{"id":24823,"date":"2016-04-19T07:12:54","date_gmt":"2016-04-19T11:12:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/?p=24823"},"modified":"2017-04-17T12:48:31","modified_gmt":"2017-04-17T16:48:31","slug":"is-3d-printing-the-next-industrial-revolution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/is-3d-printing-the-next-industrial-revolution","title":{"rendered":"Is 3D Printing the Next Industrial Revolution?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cIs 3D printing the next industrial revolution, or just hype?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"IMG_1918<\/a><\/p>\n

We get asked this question a lot. The answer, as Peter Weijmarshausen, Shapeways Founder and CEO, has been sharing this past month in talks at SxSW and Inside 3D Printing NYC, and in interviews with Xconomy<\/a> and 3DPrint.com<\/a>, is a resounding yes\u2014digital manufacturing will be the third industrial revolution and will change the who, what, where and when of how goods are made.<\/p>\n

Until now, several factors have been holding this manufacturing revolution in check: 3D printing needs to be less expensive, have faster turnaround, offer more materials, produce better quality, and print in full color.\u00a0The very things we hear regularly from you! 3D printing technology has not innovated fast enough to keep up with demand and not at the rate we\u2019ve grown to expect from software. The same 3D printing machines Shapeways started printing on eight years ago still run today, and run as well as new machines on the market.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s about to change.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact [that] we see huge corporations with huge budgets and resources starting to take industrial 3D printing very seriously means that the qualities and capabilities of those machines will start to rapidly evolve, which is exactly what the industry needs,\u201d Pete told Xconomy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe also see a lot of money pouring into new startups, which is something I also asked the investment community to do, into companies like Carbon3D, Desktop Metal, and Formlabs. We see big companies and small companies starting to tackle the technology challenges the industry faces. As a result, the end user will get much better products exactly as they want them.\u201d<\/p>\n

HP, and possibly Canon, is coming out with new 3D printing technology this year that will be 10-100x faster than current machines. It will print more materials, print them at a fraction of the current cost, and the quality will be significantly higher. Not to mention, they\u2019ll also print in full color.<\/p>\n

Combine these innovations with three major trends\u2014the rise of megacities, globalization and digital disruption\u2014and the grounds for an industrial revolution have been set.<\/p>\n

Who produces products will shift from major brands that mass manufacture goods based on market research to individuals who will design what they want when they want it or who will work with designers to create what they want.<\/p>\n

It will change what gets produced. With the ability to produce goods on demand, the huge investment to mass manufacture disappears and more experimentation can occur. A variety of new products will come into existence\u2014with digital files sent from around the world to be printed locally.<\/p>\n

Factories will no longer need to be enormous and located where labor is cheap with products shipped worldwide from these central locations, putting a strain on environmental resources like the crude oil used to fuel container ships. Instead, small factories can be housed in or right outside of major cities, with products customized to suit that city\u2019s needs and culture.<\/p>\n

And time to market will be drastically reduced\u2014shrinking from months or years of lead time to research, test and market products to mere days.<\/p>\n

We already see this revolution happening at Shapeways, but it\u2019s not real for most people yet. They may be aware of 3D printing, but they haven\u2019t tried it because they don\u2019t see why they should. There are two killer apps evolving this year that, added to the innovations in 3D printing technology, will make 3D printing mainstream.<\/p>\n