Alice Taylor, Founder/CEO Makie Lab, @wonderlandblog

Avi Reichental, CEO 3D Systems

Rich Brown, Senior Editor CNET, @Richard_H_Brown

Scott Summit, Founder/CTO 3D Systems/Bespoke Products, @BespokeInc

#FTR3DPRINT

·      Makie: Customized doll factory. Have an iPad app now.

·      Prosthetic Legs: Scan existing leg to make a new leg that makes the contours of existing.

·      3D Systems: range of printers from consumer end $1,300 Cube printer to many hundreds of thousands.

·      At the consumer end, can make entry level, basic plastic stuff.

·      The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson

o   Everyone has a terminal in their house, and nanobots come flooding in and make whatever you want.

·      NASA using metal printing for a rocket to go to mars

·      Voxel printing: using multiple materials. Objects made of tiny parts.

·      Fabricated: The New World of 3D Printing

o   Plug for this book

·      What are the opportunities for small businesses?

·      What are the IP related concerns?

·      What can we do with this?

·      What are the opportunities?

o   Reichental:

§  Endless

§  What is today…

·      Every hearing aid device is 3D printed

·      Many dental implants are planned

·      Many parts on drones are printed

·      Aircraft parts are being printed

o   Every F18 has about 90 printed parts

§  The possibilities

·      Localization of production

§  The gamechanger is that every company, from a garage startup to the biggest corporation, has access to the same level of 3d printing technology.

o   Taylor:

§  Started from videogame industry

§  Wanted to make video assets into products

§  First idea was to print avatars

o   Summit

§  The things that kill startups, compared to a big company are:

·      Time to market

·      Up front costs

·      Inventory costs

§  With a 3D printing business model, these costs become irrelevant.

§  Hardware plays become more like software plays. There’s just the time investment to build models. You can be more nimble.

o   Taylor:

§  It’s product on demand.

o   Reichental:

§  In addition to democratization

§  Printer doesn’t care if it is printing complex object versus simple product.

§  Almost no waste

§  Very little energy

§  Printed locally

§  Millions can design for themselves

·      Is it about consumer, medical, military – where’s the biggest use?

o   Reichental: We can’t even convince of all the opportunities ahead of us.

o   Summit:

§  We don’t think of ourselves as a medical company. We see ourselves as a fashion company, we just happen to make body parts.

§  Everything we do is a unique instantiation. Nothing is mass produced.

§  You can’t peg it as a medical product, as a fashion product. It’s a blurring of what exists.

·      Intellectual Property

o   Yoda is a copyrighted character.

o   But he’s up there on thingiverse for free.

o   Taylor: he’s a popular calibration item.

o   Is there a danger?

§  Taylor:

·      As Tim O’Reilly says, the biggest problem is obscurity, not piracy.

·      Is Disney’s bottom line adversely affected by someone printing a Yoda?

o   No

§  Summit:

·      In traditional manufacturing, as soon as you take your designs to Asia to be manufactured, you’ve lost your IP anyway.

§  Taylor:

·      People who are going to print stuff at home, they are creative. They make an ecosystem around a product.

·      When we make clothes for our dolls, we put the patterns up on the forum. Then our customers remix/improve them.

§  Summit:

·      It increases the engagement with the user.

§  Reichental:

·      The IP system today is antiquated. It doesn’t reflect the power of the crowd, or new monetization strategies, or what is possible today, or what new, nimble startups do.

·      Consumer 3D Printing

o   MakerBot 1: completely open source.

o   Failed kickstarter project to make a cheaper copy using open source plans.

o   MakerBot 2: using some closed source.

·      SLA: liquid, SLS: powder, FDM: extrusion. About 9 different mechanisms.

·      How do we move 3D printing forward?

§  MakerBot came from the red rock project in Bristol. It started with the heart of democratization.

§  There are now 60 companies around the world making something like the original makerbot.

§  But that’s replication, not innovation.

·      They’re recreating what is, not insightfully rearranging, originating.

§  Innovative companies are not blocked by patents. They innovative around them, and come up with better products.

§  I sympathize with any projects for democratization, but I think we should design something innovative.

o   Taylor

§  Now we have 50 different FDM makers, and it’s bringing down price, and building up the ecosystems around the materials: sparkly plastics, wood filament, etc.

§  That’s for FDM, which was open source.

§  For SLA/SLS, which it is locked up by patents, we don’t see the same price and materials advantages.

§  The powder we use to print the dolls hasn’t been democratized. So we have 70 euros a kilo, whereas the ABS that goes into Makerbots is 5 euros a kilo.

·      Reichental: We’ll help you with that.

·      3D printing for social good

o   Solar powered printed that makes glass from sand.

o   Product to grind up plastic and turn it back into filament.

§  Happy meal toys and milk jugs go in the top, and useable raw material comes out the bottom.

o   On the flip side, the Defense Distributed people are making weapons.

§  They don’t want the government to regulate anything.

o   What do you guys think of this responsibility?

§  Taylor:

·      I’m a little ignorant of gun regulation, thanks to being British.

·      For at least a decade, it’s going to be easier to buy a gun than to print one. It’s not a practical threat in the next ten years. More practical threats is gun trading.

·      It’s a decoy in a way to get media riled up.

o   Modern Meadow: Wants to print leather and edible meat.

§  Environmental benefits.

o   Summit

§  This is a tool for a creative person to have their imagination come to life.

§  This is a basic good.

§  A parent can give their kid a 3D printer instead of a game system.

§  Kids will take this and learn this. They’ll going beyond the $300 printer into SLS and cloud printer, and they’ll be an amazing innovator by the time they are in college.

§  It could be a real rebirth of innovation.

§  Let’s give kids the opportunity to be creative

§  For hundreds of years, publishing was under the control of a few.

§  Then the internet changed all that, and now anyone can communicate.

·      Q: Materials?

o   Taylor

§  Used off the shelf.

§  Not a lot available now.

§  It could take another 15 years before everything the science fiction writers say comes true

§  We have more than 100 materials in our portfolio

·      Wax: for customization of jewelry

·      Biologically compatible materials

·      6 different metal alloys

·      nylons and plastics

·      Q: 3D printing electronics?

o   Taylor:

§  Already happening in british universities, must be elsewhere.

§  Possible to print circuitry into the material, but still under development.

§  Built an airplane without any flaps, with circuitry inside to change shape of wings.

§  4D printing will be 3D printing with functionality.

§  5D printing will be dynamic rearrangement of materials.