Posted on 06/28/2015 4:26:34 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
3D printing production is just scratching the surface of the multi-trillion dollar global manufacturing industry. But its dominance is already inevitable.
This is because modern manufacturing, despite numerous technological and process advances over the last century, is still a very inefficient global system. Today’s world of mass production is based on one simple rule: the more things you make, the lower the cost of each of those things. We have literally pushed this equation to its extreme limits.
This approach was dramatically accelerated by Henry Ford, arguably the most impactful character in the industrial revolution. For starters, Ford proved out the model of mass production. He wasn’t the first to create the assembly line, but he was the first of his time to perfect it. He built massive factories, and greatly standardized his product and processes. He once famously stated, “Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants, so long as it is black.” The quote may be familiar, but do you know why only black? It wasn’t due to Ford’s forward-thinking design sense, but rather because black was the only color that could dry fast enough to keep up with his assembly lines.
By 1915 he had reduced the time it took to build an automobile by 90%. By 1916, an astounding 55% of the automobiles on the road in America were Model Ts....
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
“Ford Motor Company, which recently celebrated the production of their 500,000th 3D-printed industrial part.”
I remain skeptical because of surface finish, speed, strength, and materials property limitations. But that item above caught my eye. Anybody know what part Ford is making and why they selected 3D printing?
I consulted to a printed electronics startup company about ten years ago and that has proven to be a real tough nut to crack.
Things are moving really fast now. Ten years ago might as well be 100. When I search for these articles I’m amazed at what they’re up to. Metals, human cells, food, meat from animal cells, buildings and on and on.
When I have some money again, I will look into investing in some of this 3D printing.
Horsehocky. 3D Printing will be another manufacturing tool. You wont be able to produce 1-off custom cars with it affordably as this article seems to suggest because you (or most people) lack the engineering know-how to design & certify the type.
Plus material science has a long way to catchup to leverage this technology.
Did you read the whole thing?
During a tour of a GM plant, the tour guide was bragging about how fast they could crank out automobiles and said “in fact, we once even produced one car in only one hour!”
A man in the group spoke up and said “Sir, I believe I am the owner of that car.”
It seems to me they've ignored time in their cost equation. An injection mold can kick out dozens of widgets in a hour; how much time would it take for a 3D printer to print one widget? If your company needs several hundred widgets quickly, wouldn't this enter into your calculations?
I was relaxing last night watching a car show of construction of the Koeningsberg One:1. They were making RIMS from carbon fiber. The whole car was carbon fiber but the engine and suspension. Some smart feller is gonna 3D print that car! Bring the price down from $3 million to about thirty grand, I bet.
It will be very difficult to figure out which companies will succeed and dominate in 3D printing. Decades ago, I could foresee the future in wireless. But I bet on the wrong companies and never made that much in that sector.
Science fiction author Neal Stephenson said (in "The Diamond Age") that there exist only the business of things and the business of entertainment, and the business of things is not very interesting when nanotechnology can produce anything.
And that sort of observation gets us back to Neil Postman's "Amusing Ourselves to Death" where information/entertainment simply becomes a control mechanism in a post-scarcity society which should have more freedom but which may end up with less freedom.
I saw a small 3D printer on display at a local Buy For Less electronics store. Interesting. Don’t recall the price, but my impression is that if a person has a particular need for it, (and can figure out how to use it!)it is within realms of affordable.
I think you might see medical 3D printing, too...
I invested in 3D stock late 2013 and did well. Since then stock prices have dropped a bit. Here are some January 2013 price comparisons
________2013_______Now
SSYS: _ _$85.46 _ _ _$38.66 (high $136.46)
AMAVF:_$26.25 _ _ _$18.01 (high $49.24)
ONVO:_ _ $5.02 _ _ _ $ 3.93 (high $13.65)
DDD:__ _$66.71_ _ _ $20.06 (high $97.28)
It's a challenge to invest at this point because some companies, like GE, just bought 3D companies and absorbed them.
Thank you for your advice and I will look into it further.
A while back I did some small scale investing and it seems like one of these was on the list of mine.
Money troubles came (medical bills) and I had to sell off most of what I had.
Starting to go back in investing again now that I am mostly paid off on and up....
A boss I had several decades ago sued GM regarding his lemon Chevy and won. Just about everything that could be wrong about a build was evident in his car, which he was only able to use some two months out of the 18 months he owned it - the rest of the time GM was trying to fix the problems. Cooling system, engine blowup, tranny blowup, rear-end blowup, paint and body problems, etc. One problem was leaks in the roof, water would cascade down on him after a rainy day when he parked. They opened the ceiling and found a wrench inside, from the factory when the car was built. After winning his lawsuit, my boss vowed to never again own an American car.
And that sort of observation gets us back to Neil Postman’s “Amusing Ourselves to Death” where information/entertainment simply becomes a control mechanism in a post-scarcity society which should have more freedom but which may end up with less freedom.
...................
limited government requires unlimited natural resources. you move toward unlimited as you reduce the price of both water and energy.
A world where the cost of energy and water was 1/10th or 1/100th of todays cheapest energy and water would look very different than the world we know today.
The 3D printer will produce the mold/molds. The idea that 3D printing will "do it all" is ludicrous.
Final manufacturing will be a meld of 3D and regular machining and/or other processes, probably a with workstations doing "additive" unit operations/parts, followed by "subtractive" (CNC machining)for surface finish and tight tolerances, with robot arms moving parts between the workstations and automating the setups.
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