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Comment by TrevorJ | Hacker News Reader

Once trickle down makes these more cost-effective and once they can create things in metals as well as plastics, we are really going to start seeing some amazing changes in the way we operate as a society.

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IKEA will have to adapt or be demolished. They could actually leverage this kind of tech.

I can picture all sorts of flat-pack furniture made by specialized machines to automatically rout and drill holes, with specialized parts made by 3D printers.

The whole back catalog would always be available. Designs are already modularized and extendable. I could also picture DIY one of a kind "custom closet" kits designed on a computer, with the parts bagged for you, and custom directions printed just for you.

3D printing vs injection moulding are 10000:1 cost wise right now, in the future this will come down but I doubt there will ever be parity.

The reason companies like IKEA standardize connectors, handles and all kinds of other bits and pieces is to maximize the use of these hard to design parts. Mold making is an art and molds are expensive, even for relatively simple parts. But once you have a mold the parts become absolutely dirt cheap.

Specialized woodworking machines exist, such as CNC rigs to create roof trusses straight from a customized CAD package.

One other nasty little gotcha about 'printed' 3d objects is that they are really 2 1/2 D printed objects, in other words the design is deposited layer by layer, this usually means that in at least one direct (the deposition direction) the material is not very strong.

Slightly off the topic of the original article, but imagine an Ikea store with a "print behind the counter" making semi-custom furniture by CNC milling/routing the MDF/OSB components and using existing tech to make the camlocks, screws, pins, etc.

That doesn't require any new tech at all, just for the capital equipment to become cheap enough (or the utilization high enough) to justify doing the manufacture at the store instead of at a centralized plant.

It wouldn't need that much $ at all, a fair sized CNC rig that could do this would run you about $20,000 including software and tooling. I built my own once (for plasmacutting sheetmetal) for about 2/3 of that, and that's already quite a while ago, I'd expect it to be cheaper today.

This is actually a really good idea you've got there, you should do something with that!

Just select your furniture from a computer and the automated ikea design system will automagically build your furniture infront of you. You could even make slight modifications on the spot.

Metal can already be printed: http://radar.oreilly.com/2006/05/metal-3d-printing.html

But you're not thinking fun enough. Try stem cells: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80DhBLEhdzk

Thanks for that link, that's a lot closer to the real thing than the machine the article talks about. Fully dense metal and a reasonable range of materials (including tool steel, which is a must).

I wonder what the cost per part would be compared to 'traditional' methods (abrasive / subtractive), if they manage to get that down far enough it will be quit the miracle. Metal powder + energy in -> parts out.

If you make the machines mobile you could have them extrude your steel beam construction in one go :)

The self growing sky scraper.

Yeah. And that article is fairly old... I'm pretty new to the RP game myself, but I know that all of these technologies are advancing pretty rapidly.

I could see these having an impact in places like Africa and South Asia, as mobile phones are doing. It's depressing to hear about wells being dug but then going out of service because there's a part missing.

sure, it would be a lot cheaper to just ship bulk parts around than set up 3d printers in poor towns, but the rub is that you don't know what metal/plastic things people will need in advance.

I think that's focusing in the wrong direction. The costs involved set a high-enough barrier for the first world, let alone impoverished countries.

The focus should be on simplifying the technology these communities need and making it more robust, as well as showing people in the community how to repair and maintain it.

Not to mention that this technology would represent another point of failure -- sure, you could print out parts for the well, but what happens when the roof over the printer fails and everything gets soaked by a monsoon.

Thing is, the 'printers' are expensive but getting much cheaper, and the materials are very cheap. It's not a panacea by any means, but a versatile low-volume manufacturing facility might have greater value than a specialized high volume one in places with mediocre industrial and commercial infrastructure.

I see your point 100%, but these are basically the same arguments people made about cellphones and they turned out to be better option than trying to deploy the simple and robust technology of landlines. I suggest ad-hoc communication and manufacturing technology may be the best thing in an ad-hoc economy.

>A versatile low-volume manufacturing facility might have greater value than a specialized high volume one in places with mediocre industrial and commercial infrastructure.

I would imagine you are correct. However, conventional manufacturing practices are not solely high volume operations, and can be implemented with fewer resources.

>[T]hese are basically the same arguments people made about cellphones and they turned out to be better option than trying to deploy the simple and robust technology of landlines.

Cellphones don't cost $15k per village, nor do they require training to use special computer programs, or a constant supply of raw materials.

If they did, you can bet that they wouldn't turn out to be a better option ;)

>I suggest ad-hoc communication and manufacturing technology may be the best thing in an ad-hoc economy.

I agree, provided the technology becomes sufficiently inexpensive and robust.

But for today, use that cash to leave the community with an extra pallet of parts, instruction on how to maintain the well, and the rest to educate the people.

Ultimately, I share your optimistic view. The technology will be there someday. We just can't force it in the meantime.

> Cellphones don't cost $15k per village, nor do they require training to use special computer programs, or a constant supply of raw materials.

Really? How much does a cell tower, a reliable power supply for same, etc cost? For widely spaced villages, I'd certainly think this cost would be well over $15K per village. Hell, I can't put a 50K sq ft office building size, cell phone repeater system in for $15K.

(I'd expect widely spaced villages would be the common case in areas where cell deployment is cheaper than copper lines.)

The cost and simplicity argument is a valid one. On the other hand the reality is already a different one: People in Africa use mobile phones much more than we in the West. Even banking is managed via cell phones. So 3d printers might allow the to leap frog the industrial society stage. It's the same with alternative energy: They don't need nuclear power plants down there, solar and wind is often enough.

I'm very optimistic.

Yeah, no more Made in China. Made in the garage or living room instead. This will be a huge improvement over now.

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