Not quite yet. Rapid 3D prototyping machines, also called 3D printers may soon be making their debut in your local copy store. These machines used to run upwards of $100,000 but now cost only $15,000 bringing them within range of medium sized businesses, I expect one to pop up at my local Staples or Office Depot any time now but what does this mean for home users?

The New York Times spoke with the chairman of Idea Lab which just happens to make 3D printers says the technology will cost about $1,000 in four years bringing it just within range of a few home users. Once it hits $500 or so many more people will buy the printers.

Though right now some knowledge of a CAD program is required to make use of the printers, all that is going to change very soon. Say you have a character in World of Warcraft, why not print out a model of it, the same could apply to other games as well.

It’s not yet possible to incorporate electronics or advanced manufacturing techniques in these yet but I see no reason it shouldn’t be (with some assembly required).

In 20 years you see the latest revision to the iPod Nano in the Apple Store and can’t wait for it to be shipped to you… fire up your 3D printer, “buy” the Nano and let your printer go to work, in a few minutes, you have a working Nano and didn’t have to wait for shipping. Of course, after printing, the design is erased from your system and printer cache. It would be all plastic… or some composite material as they can’t make anything from metal (yet), I don’t know if that would be the case in 20 years or not.

Also called into question are the reliability and the endurance parts made by these printers as this is a new technology and more or less untested.

It’s not quite a replicator from Star Trek but its close, now we just need to get the whole energy to matter conversion down.

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Entry was posted on Monday, May 7th, 2007 at 6:57 am under Technology.

Read more entries by Jonathan Schlaffer.
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