Almost unnoticed, revolutionary production technologies have emerged without any meaningful input from big players. Instead, the initiatives came from researchers, small start-ups and tinkerers in their garages who experimented with printing three-dimensional stuff. As is common with all technical revolutions, the “movement“ thrives on its early protagonists’ enthusiasm, which in our case happens to be mostly made up of middle-aged, male tech aficionados working in tandem with a complementary open-source community.
These so-called “makers” espouse the trend toward personal production and the networking of things. Social utopians entertain dreams of re-possessing the means of production by the “masses”, tech enthusiasts the triumph of self-replicating machinery. The elation of a new age, together with a goldrush-like optimism is palpable, notwithstanding that many young businesses soon will join the corporate world, fairly quickly abandoning their open-source ideals en route.
Still, 3D printing is not without history. Long before the internet changed the world, laser-based processes for industrial applications had been developed, e.g. for the manufacture of prototypes and models to be used in the production of limited numbers of work pieces and building components. Other than is the case with standard injection moulding processes, 3D printing bypasses the labour-intensive set-up of jigs, together with the various processes of cutting, lathing and drilling.
As an undeniable fact, the 3D revolution’s social and economic repercussions are making themselves felt. In times where the life cycle of products continues to compress while the number and variety of products inexorably expands, the printing robots which work tirelessly producing complex objects at precision levels unmatched by mere mortals, are just what the doctor ordered.
3D printing not only supplants, reconfigures and leverages traditional processes, but accelerates innovation by virtue of the fact that an instant creation of solid prototypes and tangible templates has numerous benefits. In the consumer space, unit costs of mass-produced articles will always stay below those of customised manufacture, yet some share of the manufacturing process may well one day be taken over by the consuming public itself. It would hardly be a detriment to the economy, since these unaffiliated manufacturers still need 3D technology, besides materials and support, and at the same time they will be creating brand new lines of business, e.g. printing services for those who are reluctant to invest in a 3D printer themselves. We all recall the unreal rates a square foot of digital printing on fabrics commanded back in its early years.