Remember when deskjet printers offered a shiny new world for home printing?

I remember how excited I was when these printers came out in the 90’s. Finally,  I could print reports for school, cool clipart, and even my favorite characters from South Park all in full spectrum color on my wall.

I can only imagine that today’s kids feel similar excitement around 3D printing. The truth is, I feel it too.

At Hello Innovation, we happen to have an awesome 3D printer in our office, and we encourage all of our employees to use it. This MakerBot prints anything we want. And what’s cool is that we can download designs to print from an open source online library… so there’s never a lack of options for creating something extraordinary or interesting.

Here is a kick ass owl we printed in just 24 hours on our Makerbot.

I have to remind myself that this technology is still in its infancy. Even though we’re already printing some really cool sh*t in our office, the evolution of this technology is going to completely change the game in future years.

The future of 3D printing

It’s interesting to think about how 3D printing can change our lives once the technology makes its way into the home (it’s still years away from reaching a price-point that most Americans can afford).

Need a certain kind of screw with a specific length and thickness? Did a cabinet handle break? Has your neighbor who borrowed your favorite tool moved away without returning it? No problem – just print out new ones. And imagine the possibilities for our children’s children. Print a chair? A TV? A refrigerator?

Such concepts may sound crazy, but consider this: today’s typical smartphone has many times more processing power than the computers that sent men to the moon during the late 1960s. Typical adults of that era would have scoffed at the things we take for granted today, so we should keep an open mind to tomorrow’s possibilities.

 

Who will benefit from 3D printing?

In nearly every industry, 3D printing offers a viable solution to reducing waste, customer dissatisfaction, transportation costs, and a host of other potential business hiccups. Here are some industries we predict will benefit most from this disruptive invention.

The medical field

The medical field will benefit tremendously by this revolution. Imagine the possibilities in a hospital, where a 3D printer’s ability to produce crucial organic matter could mean the difference between life and death when a patient is teetering on the brink. Forget about waiting lists for organ transplants – patients may simply need to hold out until the hospital’s 3D printers can address their needs.

 

Manufacturing

As 3D printing matures, the manufacturing and shipping of products could be replaced more and more by the manufacturing and shipping of 3D printing supplies. The net impact on the environment might not be substantial. After all,  3D printing supplies would have to be manufactured somewhere, and the 3D printing process would yield a certain amount of waste. But, businesses and consumers will save billions from not needing to transport goods and services anymore.

 

Home-building

There are talks of some homes actually being built from the foundation up by gigantic 3D printers. One company hopes to 3D print a 2,500 square foot house in 20 hours. Keep in mind... this is in 2014, not some far-off distant future.

Watch this video to learn more about the “Contour Crafting” phenomenon:

Food

People are now able to print edible creations with special inks that you can digest. Think about how much this can help the people who are starving in third world countries. The best part is, this is already happening. One device called Foodini promises to “take on the difficult and/or time-consuming parts of food preparation that often discourage people from creating homemade food, whether it’s in a home kitchen or a restaurant”.

 

Fashion

When I first thought about how 3D printing would affect the fashion industry, I immediately imagined people walking around looking like the Jetsons (bonus points if you watched that show as child). But, innovative clothing designers are already getting into the 3D mix, printing haute couture that stays ahead of the trends. The idea of completely custom 3D-printed clothing made on a one-time basis is thrilling to many designers, and is already being implemented for high-end celebrity fashion.

IMAGE CREDIT: Forbes

 

Weapons

Yes, 3D printing does have a bit of controversy behind it. We’ve already seen one bold man 3D print a gun that actually shot bullets. He even uploaded the blueprints online, but the Defense Department had him take it down soon after. But this just opens up our minds to more and more possibilities that are a little less controversial.

 

A double-edged sword

As we all know, new technology tends to be a double-edged sword: the capacity for good and wicked exists in equal amounts. Ultimately, it’s up to people to make choices about how to use this technology responsibly.

There will also be messy intellectual property issues to sort through. If you make something really cool and share the 3D printer file with friends and family, how do you protect your rights, and your potential income stream? If the file goes viral and anyone in the world can print your creation, how will you control it? Will the Napster of our children’s adult years revolve around a 3D printer file sharing site? I think it’s a distinct possibility.

In the meantime, 3D printing will only become better and cheaper with each new generation of devices. Someday it will be just as effortless to print a new object in your home as it is today to download digital music, books, and movies. For now, though, the Hello Innovation team will stick to printing cool stuff that doesn’t involve human limbs or gunfire.

 

What do you think. Is 3D printing the future? Share your thoughts below!