3D printing is growing fast. It’s rather amazing that something once considered a speciality item for engineering and design firms has now slipped into the consumer market in only a few years. Right now Solidsmack is working on 3D Printing Resource page and it’s impressive how many 3D printing companies and printers there are.
3D Printing Frenzy
10 months ago, I counted perhaps a dozen, different sub-$1500 3D printers. Now there are roughly 40! According to the market research group, IBIS, 3D printing is slated to be the 6th fastest growing industries in the world, along with Social Media Game Development, Solar Panels and Self-Tanning Product Manufacturing (?!). IBIS forecasts that there will be a 20% increase in revenue for 3D print companies in 2012 and about 14% over the next 5 years. Quoth the IBIS,
As the cost of producing these high-tech machines decreases and printer technology is refined, they will be used for an increasing number of applications, such as aerospace related parts manufacturing.
Hey, what about self-replicating robots? Or 3D printed buildings for that matter? I’ve got my skeptical look on – I bet they didn’t read this blog much (but then again, who does?) Unfortunately, the details of the report do not go over what exactly is driving this insane growth. I surmise that it is likely the ‘consumerization’ of what was originally a capital good. If we compare this situation with the PC in the 1970s and 80s, service industries exploded to serve the needs of the consumer. Visicalc, MacPaint, etc. had to be created to make computers usable. The rapid introduction of user-friendly programs (AutoCAD 123D) for making your own parts and part repositories (Thingiverse) were developed to make 3D printers usable as well. I don’t have the figures, but I speculate 3D printing programs and repositories will be a significant sector for growth (if it isn’t already.)
Hat tip to On 3D Printing
