3D printing – An ‘Industrial Revolution in the Digital Age’?

Lisa Harouni, Managing Director at mass-customization startup Digital Forming, says that “This technology [3D Printing] has been around for 20 years, but it’s about to hit the public in a big way,” she later explains. “It’s going to affect every facet of life — letting you manufacture bespoke products on demand that can be customized for an individual, and giving designers the freedom to make complex parts with less waste of material and a lower carbon footprint because it’s made locally."
http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2011/05/3d-printing-an-industrial-revolution-in-the-digital-age/

• 3D printed trinkets are eliciting all the head-turning excitement of a Maserati roaring along La Croisette during the Cannes Film Festival
• Investors are starting to believe that something transformative is about to happen
• The technology has been around for 20 years, but actually several different technologies are competing, and there is probably space for all of them at this stage
• 3D printing lets you manufacture bespoke products on demand that can be customized for an individual
• 3D printing  gives designers the freedom to make complex parts with less waste of material
• Within Technologies, is already custom-designing products ranging from stiffer, lighter wings for Formula One cars, to cobalt chrome finger implants and lightweight titanium spinal fusion implants for medical use
•  You can build your own entry-level 3D MakerBot printer from a kit for just £800 ($1,300)
• Digital Forming, a 3D startup, works with partners whose industrial-scale machines cost up to £1 million ($1.6 million)  and can custom print items as complex and sensitive as watch mechanisms
• Some compare the Digital Forming software to a 3D version of Microsoft Word for 2D home printing
• A better term for 3D Printing may be Additive Manufacturing
• For Digital Forming, the focus is now on building a global network of industrial-scale manufacturing centers, and using its software to help companies open up their products to customization