3D Printing

If you could 3D print something, what would it be?

A few months ago, we shared a story about Peter Thiel’s idea to use 3D printing to make inedible meat.  Now it seems people are getting all kinds of ideas of things to do with 3D printing from creating gummy images of themselves to creating skull implants.

During a panel discussion at SXSW 2013 , the future of 3D printing was discussed.  The conclusion of the experts was, “while there are certainly limitations to the technology, the opportunities that 3D printing offers everyone from garage entrepreneurs to large corporations will be be plentiful, and often economically advantageous.”

Right now the options seem limitless when we think about what is capable with 3D printing.  Of course, with new ideas come new regulations and laws.  Recently Defense Distributed obtained a license to make 3D printed firearms.  The possibility of this affecting gun control is very real, and they state on their website, “This project might change the way we think about gun control and consumption. How do governments behave if they must one day operate on the assumption that any and every citizen has near instant access to a firearm through the Internet? Let’s find out.”  So far they have only succeeded in producing gun parts, such as a lower receiver for an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle and a magazine for an AK-47, not entire guns.  But they’re still working, so they may accomplish entire guns in the near future.

There are also plenty of concerns about who is permitted to recreate common figures such as Yoda, Mickey Mouse, and Batman.  During the discussion at SXSW, Rich Brown of CNET talked about intellectual property.  The CNET article states:

As an example, Brown pointed out that while Yoda is one of the most-cherished characters from the “Star Wars” universe, it is easy to download a Yoda 3D model file from places like MakerBot ‘s online Thingiverse collection. The question was, is this bad for Disney (which owns the “Star Wars” franchise)?

Alice Taylor of Makie Labs responded to Brown’s concerns with, “I live by the ethos of (publisher) Tim O’Reilly,” Taylor said. “He says, ‘any creative output author needs to fear obscurity more than piracy. If people are pirating your product, it means you’re popular.”

“The moment you take your [traditional] tooling off to Asia [to be manufactured],” Scott Summit of Bespoke Innovations said, “you relinquish your IP. When you’re 3D printing something…it’s a unique instantiation every time, and it’s really hard to rip off.”  As part of the panel, he seemed to agree that the piracy risks of 3D printing are lesser than those that businesses relying on traditional manufacturing face.

How common will 3D printing be in the near future?  It’s hard to say.  Will be be armed with guns we printed, have our bodies patched with 3D printed parts, or have 3D printed “mini me’s” sitting around?  If you really want it, it can be done.

Image Source: CNET