Why 3D Printing Is Overhyped

[Serpent]

Well, what other materials do you want to print?

Wood: Kind of difficult since it has to grow from living things. Maybe if you want to glue sawdust together with a resin?

Paper: What's the point if you could?

Metal: That's what we really want, right? The melting point of steel is about 1370C. Aluminum is about 660C. Sure, you can use a powdered form - which is messy, but then you have to heat it until it fuses. That means an industrial laser or plasma arc. Hot and dangerous process. Not going to happen in your living room, and even if you do 3D print it, it's not as simple as that. There are many types of steel - carbon, stainless, alloys of all kinds, and same with aluminum. You won't ever see the strength from forging for certain, and because you're basically welding metal powder onto the resultant solid, the thermal variance is likely to cause varying placement of soft and brittle spots. Not all alloys could work with this kind of process, some melt at higher temperatures, and all have to be heat treated if you want to have any semblance of even hardness and temper, which means you'll need a kiln. You'd be better off with a milling machine.

Now if they can find a way to effectively print carbon fiber cheaply that will change things, but right now it's not viable. That pretty much leaves plastic for the short term, along with all its shortcomings.

Bottom line: Give it some time. 3D printing is great for custom prototypes or one-of-a-kind small parts. The technology needs to advance before more sturdy stuff can be made with it.

There are other things, like MDF, other wood-like products, fiber, and as I noted before, food. And like you said, right now, it might not be viable, but that's right now, unless we all literally become retarded, progession in technology is gonna be going at a rather rapid rate. It good be that next year, carbon fiber would be able. And 5 years after that soft metals, and a couple after that steel. Can't look at it like it'll only be plastic.

What if they looked at it like that when they thought of printing. Oh, we got ink that we can slap on paper, who needs something sophisticated like a high powered electric printer that uses laser? Just foolishness.

Which is the mentality that this guys has (iirc, it's been a while since I read it)

 

[Draktharbar]

3D printing is going to revolutionize manufacturing, but not in the way you expect. As some of you pointed out, (almost) no one cares about small little plastic junk made crappily in the home. It will likely be decades before we see any real use in the home. The really exciting thing about 3D printing is what manufacturers are going to do.

I was at an iron foundry recently, and they are currently make a core for every single part they produce. After a single part is made, the sand core is obliterated and is rebuilt. It's a very messy and labor-intensive process (more than half their labor was dedicated to it). 3D printing would allow them to instead skip the core-making and just make parts.

There are advantages to plastic manufacturing as well. Instead of using a mold to make a plastic toy, then have someone paint it, they can simply use a 3D printer to print out the toy and use inkjet to infuse color.

Multimaterial objects are already possible. Right now you need one 3D printer for metal, and a different one for plastic, but you can use super glue to bind them together chemically.

Right now a lot of manufacturing companies have different plants turning out different products at different locations. 3D printers will allow them to make any of those parts at any of their locations, and do it based on orders and how close they can ship to retailers. 3D printing makes it easier for a single factory to handle a higher number of designs. Yes they need to hire a CAD drawer to make the design and then test it, but after that they can print as many of the part they want, when they want, where they want, with very little labor required.

There are many more labor-saving uses for 3D printing. How is this going to change manufacturing? It's going to shift a lot of manufacturing from China back to the US. Why? Because when labor-intensiveness of manufacturing is reduced, the cost of shipping becomes more important. 3D printers alone won't completely displace labor in manufacturing, as you still need someone to assemble it. That role will one day be replaced by robots. Actually robots are already starting to appear.

I laugh whenever I hear people saying we need to bring manufacturing jobs back to the US. First of all, those people usually don't realize we do just as much manufacturing in the US as they do in China. Secondly, the jobs will never come back, unless we paid close to China's wages, and I hope no one wants to start doing that. But manufacturing will come back as we find ways to reduce the labor intensity of it. 3D printing is one such thing, and robotics is the other. There will be fewer manufacturing jobs than we have now, but they will be higher paying technical jobs.

 

[Jagger100]

I agree some folks need to calm down and take a step back but yes it will improve.

I remember a time when blank CD-Rs cost nearly $8 a go and 9 times out of ten you ended up with a coaster.

In the first few years, the equipment investment probably justified that cost. But for the time after that, they were ripping you off.

 

[Jagger100]

3D printing is going to revolutionize manufacturing, but not in the way you expect. As some of you pointed out, (almost) no one cares about small little plastic junk made crappily in the home. It will likely be decades before we see any real use in the home. The really exciting thing about 3D printing is what manufacturers are going to do.

I was at an iron foundry recently, and they are currently make a core for every single part they produce. After a single part is made, the sand core is obliterated and is rebuilt. It's a very messy and labor-intensive process (more than half their labor was dedicated to it). 3D printing would allow them to instead skip the core-making and just make parts.

There are advantages to plastic manufacturing as well. Instead of using a mold to make a plastic toy, then have someone paint it, they can simply use a 3D printer to print out the toy and use inkjet to infuse color.

Multimaterial objects are already possible. Right now you need one 3D printer for metal, and a different one for plastic, but you can use super glue to bind them together chemically.

Right now a lot of manufacturing companies have different plants turning out different products at different locations. 3D printers will allow them to make any of those parts at any of their locations, and do it based on orders and how close they can ship to retailers. 3D printing makes it easier for a single factory to handle a higher number of designs. Yes they need to hire a CAD drawer to make the design and then test it, but after that they can print as many of the part they want, when they want, where they want, with very little labor required.

There are many more labor-saving uses for 3D printing. How is this going to change manufacturing? It's going to shift a lot of manufacturing from China back to the US. Why? Because when labor-intensiveness of manufacturing is reduced, the cost of shipping becomes more important. 3D printers alone won't completely displace labor in manufacturing, as you still need someone to assemble it. That role will one day be replaced by robots. Actually robots are already starting to appear.

3D printing is slow and produces material that won't have the right kind of strength that casting or forging can produce. With those latter processes you can create a new part in minutes or less once the facility is running full speed. 3D printing for metal requires extruding and heating and cooling metal point by point. Its time consuming to the actual execution.

Now going from a drawing to a finished part, its probably quicker depending on complexity versus machining by hand, so it will be revolutionary to prototyping.

I laugh whenever I hear people saying we need to bring manufacturing jobs back to the US. First of all, those people usually don't realize we do just as much manufacturing in the US as they do in China. Secondly, the jobs will never come back, unless we paid close to China's wages, and I hope no one wants to start doing that. But manufacturing will come back as we find ways to reduce the labor intensity of it. 3D printing is one such thing, and robotics is the other. There will be fewer manufacturing jobs than we have now, but they will be higher paying technical jobs.

You just have to go to the store and see the 'made in' local to know there's hardly anything here today vs. 20 years ago and much less than 40 years ago. Where do you thing the unemployment situation comes from? Not that anyone is specifically missing a manufacturing job directly, but if you not trucking steal, you switch to trucking milk and the guy that was trucking milk is at the unemployment line.

And there is a way to bring those jobs back. We use to do what was necessary just 40+ years ago before Congress and wallstreet sold out.

 

[Tudz]

Why the guy who wrote the article is an idiot.

#1 We don't expect to make cars with them. If anything, statues, very generic items like cloths hanger hooks, and certain simple pieces or parts. We don't expect to get really good 3D printers at first, but we do expect to get something good enough to make a Warhammer toy.

#2 The materials will get better. I'm sure the plastic we'll get at first will be weak and only good enough to expect it to break. When there's a market for this, the quality of the materials will get better. Who knows, eventually we maybe able to print metal components at home.

#3 The price will drop. Once every home must have a 3D printer, the prices will come down. We know they're very simple machines, so it's not like they need to cost a lot.

The way I see it, your point 3 opposes your point 1.

If all people can make are small knickknacks, why would it become the "must have" item in a home?

Maybe your #2 point will come true and make #3 more realistic, but I'm not holding my breathe. If it happens, cool, but each material has it's obstacles to actually being useful in 3D printing.

I don't see metal 3D printing being more practical than CNC machining any time soon.

We might get to the point where we can do simple polyester resin models, but if you've ever made something half decent out of a plastic reinforced carbon or glass or kevlar composite, you'll know you can't just lay fibres on top of each other with resin in between and expect a decent part. There's already machines that weave prepreg carbon fibre in to complex parts (which have been around for years mind you) and unfortunately it is not the end of the process, you still end up vaccing it and heating it in an autoclave to get a part with good material properties.

Then unless the software has made leaps and bounds that I don't know about, actually CREATING an object to be 3D printed of any complexity is rather time consuming.

These are not small obstacles to making parts in the home. 3D printers will have to become VERY good before they are superior to parts you can buy from a manufacturer. I'm not going to spend even hundreds of dollars on a 3D printer to print things I can buy better quality for a few bucks from a company that specialises in making them, costing barely any more than the raw materials anyway.

I can definitely see 3D printing replacing several steps in manufacturing for actual manufacturers, just as I expect CNC machines in general to become more widespread. Though I'm not banking on it being the new "must have" item in the home.

That said, it would be cool if it did become a "must have" item and I'm not going to put any money on it not becoming that, but I think there's more hurdles than people currently realise.

 

[TechLarry]

Once these things get affordable (really affordable), they could revolutionize a lot of hobbies.

The first one that comes to mind is the RC Car Hobby. Just think of the cool custom parts you could make right in your own home.

 

[nads]

"Daft Punk’s latest album..... is severely overhyped... I'm sure he mistakenly meant AWESOME!!!

I'm inclined to believe he meant that as well, but seeing as how short-sighted he seems... he might be a butthead.

 

[Qinsp]

Before the 3D Printing hype it was called Rapid Prototyping.

It's a far more accurate name than what is used today.

It has a purpose. It's not used in mass production, nor ever will be.

And it's 35 years old. It's not new. I wrote SLA translators to run those machines in about 1990.

 

[Tudz]

Once these things get affordable (really affordable), they could revolutionize a lot of hobbies.

The first one that comes to mind is the RC Car Hobby. Just think of the cool custom parts you could make right in your own home.

Yeah, there's definitely hobbies where 3D printing could be a great benefit. I collect miniatures to play wargames, that's the perfect situation for a 3D printer. However, not everyone has a hobby where 3D printing is useful. If you don't, your use for a 3D printer basically comes down to printing random knickknacks. Content creators can't use distributing 3D CAD models for printing as a distribution method unless everyone has one and I still think there's hurdles to doing that.

Even if you do have 3D printers in the home, they don't run on air, you'll need to maintain them and buy cartridges and they're going to be lower quality than industrial machines. So even if you have a 3D printer, it doesn't automatically mean that 3D printing your own stuff is going to be a better alternative to a company mass producing the same thing but better.

Just because 2D printers are widespread doesn't mean everyone has one capable of printing photos, posters or books that you'd value or want to hang on your wall or are going to bind and read, people still end up going to professional printers who can do it more economically than you can do it at home and people still make posters and sell them instead of just selling the designs for people to print at home.

On the topic of materials, even if we get to the point where we can 3D print composites like carbon fibre and fibreglass or even metal stuff... it's not going to be the same printer, you'll have to buy half a dozen different printers.

 

[WBurchnall]

I can't help but think about 2D printers and how they have evolved over time. I recall having a dot-matrix printer that did about 1 page per 2 minute, very loudly, very slowly only in a grey-ish black color that was always kind of faint and jammed often. Now, my current laser jet printer literately prints about 1 page per second or about 120x faster, in color, with a substantially increased DPI(probably 30x DPI) with far more paper choices(materials) for special projects like photo-paper with or without gloss, wedding invitations, cards, envelopes, etc

Interestingly, these printers were once considered an ultra-expensive luxury business only item that nobody would have in their home. People would make similar claims that 'sure a printer would be nice, but, few ppl would ever get one in their home just like a drill press or lathe'. Fast forward a bit though and everyone + their dog has one in their house and even average businesses can tend to have 1-3 printers around the office.

If 3D printing can evolve as much over a 20 year life-span, we'll be well off. We are already at a better starting point imo. 3D printers are already more useable imo than dot matrix printers ever were in terms of what they can create (shape/dpi* wise). We'll see it being revolutionary by 2023ish i am guessing. Roughly 20 years or so. The only thing I could see preventing its adoption would be a government ban over the 'potential dangers' ala Homeland Security getting a little worried about any citizen able to make ____.

*Not sure what that the DPI equivilent in 3D printers is...layers per inch?

 

[Godmachine]

Sorry but that article is shit. That's looking at the transistor and thinking "Wow , overhyped garbage will never make it out of the lab. Ok , back to work making it work in applications outside the lab.."

Great article there

 

[Outamyhead]

Who the heck has Daft Punk's album last week (going by this troll's article date), it only just got released today, and mine is in the mail, you can't comment on something if it doesn't exist yet, and music needs a touch of Disco, actual vocals, strings, and some funk.

If I had access to a 3D printer, I'd be churning out scale model parts all day, or finding a way to make something useful, sadly everyone associates a 3D printer with cheapo gun manufacturing, instead of a girl able to use her arms again, or some other use for the good of mankind.

Yeah it is early days for the 3D printer and what you get for your money in terms of material, and type of 3D printer, but then Henry Ford didn't start off by building a Mustang 350 GT either.

 

[Ryokurin]

I think he's just overacting to what the general public thinks it is now that it's widely known. Not just because of the gun but because mainsteam TV shows have talked about them. Just because everyone knows about does not mean that everyone understands how it actually works and produces. For instance if the first time you've hard of 3D printing was from Hawaii Five O you would think it can duplicate anything in 10 minutes.

 

[Quicksilver_]

"Daft Punk’s latest album..... is severely overhyped... I'm sure he mistakenly meant AWESOME!!!

That's the one part of the article I actually agree with. I thought it was a good punchline.

Who the heck has Daft Punk's album last week (going by this troll's article date), it only just got released today, and mine is in the mail, you can't comment on something if it doesn't exist yet, and music needs a touch of Disco, actual vocals, strings, and some funk

Over here, it was available last Friday and leaked on the Tuesday.

 

[Dekarx]

Those so shortsighted clearly don't remember the price of the first printers or when CD burners were a $1200 novelty item. Now you get them by default or as a gift when you buy a PC. They'll come.

 

[Tudz]

Yeah it is early days for the 3D printer and what you get for your money in terms of material, and type of 3D printer, but then Henry Ford didn't start off by building a Mustang 350 GT either.

3D printing is yet to see it's version of the Model T.

Those so shortsighted clearly don't remember the price of the first printers or when CD burners were a $1200 novelty item. Now you get them by default or as a gift when you buy a PC. They'll come.

I don't think a 3D printer can be compared to a CD burner. CD's were the primary method of music distribution, so almost everyone had a CD player, then anyone who wanted to copy music wanted a burner and as they got cheaper, they became integrated in to almost all CD players you could buy for a PC.

This, I don't feel, is the same as 3D printing. I still don't see why "everyone" would want one. Certain hobbyists, yes, I can see it.

2D printing is probably more comparable to 3D printing. To be honest, I don't understand why 2D printers became such a big thing. I feel it almost came from the education side of things, convincing parents they need a printer for their kids in school. These days I don't own a printer at home and most people I know barely print anything at home.

If I'm shortsighted for not seeing the same potential in 3D printing, it simply comes from the fact I myself see very little reason why I'd own a 3D printer. Outside of specific hobbies, I struggle to think of things I actually want to 3D print over just buying a superior made product from a company who has invested in superior tooling and can provide the product for not much more than the cost of the raw materials. Just like 2D printers haven't replaced people buying books, I don't think 3D printers are going to replace people buying 3D plastic junk that they might need.

 

[Dekarx]

I still don't see why "everyone" would want one.

Same thing was said about the TV and the PC.

To be honest, I don't understand why 2D printers became such a big thing.

Exactly,

If I'm shortsighted for not seeing the same potential in 3D printing, it simply comes from the fact I myself see very little reason why I'd own a 3D printer.

This is the 21st century. Things aren't born our of need. They create their own demand. Who "needed" so much power and appications in a phone? Yet we nearly all have one. I bet I can rummage in your room and find lots of stuff you have barely used. The point is not that people need something. It is simply that they can have it.

Outside of specific hobbies, I struggle to think of things I actually want to 3D print over just buying a superior made product from a company who has invested in superior tooling and can provide the product for not much more than the cost of the raw materials. Just like 2D printers haven't replaced people buying books, I don't think 3D printers are going to replace people buying 3D plastic junk that they might need.

People will save money nearly whenever they can. Printers were never meant to replace books; that would be neither practical nor efficient (ebooks, however are and do replace paper more and more). But many will print photos, posters, school papers, thesises, t-shirt decals and a lot of other things you used to get printed at a professional shop, and for a fraction of the cost.

Also, people will do anything just to not have to leave the house.

 

[Tudz]

Same thing was said about the TV and the PC.


Exactly,


This is the 21st century. Things aren't born our of need. They create their own demand. Who "needed" so much power and appications in a phone? Yet we nearly all have one. I bet I can rummage in your room and find lots of stuff you have barely used. The point is not that people need something. It is simply that they can have it.

You say these things without actually giving reasons why people will want or need 3D printers. You say others are being shortsighted by not seeing the potential of 3D printers without actually stating what you think the potential will be. Smartphones always had great potential to increase available information on the move. TV's always had potential because of entertainment. PC's always had potential to streamline workflow and entertainment.

I'm just not seeing the big thing about 3D printers, what exactly are people going to be printing on them?

I could see me personally printing toy soldiers, but that's a specific hobby, not everyone has a hobby where they want to print large amounts of small knickknack type products.

Are you going to start printing cutlery and crockery? Why? You can already buy it for barely more than the cost of the raw materials, printing it is not going to save you money or time.

You aren't going to be printing replacement parts for your car unless you have a huge 3D printer as most plastic parts are quite large (for good reason) and don't need to be replaced often and most other parts are metal.

But many will print photos, posters, school papers, thesises, t-shirt decals and a lot of other things you used to get printed at a professional shop, and for a fraction of the cost.

I know barely anyone who prints their own photos, posters and even a thesis. Only people I know who print photos are professional photographers, and even most of them have abandoned self printing and get it done professionally now because the cost of ink and decent quality paper was approaching the cost of professional printing. I got my thesis printed professionally even though I had a printer at home because I wanted the figures to look nicer and figured out the cost of ink and paper it was similar price to professional printing. These days I print a lot, mostly it's stuff I don't want to read on a computer screen and it's all at work, not at home. I know nothing about t-shirt decals, so won't comment, the only one that really jumps out at me as a reason to own a printer at home is to print school papers, but then what school these days doesn't have printers available to students?

I actually think that with people realising they can read off their computer monitors and can email correspondence instead of printing and mailing it, the need for 2D printers has dropped. Anecdotally speaking I see very few people who actually do any decent amount of printing at home these days and increasingly notice when old printers break, people just throw them out and don't replace them.

NOW, if we are talking about industry rather than home use, I think the more computer controlled design and production penetrate in to companies, we will start to see new and interesting things... I'm just not seeing the "home" use aspect.

I'm not saying I'd put money on them not becoming common in the home, I just think if they do become common in the home it'll be because of either hype (people buying them when they don't actually need them and they just gather dust) or because someone comes out with some new amazing products for which 3D printing is the best means of distribution.

 

[Dekarx]

I just don't understand how you don't see the huge potentiel of 3D printing. There are millions of things you could print, from various trinkets like fgurines and cute baby utensils and fancy mugs, to broken parts for thousands of devices, to toys, etc. All of them customizable.

The only question is"When".

 

[nlancaster]

Speaking as someone that owns a 3d printer.

1. It is great for prototyping.
2. I have made almost $200 printing name plates, and Custom 120mm Fan grills
3. It is not as strong as some platic molded parts, but it is stronger then some also.

Why a regular person would want one?
Lets see:

1. Custom printed cookie cutters, 6 so far for mom.
2. Custom brackets for holding items in the card and inside my computer.
3. Replacement parts for plastic items, fixed a hinge on a laptop with a printed part.
4. Printing your own model designs, or from others, currently printing a 12inch talk Madcat Mk2

So for the right person there are many "reasons" to get one. For other people there aren't.

And yes I would compare the current state of consumer 3d printers to a dotmatrix printer. They work, its legible print but not printed at the publisher good.

3d Printers are functional parts that work, not super smooth on the outside, but my prints so far have been pretty rugged and functional.

 

[InternationalHat]

There is 3d printing of metal by the way. It's called laser sintering and I believe used to create custom high-strength and light weight titanium pieces for race teams and aeronautics.

It is INCREDIBLY expensive. The problem is actually the cost of the medium in a lot of cases. The plastic parts generally suck. They're good for rapid prototyping and cheap hobby stuff and maybe parts like interior door handles in your car. The resolution is still way too low too.

The interesting area is in printing ceramics, but it's very slow going.