Last week, at the Inside 3D Printing Conference, we attended the keynote Digital Manufacturing and The Next Industrial Revolution presented by Pete Weijmarshausen, CEO of Shapeways, whose credo is “Redefining product creation”
The issues he addressed related to the change in traditional manufacturing through digital manufacturing: who will it affect? how? where? and when?
He started by giving a few element that, according to him, will be key factors in the changes of the world:
– Firstly, the trend is to Mega cities : big cities around the world are set to reach even more impressive sizes
– The Globalization phenomenon should change the allocation of power in the world : the predictions are that by 2025, 45% of the fortune 500 companies will have their headquarter in today’s emerging markets
– The Digital disruption is all the changes the new technologies are going bring to the way companies and individuals act.
Pete continued by giving us his view about today’s situation : for him, the home 3D printers has been limited as well as machines are still a draft of what we will be able to do in just a few year. For now, the shift in manufacturing is still limited because clients want higher quality and lower prices, but despite the current state of technology people have been creating great products like jewelry, toys, gadgets, etc. So this is really promising for the fire, when faster, cheaper and full color 3D printers will bet available.
What are the technologies that will change our lives : the scanning apps are definitively a big thing, and combined with 3D printing, it is set to make the fabrication of tailored everything (clothing, glasses, medical devices…) accessible and easy, especially because most smartphone have scanning capabilities.
His inclusion was that new generation machines will be faster, cheaper, using new materials and we will conduct to more local fabrication.
