A rise in 3D printing technology won't mean a "Star Trek" replicator in every home to make whatever Americans desire. But the White House has bet big on the idea that 3D printing can revolutionize U.S. manufacturing from within the heart of the Midwest's "Rust Belt" once known for its shuttered steel mills.

President Barack Obama's proposed $1 billion bet on a manufacturing innovation network hinges upon places such as Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, where the whirring sounds of 3D printers and laser cutters filled the engineering department's invention center on a late Friday afternoon. The university is one of many partners in the federally funded National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute (NAMII) — a $30 million pilot institute aimed at boosting 3D printing's use in U.S. manufacturing.

"The real value of 3D printing is to do something that's either not possible or not cost-effective to do with existing technology," said James McGuffin-Cawley, chairman of materials science & engineering at Case Western Reserve University and a member of the NAMII executive board.

3D printing represents the latest version of what industry experts call "additive manufacturing" — a way to turn practically any computer designs into real objects by building them up layer-by-layer using plastics, metals or other materials. The technology could end up affecting every major industry — aerospace, defense, medicine, transportation, food, fashion — and have an even bigger impact on U.S. manufacturing than the robot revolution.

"Even though the technology has been around for more than 20 years, Washington finally gets it," said Terry Wohlers, an independent analyst and leading expert on 3D printing who sits on NAMII's governance board.

Why 3D printing makes sense

Wohlers referred to the fact that manufacturers have used such technology to build models and prototypes to test new product designs for 20 years. The difference with the new NAMII effort is that the U.S. government wants 3D printing to help produce more products stamped "Made in USA."

The strength of 3D printing comes from its ability to make individual, specifically tailored parts on demand, rather than churning out thousands of standard products with a factory's worth of assembly-line equipment. That could prove especially cost-effective for making the complex parts of specialty devices or equipment in small batches or on a one-off basis, such as replacement parts for a fighter jet or the jawbone implant customized for an individual patient's surgery.

"If you're making 10,000,000 trash cans for sale at Wal-Mart, then no — you might prototype those things with 3D printing but you won't be manufacturing them that way," Wohlers told TechNewsDaily. "If you're making parts for 50 to 100 military aircraft, then it is a perfect fit."

Aerospace giant Boeing has already proved a pioneer by using 3D printing to make more than 22,000 parts used on civilian and military aircraft flying today. The rest of the U.S. aerospace industry is trying to catch up fast — GE Aviation announced its purchase of two companies in Ohio, Morris Technologies and Rapid Quality Manufacturing, last month. GE Aviation's idea is to use its newly acquired 3D printing capabilities to make jet engine parts. [Video: A 3D Printer Of Your Own: When Will You Have One At Home?]

Similarly, 3D printing is poised to shake up the medical industry, said David Dean, director of the neurological surgery imaging laboratory at Case Western Reserve University. He pointed to the possibilities of 3D-printed hip and knee implants fitted precisely to each patient that can avoid the medical problems related to today's less well-fitted implants.

7 Comments

1. 1. RDH 04:28 PM 12/6/12

   One needs a world-class 3D solids modeling software package to produce files that 3D printers can use. Fortunately just such a package developed here in the U.S. exists. Most of these printers support STL file formats that Solid Edge can produce.
   
   And Siemens supplies Solid Edge free to college students and professors as well as high school students (never too early to start your high-tech education).
   
   There is also Local Motors (see e.g., www.localmotors.com) that provides a way for auto-design collaboration using Solid Edge. So it is possible for a college course to use Solid Edge to not just design and do 3D printing, but to get innovative designs incorporated in an automobile.
   
   Here is a site for the free college edition.
   
   https://www.plm.automation.siemens.com/en_us/about_us/goplm/arc/se-academic/solid-edge-student.cfm?
   
   For high school students:
   
   https://www.plm.automation.siemens.com/en_us/about_us/goplm/arc/se-academic/educator/high-school-download.cfm?

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2. 2. gesimsek 06:24 PM 12/6/12

   This is also good news for software companies. They will sell applications for do-it-yourself personal accessory designing programs

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3. 3. RSchmidt 07:47 PM 12/6/12

   Tremendous possibilities here. I first looked at it in the 90's as a way to extract dinosaur fossils from the matrix in which they were encased. Much cheaper than doing it by hand.
   
   Prior to the industrial age we had artisans that created a small number of custom products. The industrial age gave us the mass production of generic products. The digital age and 3D printing will give us mass customization. It is also a first step towards machines than can build themselves. 3D printing will also bring us printed human organs. This is a world changing technology.

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4. 4. dxs11 10:36 AM 12/10/12

   3D printing offers designers unprecedented flexibility. Many traditional fabrication methods such as forging and casting are often limited by the need to extract the part from a steel tool. 3D printing eliminates the need for costly tooling. While amenable to small batches, machining has limited capabilities in producing parts with internal features. 3D printing offers a new paradigm in design and fabrication of complex parts and while work still needs to be done to meet the quality required of some aerospace and medical applications, the potential is definitely there.

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5. 5. Daniel35 11:08 PM 12/13/12

   I'm not hearing much about what the leading edge of 3D printing is like today, and soon. I assume some printers can print one item in different colors of plastic, but how about with widely varying materials, maybe ceramics or steel in fine pellets to be fused together later? Could they print for instance interlocking parts, of whatever material, separated by a gel that would be washed away to free the individual parts? "Printer, scan yourself and duplicate, but with space for further additions."

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6. 6. bucketofsquid in reply to Daniel35 05:00 PM 12/18/12

   The simple answer to your complex question is "yes". A variety of metals, ceramics, resins and plastics are currently available, depending on your price range. There are a variety of software packages including an open source package I seem to have forgotten the name of. The very expensive high end 3D printers can create very intricate multisubstance items.
   
   I've begun buying shares of certain companies involved in 3D printing. I watched Brocade and Juniper do very well in the network gear market when I had no cash to invest. I'm not missing out on the latest wave of significant innovation this time around.

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7. 7. muqtada321 07:51 AM 12/20/12

   It has a market capitalization of approximately $3 billion, making it the largest 3D printing company in the world, surpassing 3D Systems’ market capitalization of $2.4 billion.
   
   Regards
   <a href="http://www.printingfairy.com/labels-printing/" rel="follow">labels printing</a>

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