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.
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.
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.
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.
