3D printing may bring US manufacturing back home

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Thanks to new technology, low-cost overseas manufacturing zones may someday be replaced by localized, on-demand production right here on these shores. Manufacturing will become incredibly cheap, with everything from human replacement organs to houses to glassware to chocolate produced via "desktop manufacturing," enabled through 3D printing. Just as significantly, 3D printing will enable co-creation with customers for highly customized products.

3D printers come in all shapes and sizes, and now support a variety of raw materials. This enables goods to be imagined and designed on a personal computer, then just as you hit "file" and "print" to print documents, you will be able to almost as easily mass produce physical objects right from a printer. This even includes items with moving parts, says Autodesk's CTO, Jeff Kowalsky in a recent Forbes interview.

Kowalsky, whose company has been doing work in this area, suggests that that 3D printing will drop in price the same way document printing has over the past couple of decades, creating a new revolution in manufacturing — a revolution that will return mass production back to North America:

"Manufacturing is probably going to be more localized than it has been. We won't be shipping as many raw materials around the world, producing things in lower-cost labor areas then sending it back. If manufacturing the actual production of something is effectively free, and more importantly, complexity is free, that can be performed locally."

Kowalsky predicts the shift toward desktop manufacturing on these shores will occur in a big way within the next five years. "It's entirely possible that the US could see self-sufficiency and a self-sustaining future," he predicts.

http://www.smartplan...back-home/17093

Edited July 11, 2011 by 8TBVBN

[Obama 2012 1,714]

They failed to mention the jobs that this would kill as well.

Isn't technology grand?

[Zero Sum 305]

New industry = + jobs? Sure.

Old industry = - jobs? Maybe (remember the defense of the market now...)

Can the lost jobs transfer to the new industry? Of course. Isn't that awesome?

[Obama 2012 1,714]

New industry = + jobs? Sure.

Old industry = - jobs? Maybe (remember the defense of the market now...)

Can the lost jobs transfer to the new industry? Of course. Isn't that awesome?

not really.

You can get "new jobs"

however in things like this, replacing 5 workers with one isn't exactly creating new jobs. That's an 80% loss....

[Zero Sum 305]

not really.

You can get "new jobs"

however in things like this, replacing 5 workers with one isn't exactly creating new jobs. That's an 80% loss....

Well aren't you a Debbie Downer. You seem to be an expert at the specifics of this industry as well. Not really a surprise...

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

You can get "new jobs"

however in things like this, replacing 5 workers with one isn't exactly creating new jobs. That's an 80% loss....

Sure but if you leave the future jobs to other nations, then the loss will be 100%.

Edited July 11, 2011 by Mr. Big Dog

[Zero Sum 305]

Is it a new technology thing replacing obsolete workers?

You seem to fine with that as new most of the time translates to better marketability of products consumers want.

I wonder what workers could be able to quickly transition into new technologies with fundamental knowledge of how printing tech. Hmmm. I wonder who. I may not be an expert at this like others, but probably the old workers can retrain rather fast; and lets not even consider that printing industries currently using older formats would likely themselves take up the new format, negating most of the job losses through retraining and reassignment of positions whenever possible.

Anything contrary to that would lie in your argument that 'such is the way' of advancement in a changing market.

[Obama 2012 1,714]

Well aren't you a Debbie Downer. You seem to be an expert at the specifics of this industry as well. Not really a surprise...

if you'd use your brain for once, then perhaps you could be two and two together....

Think of all the things that can be done with 3D printing and the assembly jobs you can eliminate by those capabilities.

[Zero Sum 305]

if you'd use your brain for once, then perhaps you could be two and two together....

Think of all the things that can be done with 3D printing and the assembly jobs you can eliminate by those capabilities.

Lets not make this about me- lets focus on your expertise of the industry.

Now assembly jobs. Hmmm. I wonder where assembly jobs can be reassigned to. Maybe into the design/manufacture sectors of this new technology.

Then again, are you now not defending something the market will probably want? Think about this.

But nice retarded insult. It took you a while to come up with that I bet.

[SMOKE 1,426]

But nice retarded insult. It took you a while to come up with that I bet.

a couple more of those & you're gonna get a friend request from me.

[Zero Sum 305]

a couple more of those & you're gonna get a friend request from me.