docs/03_module-2-why-is-it-revolutionary/03_the-3d-printing-revolution-facts-concepts/01_whats-special-about-3d-printing.en.txt

[MUSIC] Hi, in this video, my goal is to examine the revolutionary
potential of 3D printing. In particular, we'll take a look at
what's special about this technology, and how 3D printing will
change the way we live. In addition, we'll take a look at some earlier
examples of this revolution in progress. And where 3D printing is
headed in the future. One of my favorite quotes about 3D
printing came from Neil Gershenfeld. Neil's a professor at MIT, founder for
the Center of Bits and Atoms. And he said about almost
10 years ago that, 20 years from now we will have Star Trek
replicators that can make anything. This quote nicely illustrates the
revolutionary potential of 3D printing. Although professional Gershenfeld's
prediction may seem a bit hard to believe, he's not alone. Over the past three years, Jeff Bezos,
Jeffery Immelt, and President Barack Obama have identified 3D printing as
a revolutionary new technology. And in fact, according to several leading
media sources including Wired Magazine, The Economist, and the New York Times,
3D printing will lead to a new industrial revolution and
dramatically change our economy. Our additional resources page contains
links to a number of books and articles about the 3D printing revolution. In particular, I recommend this book. Makers, by Chris Anderson. Chris was the former editor and chief of
Wired magazine, which writes a lot about 3D printing and the maker movement and
this is one of the first, one of the best books,
about the maker movement more broadly, but also how 3D printing
will change our economy. I recommend it highly. Now let's take a look at what's
special about 3D printing. 3D printing has a number of advantages compared to traditional
manufacturing techniques. I'd like to focus on four of them. The first advantage is Sustainability. 3D printing is a very sustainable
manufacturing approach in contrast to traditional subtractive manufacturing
techniques such as laser cutting or lathing, 3D printing produces
very little material waste. On average a 3D printed product
such as this uses about 90% less material than an object made
using subtractive manufacturing and thus the material costs of
3D printing are quite low. Second advantage is Self Assembly. Traditional manufacturing techniques have
a tough time making complex products. Usually, complex products
are composed of multiple parts, have to be made separately, and
then assembled together, often by hand. In contrast, 3D printing allows
us to create complex objects that come out of
the printer self-assembled. Let me show you a couple of examples. I'm holding here some
3D printed chain mail, and this chain mail came out of
a desktop printer already assembled. So all these different
parts of the chain mail were put together while
being made by the printer. There's another way to make something
like this using traditional manufacturing techniques. A second example is this
assembled gears and this gear piece has a number of gears that
turn, as you can see and this, again, came out of the printer self
assembled just like this. A third example is General Electric,
GE, which makes airplane jets. Here's an example of a fuel
injection device for a large jet engine that used to be
made with 26 separate components. [UNKOWN] prints this as one single piece
using advanced 3D printing technology. There's no other manufacturing process
capable of making these kinds of objects without some form of
post production assembly. A third advantage of 3D
printing is Digitization. 3D printers create products
from digital files. So this technology blurs the divide
between the digital and the physical. A digital object is no
different than a digital song. It can be shipped electronically,
downloaded, and printed locally. So eliminates the cost,
financial, temporal and environmental of shipping
of physical product. A fourth advantage is Scope over Scale,
traditional manufacture techniques such as injection molding had the advantage
of economies and scale. In essence as the number of units produced
increases, their average cost decreases. Now the notion of economy as a scale is
one of the foundations of modern economic thought and a key reason why most of the things that
we own are mass produced by big companies. 3D printing throws this concept out
the window because 3D printers start with a blank slate, there are no set up costs. As a result it's just as easy
to make 100 different objects as it is to make 100 identical objects. So there are no more economies
of scale in 3D printing. Instead, 3D printing provides economies
of scope, by providing a way to make many different objects at a cost that's
much lower than traditional manufacturing. Economies of scope actually
favor smaller firms and individual manufacturers,
because these smaller firms and individuals have lower overall fixed
cost compared to a large company. So 3D printing allows a small startup to
easily compete with a large corporation. Due to these four features,
3D printing is a democratizing technology. It allows nearly anyone
to become a manufacturer by lowering the cost of entry. No need to start a company or
own a factory. All you need is an idea,
some knowledge of 3D design software and access to a 3D printer. Our specialization is designed to help
you with all three of those things. [MUSIC]