3D printing the next big thing? - Page 6 - Business, Finances and Investing Forum

I bought DDD at $50 a share, a few months ago.

Not sure if that company or the industry will takeoff like everyone hopes, but it surely hasn't reached the masses yet and i expect more euphoria in the near future to drive stock prices up.

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11-04-2013 , 06:10 PM

#127

demandi

centurion

Join Date: Mar 2011 Posts: 122

A company that I became aware of is specializing in 3d goldprinting. Printing designer jewels that are impossible to make by hand.. I think this might have an opportunity to take off actually

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11-10-2013 , 09:05 PM

#128

Gin 'n Tonic

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: Mar 2005 Posts: 6,305

Bound to happen sooner or later...

Metal printed 1911

Not the crappy single shot plastic thing, but a 1911 that they already put 50 rounds through.

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11-13-2013 , 03:11 AM

#129

homeboy604

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http://www.popsci.com/science/articl...onize-medicine

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11-14-2013 , 09:36 PM

#130

d2themfi

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3d printing can print a 2500 square foot house in 20 hours

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11-15-2013 , 11:44 AM

#131

TomCollins

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Quote:

Originally Posted by d2themfi

3d printing can print a 2500 square foot house in 20 hours

At a cost of....

And of course, does not include any of the interior work, which takes the longest anyway.

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11-15-2013 , 05:56 PM

#132

d2themfi

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Quote:

Originally Posted by TomCollins

At a cost of....

And of course, does not include any of the interior work, which takes the longest anyway.

Regarding cost, did you not watch the video? Also have you not read kurzweil's essay, " The law of accelerating returns" on how cost performance of exponential technologies work? Regardless, it's a very exciting prospect. Just less than a year ago I was reading articles about 3d printing houses that would take several months.

Also in the video he explains this technology handles the plumbing, networking and electrical work as well

It also makes possible extremely intricate architectural designs that aren't possible with traditional construction methods

Here's a decent resource for 3d printer news if anyone is interested

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11-15-2013 , 06:12 PM

#133

TomCollins

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Quote:

Originally Posted by d2themfi

No, I don't watch every video someone links to. I read the article, though. It's entirely possible this could be feasible, it's just everything else with 3d printing is very limited in applications (custom work, weird designs, remote locations).

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11-15-2013 , 06:42 PM

#134

d2themfi

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Quote:

Originally Posted by TomCollins

Yes it is currently fairly limited...that's sort of how new technologies work TC. As cost performance increases exponentially, and investment in the area increases, things could get very interesting

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11-15-2013 , 10:13 PM

#135

BrianTheMick2

Long way to go and a short time to get there.

Join Date: May 2012 Posts: 19,410

Quote:

Originally Posted by TomCollins

GE was looking at it for aerospace.

There is also this:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-1...e-panties.html

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11-16-2013 , 09:35 AM

#136

TomCollins

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Quote:

Originally Posted by d2themfi

Yes it is currently fairly limited...that's sort of how new technologies work TC. As cost performance increases exponentially, and investment in the area increases, things could get very interesting

It's not a new technology, though. It's been around for decades. It's orders of magnitude worse than traditional methods. Materials that are needed will always be more expensive than traditional materials, by their nature.

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11-16-2013 , 09:57 AM

#137

d2themfi

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It's been around for decades, but only arosend commercially/mainstream for an extremely short period of time. The rate of progress in price performance has been increasing extremely rapidly.

A big aspect of this is the rapid acceleration of 3d scanning as well. One only has to follow the news stories I linked earlier to notice the rapid increase in the pace of progress within the space. I understand skepticism, but with knowledge of how exponential technologies advance, coupled with simple observations within the last few years, I find your level of pessimism to be quite high.

Last edited by d2themfi; 11-16-2013 at 10:06 AM.

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11-16-2013 , 12:32 PM

#138

TomCollins

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Quote:

Originally Posted by d2themfi

It's more that no one has any specifics other than "wow, it's so cool!" or random one-off stories like the house or rebuilding the hand or whatever. Show me the vision of the future with it and maybe I'll get on board. I've seen a lot of hand waving and no actual vision on this one.

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11-16-2013 , 01:29 PM

#139

BrianTheMick2

Long way to go and a short time to get there.

Join Date: May 2012 Posts: 19,410

Quote:

Originally Posted by TomCollins

http://www.businessinsider.com/ge-bu...ngines-2012-11

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11-16-2013 , 06:41 PM

#140

d2themfi

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Quote:

Originally Posted by TomCollins

Really? You must not he paying attention. Read that thread I linked earlier. Here are some highlights

will be used to print graphene, the world's best super material ( well maybe carbyne is now), which we are having major problems still producing in any quantity

3d printing has entered the metal age. European space agency will use it to build parts for spacecraft and other things like fusion reactors

3d printing cuts material consumption by 75% and carbons emissions by 40%

3d printing to dominate STEM education within a few years

5 dollar printed prosthesis makes new limbs affordable

Sub 1000$ printer that prints metal

3d printed liver slices last up to 40 days

3d printing kidneys and other organs may revolutionize the biotech industry

those are just from the last 2 months

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11-16-2013 , 07:08 PM

#141

TomCollins

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No, I'm paying attention, just looking at different ways to measure how it might be useful.

The way I see it, it's useful for:
Small runs
Parts that have a unique design such that additive manufacturing is the only/superior way to do it
Remote locations

What am I missing?

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11-16-2013 , 07:42 PM

#142

BrianTheMick2

Long way to go and a short time to get there.

Join Date: May 2012 Posts: 19,410

Quote:

Originally Posted by TomCollins

They are being used a lot for aerospace and where the normal method is using an expendable mold. They can also make molds, which is a really expensive endeavor using traditional methods. Architects are starting to use them to bring their drawings to life instead of having to hire model makers.

One of my neighbors owns a CNC company that makes parts for aerospace companies and he is considering getting one.

I doubt that it will be as popular as people seem to think as a consumer printer.

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11-16-2013 , 09:35 PM

#143

d2themfi

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Quote:

Originally Posted by TomCollins

All that is true, although I think it will be much more wide spread than just remote locations. You said All you've seen are random one off stories... They don't seem very random or small impact to me. It's going to cause mass deflation in many areas, construction, aerospace, biotech, space programs, etc. My original comment is you see quite unrealistically pessimistic on the tech. You seem extremely dismissive of it to me

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11-17-2013 , 11:16 AM

#144

TomCollins

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Quote:

Originally Posted by BrianTheMick2

Yes, a lot of people are taking this way too far. There clearly is value in a lot of use cases, but it's not going to replace traditional mass manufacturing or be something people have at home.

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12-12-2013 , 10:32 PM

#145

Mazatec

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Join Date: Apr 2008 Posts: 404

we are all still Bulls on anything 3d printing stock related right?

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12-12-2013 , 11:19 PM

#146

WorldBoFree

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I am.

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12-13-2013 , 09:27 AM

#147

TomCollins

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Me too, I just got my 3d printer:

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03-28-2014 , 06:12 AM

#148

Gin 'n Tonic

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Neurosurgeons successfully implant 3D printed skull

Link is NSFsqueamish.

Quote:

A 22-year-old woman from the Netherlands who suffers from a chronic bone disorder -- which has increased the thickness of her skull from 1.5cm to 5cm, causing reduced eyesight and severe headaches -- has had the top section of her skull removed and replaced with a 3D printed implant.

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06-05-2014 , 12:42 PM

#149

Dr McGriddle

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Join Date: Aug 2012 Posts: 645

nice article on Ford's 3D printing facilities:

http://www.computerworld.com/s/artic...parts_are_made

Gives an interesting look into the current real-life application of 3D printing in industry vs the overly rosy every consumer will be printing everything at home school of thought.

The current work in industry is still almost entirely for prototypes and patterns and are made on very expensive equipment. Quite different from the $100 kickstarter printers which seem to garner most of the publicity. Unfortunately prototypes and casting patterns dont make for much of a TED talk.