3D Printers

3D printing is super awesome!  It allows you to repeatedly deposit layers of material, eventually creating a full three dimensaional object.  They run off CAD designs, and can create an enormous number of different objects.  Additionally, it can also create those objects using a crazy big number of different materials.  Reading today, I found out that there are 3D printers that can work with many different types of metals, plastics, food (such as frosting), and even human tissue (printered bladders are real).  You can hear about a printed human kidney here.

I've been thinking of the application possibilities for this type of technology.  The most blatant is to replace traditional manufacturing, specifically fabricating a part out of a single material.  That would likely be with single-material printers, but could become more robust with multi-material heads based on the sophistication of the system.  You could also sell items to people over the internet that are able to be printed on a 3D printer.  This one is more problematic until the technology become pervasive in the consumer home.  That said, you can certainly use it for artwork and small through-the-internet sales of artsy or specialty products.

I'm very excited about this technology, and am thinking about investing in a 3D printer of my own.  To do so, I'd need to overcome a couple barriers - the biggest one is that I don't know how to design 3D objects in CAD software.  Not impossible, but something I'd have to learn.