Tag Archives: industry
Why 3D Printing Will Be More Fun Than LEGO: Minecraft Video
As humans, we attach more value to things we create than things created for us (See Dan Ariely’s research to understand what he calls “The Ikea Effect”).
This common psychological motivation is why personalized 3D printing will engender a new generation of toys that are not mass produced. Although toys like LEGO and Lincoln Logs let kids use building blocks to create their own structures, they are still limited to the granularity of the block.
The popularity of the game Minecraft has shown that kids are ready to go beyond centimeter-tall blocks, and want to build entire worlds. One 3D printing enthusiast has demonstrated how to export your Minecraft village and print a physical copy to play with.
In the video below, watch as he walks through his digital to 3D printed transformation.
We have reported about this before. This is just the beginning. The toy industry is soon to be turned upside down as 3D printing gains popularity.
Forbes: 3D Printing Will Cause Real Wages to Rise in Global Economy
Will 3D printing be a disruptive change? Sure, but Forbes believes that we may be surprised by the result.
Contributor Tim Worstall poses an interesting counterpoint to some common conclusions about the impact of 3D printing on the global labor market.
First, Mr. Worstall suggests that there will be an experience curve for 3D printing – it will get cheaper over time to produce similar goods.
Which is, as we know, pretty much the way that manufacturing works. Things get designed, dreamt up, and they start out expensive. As we get better at doing whatever it is then prices start to drop: the clearest examples are in the computing and telecoms industries in recent years. Those examples are almost too tedious to recount in fact, they’ve been used so often.
3D printing will go through much the same process and it’s easy enough to see a time in which one has such a printer just as much as one has a paper printer. Need something, call up the part design over the web, pay a buck or two perhaps (and no doubt there will be open sourcers as well) and print out whatever it is that you wanted.
Now the key question is whether this will lead to an elimination in manual labor. As an example, we recently called the impact of 3D printing on the Indian labor market ”mind-boggling” because labor can be reduced dramatically or replaced by additive manufacturing.
But let us go to the extreme and assume that they are cheaper: so much so that manufacturing really does disappear. What does that do to wages? Yup, a fall in the costs of things is equal to, is by definition the equivalent of, a rise in real wages. So if 3D printers do take off it can only be because, by definition, they make us all richer.
Interesting view point, and one that seems to support the belief that 3D printing will be a $5 billion industry by 2020.
Via Forbes.
Factory photo by Just Add Light used under Creative Commons license.
Analyzing the Market Size of 3D Printing Creators and Consumers
Robert Schouwenburg, CTO and Co-Founder of Shapeways, wrote an interesting blog post connecting venture capitalist Fred Wilson’s 100-10-1 rule of social services with the 3D printing and personal fabrication industry.
Fred Wilson – VC Union Square Ventures – often recites his rule of thumb of social internet services. It is the 100-10-1 rule. He sees with social internet services that on average 100% of users consume, 10% of users interact and 1% of users actually create.
When you apply the 100-10-1 rule of thumb, the opportunities for scaling such a service become immediately clear. As far as I know there are no exact figures available on how many 3D modelers / product designers there are in the world. But let’s assume there are 5 million of them. That would turn social fabrication into a 500M users opportunity. That is Facebook and Google territory. Just imagine 50M users interacting on personal fabrication and the effects it can have on product design and how we design products. This is a very significant opportunity. Of course, the big caveat is that not all 3D modelers / product designers are interested in social fabrication. Maybe only 10% or less. That still leaves a 50M opportunity.
Great analysis, but we believe the 100-10-1 rule will be broken for 3D printing and personal fabrication.
Let’s define the steps as 100% browse 3D printed goods, 10% buy 3D printed goods, and 1% make 3D printed goods.
First, the 10% will likely increase to 50% or 75% as the industry grows and buying a 3D printed good is as seamless as buying a SKU at Walmart.com or Walmart retail. This would be further aided if Amazon, for example, gets into the business of selling 3D printed goods.
Second, the 1% will likely increase to 10% with a combination of globalization and design software becoming easier
Globalization: 3D design of consumable goods will become a mainstream profession for people in developing countries, especially India and China, if there is an efficient marketplace for them to sell their designs.
Software enablement: How many people use Photoshop? Only professionals and hobbyists. But how many people use MS Paint? I would wager a decent size of the population who have computers have dabbled in MS Paint. If 3d design software is made to be as easy as MS Paint to create real, valuable 3d printed objects, the creation will increase. We are already seeing steps in that direction with Autodesk 123D and other tools.
The implication is that not only are there more designers and more purchasers, but a greater volume of 3d printed goods purchased, making the overall size of this industry quickly a multi-billion opportunity in the next five years.
Photo credit to anjan58 via Creative Commons.
3D Printing Earns Top 10 Fastest Growing Industries, Beats Hot Sauce Production
IBISWorld produced its April 2012 special report on the Top 10 Fastest-Growing Industries. 3D Printer Manufacturing was #6.
Full ranking:
- Generic Pharmaceutical Manufacturing
- Solar Panel Manufacturing
- For-Profit Universities
- Pilates & Yoga Studios
- Self-Tanning Product Manufacturing
- 3D Printer Manufacturing
- Social Network Game Development
- Hot Sauce Production
- Green & Sustainable Building Construction
- Online Eyeglasses & Contact Lens Sales
Named companies for 3D Printing were:
- 3D Systems Corp.
- Stratays Inc.
- Z Corporation
The report below suggests that 3D printer manufacturing will be $1.7 billion in 2012 growing to $3.3 billion in 2017. Read the full report below.
The Motley Fool Reviews the 3D Printing Market
Investment advice site The Motley Fool posted a review of the emerging 3D printing industry. Naturally their attention turned to the performance of public companies in the space.
Objet inc. has recently filed for an IPO valuing itself at $500,000,000 with the last years of revenues topping $150,000,000. Object is one of the biggest 3D printing companies although there are many already trading on the exchanges. Stratasys (NASDAQ: SSYS) is the maker of additive manufacturing machines for prototyping manufacturing and making plastic parts. Stratasys has a market capitalization of 771 million dollars with a P/E of 38.03. 3D Systems (NYSE: DDD) is a manufacturer of 3D printing software and the printers themselves. The company has 1.36 billion market capitalization with a P/E of 35.21.
Expect more IPOs in this space!
Read more at The Motley Fool.
