There is a general perception out there that with 3D printing you can produce anything.
Unfortunately, this is pure nonsense. And even if we could produce anything, would it really make sense?
What do I mean with that? Let’s make a thought experiment: you are good with wood, maybe even a professional carpenter. One day you start looking at the world around you with new eyes, asking yourself: why is this built the way it is? I could make it out of wood! Would you propose to build houses entirely out of wood, the furniture inside, the interior decoration elements like lamps and vases, maybe even a bathtub…? What about wooden jewelry? What about wooden cars? Don’t laugh, just start an internet search right now and you’ll see I’m only half joking…
Now, wood is a fairly well understood material, used since the beginning of humankind. But what about cement or concrete, instead? Let’s say you are a very good civil engineer, and you are really good in formulating concrete recipes, good in production technologies for casting, spinning, free modeling etc. Would you propose to build houses entirely out of wood, the furniture inside, the interior decoration elements like lamps and vases, maybe even a bathtub…? What about jewelry – earrings made out of concrete? What about concrete cars, boats or even planes? Don’t laugh, just start an internet search right now and you’ll see I’m only half joking…
Yes. I know. Amazing stuff! People make amazing stuff. But not everything you can produce really makes sense or is really clever, or practical, economical etc.
Maybe 3D printing is better than wood or concrete for producing earrings, flower vases or even planes and cars but I warmly encourage you to ask yourself each time you start up your 3D printer if you might be infected by the same delusion as the above imaginary carpenter or civil engineer – or not 😊
Anyhow, happy printing!
Yannick Bastian
FormWerk Founder & CEO