Industry Briefing
 September 2011

DIY Maker Movement

An interesting development in the additive manufacturing (AM) industry is the support it provides to the maker movement, a collection of activities in the large and growing do-it-yourself (DIY) community. In the digital age of 3D modeling and 3D printing, DIY has taken on a new meaning. Never before have “makers” and DIYers received so much attention. A catalyst for the maker movement has been the open-source systems and kits that range in price from about $750 to $4,000. These machines do not produce parts at industry standard levels of quality, but they provide access to an entirely new set of customers.

The open-source RepRap project developed quickly, and became surprisingly popular. It was the genesis of Bits From Bytes (UK) in 2008 and MakerBot in 2009. These 3D printers are variations of RepRap. The UP! machine from Delta Micro Factory Corp. (Beijing, China) was likely inspired by the RepRap work as well. Fab@Home is another open-source development, but it employs a syringe instead of a filament on a spool. Together, more than 10,000 assembled machines and kits are estimated to have been placed by these five developments. This is unprecedented, and to some, nothing short of astounding.

Other efforts have contributed to the growth of the DIY maker movement. Shapeways, a company launched by the Dutch electronics giant Philips and now headquartered in New York, offers an online marketplace for products made by additive manufacturing. The i.materialise division of Materialise (Leuven, Belgium) is attempting to bring AM and 3D printing within everyone’s reach by supplying the tools and manufacturing for people with ideas. A third example is Ponoko (Wellington, New Zealand), a company that offers a “personal factory” for anyone wanting to create an object or product from an idea.

Note: The previous information was taken from Wohlers Report 2011, a 270-page global study focusing on the advances in additive manufacturing and 3D printing worldwide. A detailed overview of the report, as well as additional information on the market and industry, are available at http://wohlersassociates.com.


Wohlers Talk: Carl Bass and IDEAS

I was presented with the opportunity to spend some one-on-one time with Carl Bass, CEO of Autodesk. I had never met him, so I jumped at the chance. I found that he is not the typical chief executive of a $2 billion company. He was down to earth, very focused on our conversation, and did not seem rushed, even though an event with special international guests was about to begin.

Unlike most executives, Carl gets his hands dirty, literally. He likes to create and build stuff, such as baseball bats for a Little League team that he has coached. He also uses design software and produces parts with 3D printing. His company owns and operates several 3D printers and he and his employees are excited about how the technology could develop in the future.

I was very lucky to receive an invitation to attend a special Carl Bass event at the beautiful Autodesk Gallery facility in downtown San Francisco. Initially, I had mixed feelings about it, only because it partially conflicted with the successful RAPID 2011 Conference & Exposition held in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It turned out that I made the right decision to accept the invitation. Before going to Autodesk, I attended the Maker Faire in San Mateo, along with about 95,000 others. This, in itself, was an intriguing and worthwhile experience. I also caught an interesting presentation by Carl Bass at the Maker Faire.

The Autodesk program was a part of its relatively new IDEAS: The Innovation + Design Series—a “think tank” format made up of hand-picked individuals from around the world. The event was titled Reimaging Manufacturing: The Technologies Driving the New Industrial Revolution. It focused largely on the making of objects and products with 3D printing and how this technology might change the face of manufacturing in the future. Among the relatively small group in attendance were Chris Anderson of Wired magazine, Neil Gershenfield of MIT, Mitch Free of MFG.com, and Ping Fu of Geomagic.

The discussions were stimulating and the thinking associated with 3D printing and additive manufacturing was much more advanced than I had anticipated. Many of these people are not “contaminated” by the additive manufacturing problems and limitations of the past. Those in attendance, including several Autodesk executives and Carl Bass himself, have strong and interesting views of where these tools might go in the future and how they could shape entirely new markets, opportunities, and business models. I felt very lucky to have been a part of it, but sincerely wish I could have stayed for the entire event.

Note: Wohlers Talk is a blog that offers views, perspective, and commentary on rapid product development and a wide range of other topics. Nearly 230 commentaries have been published. To view them, visit http://wohlersassociates.com/blog.

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