Chapter 1
Seeing How 3D Printers Fit into Modern Manufacturing
IN THIS CHAPTER
Getting to know additive manufacturing
Discovering applications for 3D printing
Introducing RepRap
An amazing transformation is currently under way in manufacturing, across nearly all types of products — a transformation that promises that the future can be a sustainable and personally customized environment. In this fast-approaching future, everything we need — from products to food, and even our bodies themselves — can be replaced or reconstructed rapidly and with very minimal waste. This transformation in manufacturing is not the slow change of progress from one generation of iPhone to the next. Instead, it’s a true revolution, mirroring the changes that introduced Industrial Age and then brought light and electricity to our homes and businesses.
New forms of manufacturing will give rise to new industries and allow for more recovery of materials. Like any truly fundamental change that spans all aspects of the global economy, by its nature, the change will be disruptive. But traditional, inefficient ways of producing new models of products will surely give way to new opportunities that were impossible ...
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