There’s a fair amount of waste involved in 3D printing (support structures for example), as well as expertise needed to figure out tolerances and quirks of an individual printer. There’s also an argument that we need improvements in 3D printing that would allow us to use metal (sintering) instead of plastic (extruding or UV exposure) both for sustainability and structural reasons.
I’d agree that 3D printing has a much higher potential than it currently is used for, but let’s not pretend it’s a cure-all for consumerism.
This waste is also present in traditional injection molding in the form of sprues, runners, and gates (probably less, though it depends on the site specifics).
There’s a fair amount of waste involved in 3D printing (support structures for example), as well as expertise needed to figure out tolerances and quirks of an individual printer. There’s also an argument that we need improvements in 3D printing that would allow us to use metal (sintering) instead of plastic (extruding or UV exposure) both for sustainability and structural reasons.
I’d agree that 3D printing has a much higher potential than it currently is used for, but let’s not pretend it’s a cure-all for consumerism.
This waste is also present in traditional injection molding in the form of sprues, runners, and gates (probably less, though it depends on the site specifics).
Yeah, anyone who thinks that 3d printers are the answer to everything hasn’t spent weeks trying to calibrate the damn things.