• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Money Management
    • Debt Reduction
    • Credit
    • Mortgages
    • Mutual Funds
    • Tax Strategies
    • Loans
  • Budgets
    • Saving Money
    • Income
  • Banking
    • Checking Accounts
    • Check Writing
    • Fraud
    • History
  • Entrepreneurs
    • Entrepreneur Interviews
    • Money Making Ideas
    • 3D Printing
  • Resources
  • Retirement
  • About
    • Privacy Policy

Personal Finance Blog

Tips And Stories To Help You With Managing Money

  • Privacy Policy
  • Saving Money In 2018
You are here: Home / Business / 3D Printing / 3D Printing, A Technology For Regular Folks?

3D Printing, A Technology For Regular Folks?

June 25, 2014 By Twila VanLeer

3D Printing Cube - Displayed on magazine website - Dezeen.com
3D Printing Cube – Displayed on magazine website – Dezeen.com

Predictions that 3D printing is rapidly becoming a reality raise a lot of questions. Does that mean that a printer (or two or more) will join the standard computer in the majority of American homes? Or will the technology create industrial and commercial tools that will affect individuals only as they become users of their products?

It would be easy to envision a whole line-up of 3D printers in the home — one to print out custom makeup for the ladies in the family; one to create toys for the kids, another to whip out golf balls for dad, not to mention the family food printer that would produce elegant pastries as well as standard pasta dishes.

There is plenty of debate already ongoing among the experts in the field regarding the potential for individual applications of the technology vs. broader uses. Before you get carried away with visions of your home’s 3D printing devices, you might like an opinion from one of those who is deep into the development of the prototypes that precede the real thing.

Terry Wohlers, who heads a company involved in analysis and consulting on matters related to the evolution of 3D printing, is a skeptic about the potential of widespread use of 3D printers in the home, but he is certain that in the near future, the technology will be used to benefit all Americans through commercial, medical and industry applications.

He relates the future of 3D to the present saturation of computers. “Just like with computers, you have some computers at home for specific things and computers at work for other things,” he explained. Food is the only thing “manufactured” in the majority of American homes and 3D likely will find its useful place to facilitate that activity, he believes.

Fabricated: The New World of 3D Printing by Hod Lipson
Fabricated: The New World of 3D Printing by Hod Lipson

Hod Lipson, who is exploring many kinds of eventual 3D printing uses as a scientist with Cornell University’s Creative Machines Lab, has a little broader conception of how the technology might affect individuals. He sees people using 3D printers to enhance nutrition and direct health regimens, among other things. A robot conceivably could guide your eating habits.

“You will have a hard time explaining to your grandchildren how you could live without a 3D printer,” he says. “In two decades we’ll wonder how we were able to live without 3D Printing.” Already the term “3D printing” is working its way into the American vocabulary and soon, the phrase will drop off the tongue as readily as the word “computer,” the visionary leaders of the movement predict.

Related Posts

  • 3D Printing: What’s In The Future?

    Ideas abound about possible applications of 3D printing: body replacement parts, building components, do-it-yourself cosmetics,…

  • 3D Food Printers? Move Over Microwaves

    Make room in your kitchen for a gizmo that prints food. Mind-boggling but true. The…

  • 3-D Printing Coming Into Its Own

    As manufacturers catch on to the technology as faster and less expensive, 3-D printing is…

Filed Under: 3D Printing Tagged With: 3D Printers, money management

About Twila VanLeer

Journalist/writer for more than 50 years. Pulitzer Prize nominee, 1983 for coverage of the first permanent artificial heart. More than 50 national, regional, local awards for news writing. Main writer for a memorial book for Deseret News' 150 th anniversary and for a book recounting the 1997 re-enactment of the pioneer trek from Omaha to Salt Lake City. Co-writer and editor of "True Valor," a book on the history of the artificial heart. Author of the book, Life Is Just A Bowl Of Kumquats, a wonderful story of a house wife and her trials with raising a large family.

Primary Sidebar

Personal Finance Articles

  • Make Saving A Priority
  • Review Your Home-Insurance Risks
  • Lowest Air Fare? Try August 28
  • Hackers Targeting Bitcoins
  • Keep Your Emergency Fund Intact

Save At Walmart

Search

Personal Finance Education

Investing Education from Morningstar.

As Seen On Intuit

Intuit.com has ranked Coolchecks.net #4 out of 10 of the best blogs to help you save money. We hope to help you become more aware of your own financial situation and strive to improve it.

Featured On Mint.com – July 2014

Mint Interview

Best of Personal Finance Blogs

Best of BuyerZone Business Finance Blog Recipient

Personal Finance Sites We Recommend

Get personal finance advice from the people behind the top money blogs, including Wise Bread, The Simple Dollar, Mint and Nerd Wallet.

Copyright © 2023 ·Metro Pro · Genesis Framework by StudioPress · WordPress · Log in