Your 3d printer predictions wanted

[SpyderEdgeForever]

As all of you know we have now had 3d printers capable of producing objects from polymers, metals, glass, ceramics, and various materials for some time now, and some of you on the forum even have them and have used them. I'm just curious: Based on what you know and see, what are your predictions as to the following?

1 When 3d printing technology will merge closer to the as-yet science fictional concepts of universal or general purpose Nano Replicator/Assemblers able to make finished objects through the controlled direct bonding of atoms and molecules, from the molecular to the visible/macroscopic level.


2 When earlier 3d printers may be able to produce finished knives and cutting tools from steel and other materials, without any need for post-processing steps like heat treatment, to where you can literally print a fully-functional lock blade or fixed blade knife.

3 When or if 3d printing will ever be able to make edible safe food that can nourish the body and be digested.

4 A more far out: The Star Trek like version that goes deeper than mere atoms and actually takes plasma or subatomic particles like electrons and protons and neutrons and makes objects that way. Matter converters.

[Mk-211]

https://wyss.harvard.edu/technology/3d-bioprinting/

[Naperville]

I think 3D printers will vastly improve in speed and ability. The prices will come down. In 25 years people may have a few 3D printers in their home and shop.

- 1 to make parts and tools for the garage....tool and parts suppliers will go under
- 1 to prepare/mix food and make mixed drinks/lattes for the kitchen....Starbucks will go under
- 1 to make toys and widgets for the family

[zhyla]

I think 3D printers will vastly improve in speed and ability.

There's a tendency to want to apply Moore's law to other types of technology. It's a mistake.

There are a lot of printing processes. FDM printing of plastics is what most people think of when they think of 3d printing. It's excruciatingly slow. It won't get faster because it's limited by the cooling properties of thermoplastics. In general print time scales with the volume of the part -- people spend days printing things. The only way to make it faster is to make cruder parts. Or I think some higher end machines have variable extrusion width. But there's no "vast" improvement in speed on tap here.

Some other processes don't scale with volume. SLA, for instance, scales with Z height, so it can be quite fast, especially for making lots of parts.

The prices will come down.

FDM and SLA printers are practically free.

Processes involving laser sintering will always be bound by the cost of lasers. Don't expect that to magically decrease.

In 25 years people may have a few 3D printers in their home and shop.

As far as I'm aware the processes that make parts out of things besides thermoplastics or UV resins are all prohibitively dangerous for use at home. Even UV resins really aren't safe enough for dumb people to use. The metal sintering machines use very fine metal powder that have health risks.

Printers are useful and lots of people and will have them in their shops to solve problems. But the reality is there are nearly zero products that consumers buy that are made from one or two materials and have a few parts. Most people don't want to craft a lot of pieces and then assemble them. Most products also have a nontrivial amount of electronics in them which is a whole other layer of complexity.

It's possible to do nearly anything at home for the motivated, intelligent people in our society. But most people will buy their goods on Amazon.

[zhyla]

1 ... the controlled direct bonding of atoms and molecules, from the molecular to the visible/macroscopic level.

No offense, but this question doesn't make sense because any real answer will be unintelligible by people who aren't specialized physicists. I've not read any fringe science articles about "direct bonding of atoms" (at least not in a non-traditional sense -- this is obviously what chemistry is all about).

2 When earlier 3d printers may be able to produce finished knives and cutting tools from steel and other materials, without any need for post-processing steps like heat treatment, to where you can literally print a fully-functional lock blade or fixed blade knife.

There's some laser heat treatment concept out there that could help with heat treatment in-situ. But the answer is: never. There will never be an appliance that can produce complex physical goods with conventional technology. Go visit a production factory some day and you'll understand -- even fully automated assembly lines are quite large.

3 When or if 3d printing will ever be able to make edible safe food that can nourish the body and be digested.

People 3d print food today. Do you mean synthesize from macronutrients? Synthesizing food probably won't come from what we think of as 3d printing.

4 A more far out: The Star Trek like version that goes deeper than mere atoms and actually takes plasma or subatomic particles like electrons and protons and neutrons and makes objects that way. Matter converters.

E=MC^2

Do the math.

[SpyderEdgeForever]

zhyla said:

"No offense, but this question doesn't make sense because any real answer will be unintelligible by people who aren't specialized physicists. I've not read any fringe science articles about "direct bonding of atoms" (at least not in a non-traditional sense -- this is obviously what chemistry is all about)."

Answer: Picture synthetic ribosomes made of tough materials like carbon nanotubes and poreless diamond fibers bonded together with molecular machine parts.