claim that computers would create the paperless society.

The biggest thing that people forget when dreaming about 3D printers is that it doesn't making something from nothing: the materials have to come from somewhere. Even once we get a printer that's easy enough for 'normal' people to use (hard) and a way for them to design the prints that go in the machine (hard) and we make them small and reliable enough that it's acceptable for normal people (hard) you _still_ have to…

Reminds me of The Diamond Age aproximate quote "The windows where made of diamond, because as a simple carbon structure it was cheaper than glass".

Re: 3D printing could reduce raw material needs by 90%

#25

Post by nickpinkston »

Kliment wrote: post #4
nickpinkston wrote: post #2

Good to see the Economist covering 3D printing - it's still amazing to me how much most people, even close to manufacturing, aren't familiar with it at all. FWIW though - the 90% they're referring to is the delta between machining solid parts and printing them. It should be added that this is a rare use-case for 3D printing. Usually it competes more directly with injection molding technologies that often have better…

Well, that's not entirely true. The lattice structures are internal to the object, and substitute for solid infill. Commercial FDM 3d printers use a crosshatch instead of solid fill, and the reprap toolchain has that as well as a number of cool ones like hexagonal infill. So you have lattices instead of solid walls in the microstructure. With powder printers, such as the metal printers described in the article, you c…

Actually, FDM, Objet, ProJet, SLA, EnvisionTec, SolidScape, an many more use support material that is consumed during the build / post-processing.

Many lattice structures can still be made using injection molding equipment (far cheaper) or starting with a raw material with such a structure: think of aluminum honeycomb. 

I agree 3DP is exciting, but we need to get real about what we're trying to achieve - traditional manufacturing engineers are pretty clever too. Not every STL should be run through a nozzle... 

FDM is actually one of the worst methods for 3DP manufacturing because it scales linearly - MakerBot et al use this tech because it's the easiest process to build and makes durable parts from common raw materials.

Re: 3D printing could reduce raw material needs by 90%

#26

Post by iwwr »

StavrosK wrote: post #23
steveklabnik wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh totally. It's like the state of the art in the 80s, or something. And they're rapidly improving. I'm excited to see what happens as the patents in this space expire. I'm expecting it to be similar to what happened with steam engines.

I expect it to be similar to what happened with the printing press and computers in that you'll be able to download (/pirate) actual objects. The revolution will be huge.

You wouldn't download a car, would you?

Re: 3D printing could reduce raw material needs by 90%

#27

Post by rbranson »

yxhuvud wrote: post #16

This claim seem about as believeable as the claim that computers would create the paperless society.

Perhaps not a paperless society, but computers & the Internet HAVE dramatically decreased the amount of paper we use these days. Just off the top of my head for consumers: Phone books & directories, maps, banking & billing, written correspondence, fax machines, shared scheduling & calendars, media distribution (books, music, movies).

Re: 3D printing could reduce raw material needs by 90%

#28

Post by StavrosK »

iwwr wrote: post #26
StavrosK wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I expect it to be similar to what happened with the printing press and computers in that you'll be able to download (/pirate) actual objects. The revolution will be huge.

You wouldn't download a car, would you?

I'd definitely download a policeman's helmet.

Re: 3D printing could reduce raw material needs by 90%

#29

Post by DanI-S »

StavrosK wrote: post #23
steveklabnik wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh totally. It's like the state of the art in the 80s, or something. And they're rapidly improving. I'm excited to see what happens as the patents in this space expire. I'm expecting it to be similar to what happened with steam engines.

I expect it to be similar to what happened with the printing press and computers in that you'll be able to download (/pirate) actual objects. The revolution will be huge.

I'm looking forward to my open source kitchen utensils!

Re: 3D printing could reduce raw material needs by 90%

#30

Post by bobds »

iwwr wrote: post #6

The cheapest professional machines run into $50K unit prices. A RepRap will set you back under $1K, but it's not very useful at the moment.

They come a lot cheaper than that. The biggest cost is the proprietary materials they use, I'm guessing it would easily add up to more than the cost of the printer over time. Servicing costs should also be pretty high.

I've compiled a list of most cheap printers (slightly out of date, I am going to add more soon): http://punkmanufacturing.com/wiki/

As far as usefulness, the open-source printers are not that different from the cheap commercial machines. A well-tuned RepRap should have comparable accuracy. The printing materials are a lot cheaper, as well as the parts (which you can print) and servicing costs. The commercial printers have better resolution, better materials and better software, at least at the moment, but I think that's going to change.

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