February 2014

While I was on Reddit I came across a title that caught my attention. The title of the article was “3D printing will explode in 2014, thanks to the expiration of key patents,” written by Christopher Mims. Many people think that 3D printing is going to revolutionize how we build things in the future and I feel the same way. Other people take it further and call it the next industrial revolution. “In February 2014, key patents that currently prevent competition in the market for the most advanced and functional 3D printers will expire. These patents cover a technology known as “laser sintering,” the lowest-cost 3D printing technology. Because of its high resolution in all three dimensions, laser sintering can produce goods that can be sold as finished products.”  The printers that have this technology cost a lot of money, but when the patent expires different companies will be able to use this in their machines. This should drop the cost of this advanced printers. Once the cost drops more people are going to be able to afford them. With more advanced printers on the market people are going to push them to the limit and build new things. So the idea is that cost of many products should drop due the the abundance of advanced 3D printers.