I have a pretty unique perch at T Rowe Price, as the person who has one foot in the public markets and one in the private equity markets. I scan the venture capital world to make sure we are on top of these private companies that the venture capitalists are creating, and get to know them years before their initial public offering.
It is a very useful knowledge pipeline for us to watch developments through the eyes of the venture capitalist, and I have seen a lot of the most exciting things coming out of private equity.
From my vantage point, 3D printing is right up there as one of the most exciting innovations I have seen. It is going to change the way goods are manufactured across many industries.
The back story
In order to wrap your head around this, file away what your mind tells you about printing or pictures. A normal printer squirts ink on to paper, but a 3D printer layers atoms on top of each other to create – print – actual objects.
What we now call 3D printing was called rapid proto-typing for many years. An engineer would design an object as a computer-aided design (CAD) file, and then send that file to a machine to produce the real thing.
But for years, the plastics and the metals used were not robust enough to create a prototype you could be proud of. They resembled paraffin waxes. They could create the parts, but those parts tended to be flims. Because the end product did not have structural integrity, the technology was really just for engineers creating a product in CAD to see what it looked like in real life.
The revolution took place when companies like 3D Systems started designing radically new materials. They came up with nanocomposites, blends of plastics, and blends of powdered metals.
They were then able to create a part that, if you held it in your hand, you would think was steel. You can throw it down on the ground against cement, and it looks and acts just like steel. It is impressive how the industry has graduated from flims, waxy plastics to very robust materials that can literally be used as a machine part, rather than just a prototype of a part.
The industry graduated from rapid proto-typing – some-thing that is only a reserch and development function – to manufacturing strategy. We can make parts for cars, for planes, and even the human body, in the case of dental or medical applications.
The invention of these new materials has allowed this industry to go from being bottled up in the lab to what many people call DDM – direct digital manufacturing – and others call “additive manufacturing”. Jaguar is using the technology for rapid product development. So is the Bell Helicopter division of Textron.
Medical applications
It is pretty intuitive to apply this technology to the automotive and aerospace industries, and jewellery has always been a big market. But one of the most exciting areas is dental fabrication.
You might already have a crown that was built by a 3D printer. Five years ago, that crown would have been made by hand. This technology is taking over that task. Now you go to the dentist and you don’t bite into the clay any more to make a mould of your mouth. Your dentist just maps your mouth with a 3D sensory wand and makes a digital file.
The dentist teleports that CAD fileand has the implant at his office the next day.
One company I am excited about is using 3D printing to make prostheses. It is a venture-backed company in San Francisco called Bespoke Innovations. There are a large number of amputees in the US and around the world – I believe something like two million people have some sort of prosthetic limb or device.
The prosthetics industry had always been one size fitsall, but now they are taking army veterans and other people who need prostheses, measuring body movements and angles, and building custom limbs. Not every leg extension is the same. Some have different weight- bearing characteristics, different angles, a different way the feet move.
Bespoke Innovations takes all this ergonomic information, imports it and creates a CAD filefrom which a limb can be literally printed out for the customer. That, to me, is what is so exciting about the field.It is the epitome of mass customisation – a product that is relatively similar for most people, but customised to fityou and your specific needs
The promise of instant CAD files
The other thing accelerating the industry is the development of laser scanners. A company called Faro Technologies produces a handheld laser you point at an object, resulting in a 3D-model file of what you are pointing at.
So you can picture yourself walking down the street, point, click, get a CAD file,click again, and it is printed out an hour later. You saw a flower, you pointed and clicked, and now you have printed a replica of that flower, and it is on your desk.
A concern with these wands is how they fit into our notion of intellectual property, and how patent law is enforced in a world where people are empowered to replicate real-world objects on their own.
It is a conversation we have had around digital copyrights for years, but we should expect to see it cross into the analog world as well.That will be a concern, especially as the capabilities of this technology continue to develop.
But even now, you can go on YouTube and search for keywords like “3D printing and dental” or other related keywords, and you will find so many clips in which you can actually see the process.
3D printing at home
Six years ago the cheapest machine out there was $30,000, but most were $100,000. Today you can get a capable 3D printer for around $1,299, which launched at the Consumer Electronics Show this year.
At that price, the marketplace opens up to individuals like us. It could be as soon as three years from now that people will have a 3D printer at home to make toys, napkin holders, curtain rings, and whatever is needed.
That is why 3D printing is so interesting. It is not just tied up in the engineering world anymore. It is impacting a large number of industries, and becoming more relevant to consumers.
I am seeing that even high schools now have 3D printers. I just ran into a high-school teacher the other day who teaches software classes, and he told me: “Oh, I just bought my first 3D printer.”
It is exciting to see this technology begin to reach its full potential. A few years ago it was a little ahead of its time, but not anymore. It is here today.