3D Printing Will Change the Face of Business

Avi Reichental, President and CEO of 3D Systems, opened up this morning’s keynote speech at Inside 3D Printing Chicago with an enthusiastic and insightful view of the present and future of 3D printing. His presentation, Manufacturing the Future, focused on the democratization of 3D printing that will make it ubiquitous and empower anyone to become a maker. For example, one thing 3D Sytems has done is offer the service Cubify, which allows people to use their industrial printers to make objects in plastics, nylon and Zprint. Reichental noted, “whether you’re a deep pocketed corporation or a garage entrepreneur looking to start, it gives anyone access to 3D printing through the cloud.”

Throughout his presentation, he pointed to examples of how 3D printing already impacts our lives in will exponentially continue to do so. From applications in medicine to fashion to automotive, he is a firm believer that additive manufacturing will be an integral part of our everyday lives both in the industrial world and in the comfort of our own homes. He explained how Moore’s Law has begun for this industry and that, “printers are going to double up on performance and double down on costs. Expect printers to become real powerful home appliances. The train has left the station.” Bre Pettis at MakerBot for example, has been a key figure in beginning the process of lowering price to make printers accessible for regular consumers.

Despite rapid growth, there are numerous skeptics that ask: Does 3D printing really scale? Reichental however, emphatically answered “absolutely yes!” To answer skeptics, Reichental presented the example of Invisalign. Last year, he noted, 17.2 million Invisalign braces were made. Each one of them was manufactured in a 3D printing, 24/7, lights out manufacturing faciility. What is also amazing is that each of these designs are unique and distinct to adapt to people’s mouths. Furthermore, it seems like GE believes it will scale with over $3 billion they have invested in advanced digital manufacturing.

To put his money where his mouth is in terms of democratizing 3D printing, Reichental announced two important partnerships for 3D Systems. The first is a partnership with Google – Motorola, where 3D systems has outfitted Google/Moto trucks with their latest technology in order to teach people, mainly teens, how to use 3D printing technology. The trucks will go around college campuses, maker fairs and any other type of creative space where people want to create. The trucks will have the ProJet 3510 and the Projet 460 plus.

On the industrial end, Reichental announced, “this morning we have launched a game changing partnership with Deloitte Consulting to accelerate the way that companies can harness, adapt and implement this disruptive technology into their business model and their manufacturing operations.“ Together, they seek to help companies get educated about the technology and make decisions directionally on what they can do.  After speaking with 3D Systems Chief Marketing Officer, Cathy Lewis, it is clear that education is a big focus for the company and clearly they are doing something concrete about it with these major partnerships. In sum, Reichental believes that this revolution is just beginning and we can expect to see completely new ways to design and manufacture from architecture to medicine and almost anything we can imagine.

Authored by On 3D Printing contributor Rodrigo Garza Zorrilla, technology entrepreneur and advisor.

Avi Reichental image courtesy of @3dsystemscorp. Other photos by On 3D Printing.