3D printing

If you haven't run into 3D printing applications in your work, you'd be surprised at how "disruptive" that technology is becoming. Rick Smith says we will see it do these things in the future:

• print a replacement part for you when your home appliance breaks down
• print new shoes for your daughter when she needs a bigger size
• print custom knee replacements for each patient
• print a bullet-proof fabric using graphene
• print "complex functional living tissues"
• print pipes that automatically repair themselves

Here is his take on 3D printing:  "I believe, along with a growing number of leaders around the world, that 3D printing will change the way things are produced more in this century than the industrial revolution did over the last 300 years."

(cont'd tomorrow)