Printer Creates Three-Dimensional Product Prototypes

3D Printer to Become More Affordable in 10 Years

by Yaroslav Lyssenko

[ 12/07/2006 | 04:16 PM ]

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The era of desktop manufacturing is upon us, thanks to advances in 3D printing technology. Just as laser printers in the 1980s moved from service bureaus into homes, sparking the desktop publishing revolution, 3D printers - which render computer files in three-dimensional plaster - are poised to reshape how many products are designed and made.

“I definitely think we’re really near that tipping point. Machine prices are going down and output quality is going up. For architects, their whole world is visualization. If they show a blueprint drawing, the client looks at them like a deer in headlights. When they can give the client something to hold in their hands, turn around, see how everything is placed, then the client finally gets it,” says Dina Braun, vice president at Alchemy Models, a company that makes architectural models.

TechWeb writes that Alchemy uses the Z Corp. Spectrum Z510, which can print in color at 600dpi resolution. At $49 900, the Spectrum is not quite priced as a stocking stuffer, but 3D printing is becoming more affordable every year and over the next 10 years it is likely to follow the same cost curve as color laser printers and other computing devices. The Z Corp. 310 Plus costs a mere $19 900.

While 3D printing has been used for prototyping products, it is increasingly being used for finished products, especially in architecture and medicine.

“If you’re doing some type of facial reconstruction where you might need to have fixture plates to realign the patient’s bone structure. If you don’t have a physical model to plan this on, doctors will take off-the-shelf metal plates and, once the patient is open on the table, they will try to fit that plate to the patient, during the surgical procedure,” says Roger Kelesoglu, director of customer development for Z Corp.

• TechWeb: Your Next House May Come From a Printer.