Innovation Lessons From 3-D Printing

Also known as additive manufacturing or rapid prototyping, 3-D printing is the printing of solid, physical 3-D objects. Unlike machining processes, which are subtractive in nature, 3-D printing systems join together raw materials to form an object. Drawing on a computer-aided design (CAD) file, the design for an object is first divided into paper-thin, cross-sectional slices, which are then each printed out of liquid, powder, plastic or metal materials in sequence until the entire object is created. The use of 3-D printing makes it possible to build physical models, prototypes, patterns, tooling components or production parts. Design and manufacturing organizations use it for product parts in the consumer, industrial, medical and military markets. The longer-term implications of 3-D printing technologies are believed to be large .In 2011, total industry revenues for industrial and professional purposes had grown to more than $1.7 billion, including both products and services. The industry compound annual growth rate has been 26.4% over its 24-year history, and double-digit growth rates are expected to continue until at least 2019. While early systems were mainly sold to large, multinational customers, 3-D printing manufacturers more recently started to focus on the lower end of the market, offering increasingly cheaper machines to make 3-D printing a viable option for small businesses, self-employed engineers and designers, schools and individual consumers. Indeed, 3-D printing is expected to eventually become a mass market.