This may not come as a surprise but we simply don't have anything like the Star Trek replicator today. In Star Trek a replicator is a machine capable of creating objects. Replicators were originally seen used to synthesize meals on demand, but in later series they took on many other uses. What we have today might be called a "replishaper," but there is so much more to creating an object you want to use than simply its shape. This post talks about what is left to do before we have the ideal 3D printer.
Very far future 3D printers may work by building up an object atom by atom. While that will solve a lot of problems, that will not likely happen in the next couple of weeks so this post will stick closer to what needs to realistically change from today's machines. Cutting to the chase, we need to be working toward high speed, multi-material, full color, 3D printers with the ability to incorporate integrated electronics and power capabilities. Today's 3D printers give us a glimpse into what is possible, but here are some of the key elements of where 3D printing technology need to go.
Materials
Hard plastic certainly has its utility, but most objects we want to use outside of basic prototyping are made up of a broader assortment of functional, ergonomic and tactilely pleasing materials. Today's 3D printers are only recently beginning to combine materials and even then they are largely different types of flexible and rigid plastics. Take a look around your desk and see how many single material products you have. I once went to the local Home Depot to see how many items I could replace via 3D printing. Based on the use of multi-materials alone, the number I found was far less than I expected. Where materials are concerned, the ideal 3D printer needs to be able to print objects that combine parts that include optimized rigid, flexible, strong, light, comfortable, visually pleasing and cost effective components all at the same time.
Speed
When I hold up a statue of a dog that I printed that is 9 inches tall and somebody asks me how long it took to print and I say 36 hours, they are always shocked. Even printing a set of dental arches takes a couple hours, which means while-you-wait orthodontic repairs are some distance in the future. On the industrial scale, GE has a real problem -- it is trying to build 19 3D printed fuel nozzles into its new LEAP 1A and 1B engines, but with over 8,500 engines already pre-ordered, they are hard pressed to meet the demand with today's 3d printers which can only produce so many parts at a time. The need for high volume manufacturing of components that can't be built with traditional manufacturing techniques will only increase as more design efforts look to take advantage of 3DP's unique ability to create shapes that can't be built using CNC or other approaches. The ideal 3D printer doesn't have to be instantaneous, but it does need to be faster in order to change the way and from where consumers get their goods. Carbon 3D has created a very interesting a new Continuous Liquid Interface Production (CLIP) technology using light and oxygen to “continuously grow objects from a pool of resin instead of printing them layer-by-layer.” This technology promises 25-100 times faster 3D printing and claims to be able to use a wide range of polymeric materials. That is certainly a step in the right direction.
Color
Single color 3D printed objects are boring. Consumers at this point rarely want a single colored object. That is one of the most basic limiting factors of consumer adoption of 3D printing. The Iris by Mcor is brilliant in this respect as it first prints high definition colors onto the paper that it uses to create the 3D object. I love the Iris and its subtractive approach to additive manufacturing (it cuts away the unnecessary paper). However, this technology has other limitations in terms of price and materials properties but it does overcome the color problem very nicely.
Electronics and power integration
The ideal 3d printer would be able to incorporate printed circuit board(s) into otherwise unused space within the object. Voxel8 is working on that problem. They are developing a 3D printing process that allows the user to co-print matrix materials such as thermoplastics and highly conductive silver inks to enable customized electronic devices like quadcopters, electromagnets and fully functional 3D electromechanical assemblies. They also note that "We have partnered with Autodesk to enable the design of truly freeform three-dimensional circuits for the first time. Project Wire is a new design tool that seamlessly integrates with the Voxel8 3D electronics printer. Project Wire features embedded component placement, freeform 3D wiring, and multi-material slicing. Circuit prototyping can be done quicker than ever before using Project Wire with the Voxel8 printer." While Voxel8's printers are scheduled to ship in March 2016, I expect that a number of other entrants will seek to address this critical market need as well. Embedding electronic components into the 3D printed product will open up a number of extraordinary possibilities in the automobile, aeronautic, and even consumer electronics industries.
Since the electronics will need to be powered, some form of incorporated rechargeable battery or other appropriate power supply would also need to be part of the printing process.
So I believe that the ideal 3D printer will be able to quickly produce truly multi-material, full color 3D objects while incorporating integrated electronics and power capabilities.
So what is stopping this from happening right now?
Right now the typical 3D printer is either a fancy robot-controlled hot glue gun or some other form of thin, single material layer by layer process. One or two extruder heads makes for a slow, single material printing process. Of course, you could use as many extruder heads as you want and replace them using some sort of robotic arms to use a near infinite number of different materials. That could allow you to change materials But that doesn't help you from a speed standpoint. That said, HP's upcoming multi Jet Fusion technology (as in hundreds/thousands of minute material delivery points) technology does seem like a promising approach both in terms of speed and materials.
Primarily, the reason real breakthroughs seem to be slow to arrive is because we are only just now starting to throw substantial resources at improving 3DP's functionality. But even with all of the companies working on 3D printing, many of them are simply learning how to make the same fused deposition modeling (FDM) printer that has limited general utility outside the initial shape prototyping phase of product design and manufacture. There are some innovators out there and they are developing interesting new variations, but mainly on the same theme.
Also impeding growth to some extent is the simple fact that most of the printers seem to be being designed because 3D printing itself is cool and still seems magical. 3DP companies appear to be hoping consumers will find a bunch of new uses for them rather than trying to solve a current specific manufacturing problem. If I had a nickle for every Kickstarter project founder who said, "We have developed the revolutionary new Blazingus 2000, and we can't wait to see what you make with it." At this point we should be designing new 3D printers with a specific manufacturing or design challenge in mind so that we are sure that there is demand for what is developed.
Some new entrants appear to be approaching the design of 3D printers from the perspective of what they can build rather than what problem needs to be overcome. We really don't need any more $1500 3D printers that kind of work and make extruded plastic tschotchkes. I'm not trying to be too critical here because 3D printing is a new enough technology to most people that executing on the basics is challenging enough. I do however think we will make more breakthrough processes when the folks who are designing new machines, spend even more time working closely with their proposed customer base to identify the kinds of 3D printing that solve the specific problems their customers face.
Although I have not seen work on this front, one could imagine an integrated but segmented manufacturing process that combines the output of several separate 3D printing machines with single function characteristics with robotic assembly that might potentially speed up the process while we wait for the all-in-one machine
Designing objects for this ideal 3D printer
If you had the ideal 3D printer, the design effort would be more involved than creating a simple CAD file picture of the object's shape and converting that into an .stl file and pressing the print button. You would also need to incorporate the materials science, color design, integrated electronics design and any other elements into the file to be printed. That would no doubt call for a closer collaboration and/or broader understanding of the overall product design by the various team experts. Interestingly, such a 3D printer might well enable products with completely different shapes than the ones that we are used to at this point because shape could be dictated by function, ergonomics and usability rather than the incorporation of a standardized PCB, battery compartment, etc. Form and function would more closely be tailored to user demands than accommodating the requirements of the manufacturing process.
I can imagine that design approach enabling actual custom surgical devices, for example, that fit the surgeon's hands perfectly. The custom manufacturing process could take into account the required electronics, materials etc, that have been generally designed for form and function but final dimensions (probably within certain parameters) would be informed by the physical realities of the end user.
The good news is that there are companies out there today who are working to solve each one of these problems. However, combining these capabilities is still in its infancy. The true long term winners in the industry will have to choose between either addressing a specific niche manufacturing market that meets a big enough piece of the demand for 3D printing or will be those manufacturers of the machines that create the greatest range of capabilities to provide most useful combination of high speed, multi-material, color and even electronics integration.
Materials
Hard plastic certainly has its utility, but most objects we want to use outside of basic prototyping are made up of a broader assortment of functional, ergonomic and tactilely pleasing materials. Today's 3D printers are only recently beginning to combine materials and even then they are largely different types of flexible and rigid plastics. Take a look around your desk and see how many single material products you have. I once went to the local Home Depot to see how many items I could replace via 3D printing. Based on the use of multi-materials alone, the number I found was far less than I expected. Where materials are concerned, the ideal 3D printer needs to be able to print objects that combine parts that include optimized rigid, flexible, strong, light, comfortable, visually pleasing and cost effective components all at the same time.
Speed
When I hold up a statue of a dog that I printed that is 9 inches tall and somebody asks me how long it took to print and I say 36 hours, they are always shocked. Even printing a set of dental arches takes a couple hours, which means while-you-wait orthodontic repairs are some distance in the future. On the industrial scale, GE has a real problem -- it is trying to build 19 3D printed fuel nozzles into its new LEAP 1A and 1B engines, but with over 8,500 engines already pre-ordered, they are hard pressed to meet the demand with today's 3d printers which can only produce so many parts at a time. The need for high volume manufacturing of components that can't be built with traditional manufacturing techniques will only increase as more design efforts look to take advantage of 3DP's unique ability to create shapes that can't be built using CNC or other approaches. The ideal 3D printer doesn't have to be instantaneous, but it does need to be faster in order to change the way and from where consumers get their goods. Carbon 3D has created a very interesting a new Continuous Liquid Interface Production (CLIP) technology using light and oxygen to “continuously grow objects from a pool of resin instead of printing them layer-by-layer.” This technology promises 25-100 times faster 3D printing and claims to be able to use a wide range of polymeric materials. That is certainly a step in the right direction.
Color
Single color 3D printed objects are boring. Consumers at this point rarely want a single colored object. That is one of the most basic limiting factors of consumer adoption of 3D printing. The Iris by Mcor is brilliant in this respect as it first prints high definition colors onto the paper that it uses to create the 3D object. I love the Iris and its subtractive approach to additive manufacturing (it cuts away the unnecessary paper). However, this technology has other limitations in terms of price and materials properties but it does overcome the color problem very nicely.
Electronics and power integration
The ideal 3d printer would be able to incorporate printed circuit board(s) into otherwise unused space within the object. Voxel8 is working on that problem. They are developing a 3D printing process that allows the user to co-print matrix materials such as thermoplastics and highly conductive silver inks to enable customized electronic devices like quadcopters, electromagnets and fully functional 3D electromechanical assemblies. They also note that "We have partnered with Autodesk to enable the design of truly freeform three-dimensional circuits for the first time. Project Wire is a new design tool that seamlessly integrates with the Voxel8 3D electronics printer. Project Wire features embedded component placement, freeform 3D wiring, and multi-material slicing. Circuit prototyping can be done quicker than ever before using Project Wire with the Voxel8 printer." While Voxel8's printers are scheduled to ship in March 2016, I expect that a number of other entrants will seek to address this critical market need as well. Embedding electronic components into the 3D printed product will open up a number of extraordinary possibilities in the automobile, aeronautic, and even consumer electronics industries.
Since the electronics will need to be powered, some form of incorporated rechargeable battery or other appropriate power supply would also need to be part of the printing process.
So I believe that the ideal 3D printer will be able to quickly produce truly multi-material, full color 3D objects while incorporating integrated electronics and power capabilities.
So what is stopping this from happening right now?
Right now the typical 3D printer is either a fancy robot-controlled hot glue gun or some other form of thin, single material layer by layer process. One or two extruder heads makes for a slow, single material printing process. Of course, you could use as many extruder heads as you want and replace them using some sort of robotic arms to use a near infinite number of different materials. That could allow you to change materials But that doesn't help you from a speed standpoint. That said, HP's upcoming multi Jet Fusion technology (as in hundreds/thousands of minute material delivery points) technology does seem like a promising approach both in terms of speed and materials.
Primarily, the reason real breakthroughs seem to be slow to arrive is because we are only just now starting to throw substantial resources at improving 3DP's functionality. But even with all of the companies working on 3D printing, many of them are simply learning how to make the same fused deposition modeling (FDM) printer that has limited general utility outside the initial shape prototyping phase of product design and manufacture. There are some innovators out there and they are developing interesting new variations, but mainly on the same theme.
Also impeding growth to some extent is the simple fact that most of the printers seem to be being designed because 3D printing itself is cool and still seems magical. 3DP companies appear to be hoping consumers will find a bunch of new uses for them rather than trying to solve a current specific manufacturing problem. If I had a nickle for every Kickstarter project founder who said, "We have developed the revolutionary new Blazingus 2000, and we can't wait to see what you make with it." At this point we should be designing new 3D printers with a specific manufacturing or design challenge in mind so that we are sure that there is demand for what is developed.
Some new entrants appear to be approaching the design of 3D printers from the perspective of what they can build rather than what problem needs to be overcome. We really don't need any more $1500 3D printers that kind of work and make extruded plastic tschotchkes. I'm not trying to be too critical here because 3D printing is a new enough technology to most people that executing on the basics is challenging enough. I do however think we will make more breakthrough processes when the folks who are designing new machines, spend even more time working closely with their proposed customer base to identify the kinds of 3D printing that solve the specific problems their customers face.
Although I have not seen work on this front, one could imagine an integrated but segmented manufacturing process that combines the output of several separate 3D printing machines with single function characteristics with robotic assembly that might potentially speed up the process while we wait for the all-in-one machine
Designing objects for this ideal 3D printer
If you had the ideal 3D printer, the design effort would be more involved than creating a simple CAD file picture of the object's shape and converting that into an .stl file and pressing the print button. You would also need to incorporate the materials science, color design, integrated electronics design and any other elements into the file to be printed. That would no doubt call for a closer collaboration and/or broader understanding of the overall product design by the various team experts. Interestingly, such a 3D printer might well enable products with completely different shapes than the ones that we are used to at this point because shape could be dictated by function, ergonomics and usability rather than the incorporation of a standardized PCB, battery compartment, etc. Form and function would more closely be tailored to user demands than accommodating the requirements of the manufacturing process.
I can imagine that design approach enabling actual custom surgical devices, for example, that fit the surgeon's hands perfectly. The custom manufacturing process could take into account the required electronics, materials etc, that have been generally designed for form and function but final dimensions (probably within certain parameters) would be informed by the physical realities of the end user.
The good news is that there are companies out there today who are working to solve each one of these problems. However, combining these capabilities is still in its infancy. The true long term winners in the industry will have to choose between either addressing a specific niche manufacturing market that meets a big enough piece of the demand for 3D printing or will be those manufacturers of the machines that create the greatest range of capabilities to provide most useful combination of high speed, multi-material, color and even electronics integration.