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How 3D Printing Is Changing the World

Tesseract

Banned
That's how the robots getcha.

TAKE MY BLOOD

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DunDunDunpachi

Patient MembeR
TAKE MY BLOOD

77ee612d6e509b541e0fd87b5a4fcfe9.jpg
Okay sure but hear me out, do you really want to wake up after a particularly strenuous evening and then look at yourself in the mirror like this?



YOU HAVE BEEN IMPROVED, JUST AS YOU REQUESTED says your 3D-printed sex-doll/accountant/doctor/automechanic/surgeon.
 
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3d printing is very interesting. But as far as I understand it, right now people are printing using plastic materials.
What about metals, steel and stuff? Can a 3d printer print metal things?
 
I want to 3d print a gator giving the middle finger with the words Florida fuckus upus drinkum yabyum with a guy hurling behind a bush.
 

nkarafo

Member
The toy industry is going to crash soon. Once you are able to 3D print figures and other stuff in color, there will be no reason to buy toys or figures, assuming the materials are cheap enough. Just download/pirate some schematics and you are good to go. Imagine being a kid in the near future, 3D printing any toy you want.
 

Mihos

Gold Member
I use it to print project cases and test jigs/prototypes for work.

Our printers work really slow and are no where near high quality enough for real production though.
 

EverydayBeast

thinks Halo Infinite is a new graphical benchmark
3D printing whatever the hell that is sounds more important than regular printing, lowkey impressive.
 

Kenpachii

Member
This gives piracy a whole new meaning. U could practically print whatever u want.

Food like with star trek is probably also a thing in the future them. Where every meal just gets printed.

I really liked the organic type of material that only pushes what it needs. That's some next level looking stuff
 
S

SLoWMoTIoN

Unconfirmed Member
Isn't the problem with 3D printing the quality?
 

IntentionalPun

Ask me about my wife's perfect butthole
I still prefer dot matrix printers.

That sound plus an old modem connecting is what I fall asleep to at night.
 

Bitmap Frogs

Mr. Community
No one ever talks how 3D printing has almost zero economies of scale

Traditionally you spend big on making the machinery to build something and once there economies of scale kick in as more units are produced.

With 3D printing the only scalability is having multiple printers working in paralel so each product costs the same.
 

V4skunk

Banned
No one ever talks how 3D printing has almost zero economies of scale

Traditionally you spend big on making the machinery to build something and once there economies of scale kick in as more units are produced.

With 3D printing the only scalability is having multiple printers working in paralel so each product costs the same.
Not really.
I imagine as the technology progresses 3d printing will become much faster and more profitable.
 

Bitmap Frogs

Mr. Community
Not really.
I imagine as the technology progresses 3d printing will become much faster and more profitable.

Sure and that will make things easier lowering the cost per unit and but still won't get the benefit of economies of scale. At the end of the day, if you get a printer to produce 10 parts per run, and you need 1000 parts per run to deliver to customers, you will still need 100 machines and every part you produce will cost the same.

Nowadays you can make injection molded parts with moving pieces using non compatible chemistry and once you're past design and machinery, price quickly craters to the point these parts effectively cost cents. This is something 3d printing will never be able to do- the only cost you get to dilute is part design and you get some savings on facility running costs, etc.

And as the technology gets better and more efficient, part price will come down and 3d printed products will be more feasible for a range of products, but you can't beat economies of scale for mass market consumer goods.

Some say there's a future for bespoke consumer goods, as in you go to the shop and you just don't buy the hair drier that's on the shelf, you get to chose the design and it gets printed on the spot. and the 3d printed parts get assembled with the entrails at the shop. And so on. Who knows, we'll see how things happen.
 
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What forces are driving those blocks together? It does not look like that tank has recirculation, so I don't think they are agglomerating by density. They are just hollow plastic blocks. I don't even see magnets on them.
 
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