3-DIMENINSIONAL PRINTERS:Technological Super Heroes

Further Research

Three-d printers seem to be improving rapidly. They are revolutionizing the way people think about manufacturing. There are already printers on the market that can duplicate themselves. (Simonite, T. 2010) They are getting easier to use and much more user friendly for the technologically inept. It takes only a short training class for the smaller printers and if you have any experience with CAD software or any other kind of engineering software it can be “surprisingly easy to use”. (Computer Electronics; 2011, September). The cost of three-d printers is decreasing exponentially “prices of 3D printers have declined substantially in the past five years, to as low as $1,000 from $400,000 five years ago”. (Kross, 2011). If they continue to grow in popularity and shrink in cost they will cost less than an IPAD and be more popular too.

Conclusion

It took almost fifty years for the computer to do what a three-d printer has done in less than thirty. Three-dimensional printers like computers in the last century will continue to get more compact and light weight. They also appear to be getting cheaper to make. “Three-d printer companies are making more money every year” (A factory on your desk,2009, September). and their products are getting cheaper. The most revolutionary advances for 3D printing are probably at least 10 to15 years away, but as three-d printers prices continue to fall, much like basic printer prices and computers before them, it will not be long before average people can afford a three-d printer. When this happens, “the dreams of inventors and entrepreneurs will be realized” (Kross, R. 2011, August) Companies are finding cheaper ways to make the printers. There was a time even 15 years ago when people could not imagine having a regular two dimensional printer in their home. In fifteen years maybe we will all have printers that can print out the latest fad in clothes or that new bicycle you have been wanting. (BromptonWorld, BBC,2011)