The Frontier of 3D Printing

            3D Printing is the technological ability to recreate exact replicates of 3D images into actual physical objects. In other words, people can now literally recreate into physical form whatever comes to their mines in a matter of hours. Such a capability is surely going to revolutionize several industries and with that it will have a significant impact on our lives.

Believe it or not 3D printing started and has been around since the 1980’s. However, it’s taken the industry close to 30 years to perfect and bring this technology to light because of the enormous amount of R&D that is required to create patents, plus the long amount of time it takes to officially get those patents finalized by the government. Not to mention the complexity of a 3D printer, it took companies quite a bit of time to create a prototype in order to be used to create other prototypes.

 

            This technology is not without its controversies. Some in the manufacturing industry claim that the government will not be able to enforce copy right laws on to owners of 3D printers in order to prevent them for eventually using a manufactures designs to produces their own products at home. Furthermore, recently in the news consumers with the use of 3D printers have been able to print fully functional fire arms without a license or serial number to trace the weapon which may assist criminals in getting away with crime.
           

           One of the interesting things we discovered about 3D printing was that there are companies now using the technology to print full size houses and buildings even at a cheaper cost than the norm because of the reduction in labor and materials needed. But let’s ask the bigger questions, how will this affect the cement industry? How will it affect the shipping industry and overall global trade? There are certain chain reactions that we need to be aware of so that we are better prepared to handle some of these changes in the future.