Nine Astonishing Facts About 3D Printing
Worldwide shipment of 3D printers is expected to reach just less than 100,000 units this year. It is expected to double in 2015.
The 3D printing market is expected to grow at 23% annually through 2020, reaching $8.4 billion.
While commercial 3D printers cost $15,000 or more, their price should fall to less than $2,000 by 2016.
The concept of 3D printing dates to the early 1980s, when inventor Chuck Hull issued a patent for “a system for generating three-dimensional objects by creating a cross-sectional pattern of the object to be formed.”
Hull’s company, 3D Systems, now commands more than $460 million in total assets and $230 million in revenues.
The Photonic Professional GT 3D printer can create objects with widths as thin as a human hair.
The James Bond movie, Skyfall, used 3D print technology to produce models of 007’s famed Aston Martin DB5 luxury grand tourer.
In Belgium, biomedical specialists implanted a 3D-printed titanium jawbone into an 83-year-old woman.
NASA has made 3D-printed pizza to feed astronauts in outer space.