3-D Printing

It’s been called a “game changer,” a “world changer” and a “life changer.” It’s predicted to disrupt everything from medicine to manufacturing to military strategy. It’s being used to create guns and gold jewelry, houses and human hearts. Three-D printing has evolved in the past few years from an obscure industrial process to an exemplar of digital-age innovation — with all the thrilling potential, lurid hype and amorphous menace that goes with it.

In September 2016, GE made a $1.4 billion bet on the technology, making offers on two European 3-D printer companies. GE, which had already begun using 3-D for equipment parts and prototypes, is one of a range of manufacturers focusing on the technology’s potential to shorten supply chains, accelerate production and create lighter and more complex parts, with replacements printable on demand. The aviation industry has been one of the early adopters, and GE said it expects to print 40,000 fuel nozzles for jet engines by 2020. A new generation of faster printers may open the way for wider use of 3-D in mass production. The U.S. government is investing in 3-D printing for use in energy research, defense and space exploration. Although home versions — desktop varieties now cost as little as $300 — still tend to be slow and hard to use, their appeal to hobbyists and tinkerers has surged, leading to a small flowering of entrepreneurs. The hype has often overtaken the reality. Even so, objects ranging from cars to bionic ears have already been printed.