The 3D Printing Revolution

So pretty much every day I'm reading another article about 3D printing.  For those not up to speed, it means you can print solid objects from a plastic like compound.

This used to be a very expensive exercise, but the price is tumbling as more players enter the market (competition) and we get more people wanting to buy the technology (scale).

I predict (actually, I predicted this about 10 years ago - check with my now-adult children...) that 3D printing would become fairly mainstream in most homes - and here's why.

A while back, a small plastic component in my fridge broke.  It was like a little bracket thingy that held up a shelf in the door.  Now I had 3 options (well 4 if you count "do nothing"):

1. Drive to the outlet where you can buy this component,
2. Ring up, order it by phone and pay for it to be delivered, or
3. Order it via their web site and pay for it to be delivered.

What if I could go to their web site and pay to download the component to my 3D printer?  Problem solved in a few minutes and for far less as I'm only paying for the "design" of the part - I'm providing the physical substance and there's no delivery fee.

OK, let's take a breath and start to continue this line of thinking...

What about all the "add on" products like smartphone cases, little clips, frames, hooks...

People can design things to be printed, then you pay to simply use this design to create the physical object.

Now at the moment, the size of the object is restricted to fairly small - but it is increasing slowly.

Let's start designing!