As costs come down, 3D printing is set to revolutionise the way everything is made

Imagine a world where you could create almost anything you wanted in a matter of minutes, just by printing it.

That’s the vision behind 3D printing, a disruptive technology that is making its mark across a range of industries.

Earlier this year, US president Barack Obama gave an address to Congress where he described 3D printing as having the "potential to revolutionise the way we make almost everything".

Looking at the way the industry has evolved, he may be right. More flexible than traditional manufacturing, 3D printers can create parts and components that would previously have required specialised machines to create a certain shape.

That has the double advantage of not only being more cost effective than traditional manufacturing methods for these parts, but also being faster.

It even has a place in medicine, with the technology used in the surgery aimed at reconstructing a badly-injured biker’s face.

Rolls Royce, meanwhile, is planning to use 3D printing to create components for jet engines, in a bid to speed up the process and create more lightweight parts, and Lockheed Martin already uses the technology in part of the manufacturing process for its F-35 fighter planes.

The technology, however, is expensive. Or at least, it was. Products such as the 3Doodler 3D printing pen are garnering attention, and firms like MakerBot have been working to make the technology open to all, while also showing people how best they can use it.

The company offers everything from lower-cost 3D printers – just over $2,000 – to digitisers that scan real-world objects and allow you to replicate them.

"We think it's game-changing. It's very disruptive," says Makerbot's Jennifer Lawton. She says a 3D printer can change the world, lowering barriers to entry to a level where everyone can get involved if they want to.

She cites the case of start-up Snow Shoe Stamp, which uses the Makerbot to help bring down its costs for manufacturing. The company offers a simple hardware solution that uses the multitouch sensors on mobile devices to interact with a space, person or embedded system.

“Part of their product is a hardware piece, and it cost $20 to make the piece,” Lawton says. Using a Makerbot printer, however, dropped the cost to 17 cents.

“They went from a model where they had to send something out to be made in aluminium and wait for it to come back, to being able to make it themselves and to being able to do short manufacturing runs in a very low-cost, very high-iteration environment.”

Creative energy
But 3D printing has also had its controversies. Earlier this year, it hit the headlines when the technology was used to make a handgun. The Austin-based non-profit group Defense Distributed revealed the blueprints for the weapon, which was made of plastic and dubbed The Liberator.

Lawton, however, isn’t worried that the technology will become associated with more nefarious means such as the creation of weapons.

“We’ve made a tool that people can use to be create unleash they’re creative energy. I like to think the world is more than 90 per cent good,” she says. “You could focus on the bad, but it’s really not the right way to do it.”

But for 3D printing to become mainstream, it needs to have the applications and tools that allow people to make the most out of it.

“It’s not going to go anywhere if there’s not an eco system to support the tools,” she says.

Makerbot has plans. The company is trying to get a 3D printer into every school in America through a partnership with DonorsChoose.org, America Makes and Autodesk.

And it is also convinced that shoppers are ready for 3D printers, recently opening a couple of new stores in the US, despite the sceptics that believe it is still too complex for consumers.

“I see a lot of evolution in the next year to year and a half, both in the content and application space to really enable the tools that we’ve made.

“Desktop 3D printing has really only been relevant in the past four years. 3D printing has been relevant for the past 25 years.

“It’s been a long time coming. I see it going into the home, I see it being ubiquitous in schools as well as universities.

“Therefore, once a kid cuts their teeth on a 3D printer and then gets it in college, they’re going to have to have it at work and will natively know how to use it.”

The future is certainly looking a little more creative in the Makerbot universe.

“The limit is your imagination and what you can come up with,” says Lawton.