The 3D Printer YOU can (nearly) afford!

Welcome to the future. The year is 2030, give or take a year. It's Christmas Eve, and you forgot to buy young Timmy that remote control monster truck with the lightning bolts on the sides that he has been talking about for a month. 20 years ago, this would have been a problem. 20 years ago, you would have waited in line at wal-mart for this toy, and found none left. But its 2030, so you download a mesh, replace the low "rubber" cartridge in your rapid prototyping machine (RPM), and you print him one.

This Christmas story may seem a bit far-fetched, but moved a bit closer when a company called Desktop Factory released their first ever RPM for under $5000 new. That still seems a bit hefty for the average household, but when one considers the nearest competition is about the price of a small car, one realizes this is a HUGE leap in the right direction.

The device has a pretty small envelope, as it can only print objects as large as 5"x5"x5", and the smallest wall thickness is about .06" which is not great as industry standards go, but what is important is that there is a company out there that sees the potential for this product to sit on your desk at home.

"Hey Bill, I'm bringing my new girlfriend to your party. You'll need to print another chair."

This is a big deal to the design community as well. Designers may eventually no longer work with clay and foam prototypes, save for very rough ones, much in the same way graphic designers don't use as much of the pen and ink as they used to. The ability to make a clean working proto as early as your second attempt, that can be adjusted with the click of the mouse is not 20 years away. Some companies already do this. Soon, your clients will expect it.

Then your products will often be released as meshes, printable files that any old hillbilly with an RPM and the proper raw materials will be able to reproduce identical versions of your idea in his garage next to his moonshine still. All of a sudden, you will have a marketplace like iTunes selling meshes, and people trading them illegally on the web.

But this is impossible, you say. You can really only effectively print in plastic, right?

Not so. The circuit boards in your computer are metal printed on plastic wafer boards, and scientists have developed an amazing product called liquid wood. Being able to print in fabric and foam surely isn't far behind.

Think of the possibilities for product customization! Think of the jobs lost at manufacturing plants! Think how different are world will be! Think how being a CAD operator will be as much of a skill as being a toaster operator is now! Think how old you'll feel!

Now tell others what you think, and leave a comment.