3D Printing Guide: How It All Works [Infographic]

Imagine a world where shopping online isn’t limited by the amount of time it takes for your purchases to reach your doorstep. Imagine a world where deliveries are made instantly through the very cable that hooks you up to the Internet. The crazy part of that mental image is that it’s right on top of us. It’s something that thousands of extraordinary innovators are constantly trying to push forward with new, more exact machines that with a push of button will print whatever it is that we have ordered online. It’s mind boggling to think that this technology is finally here. It’s science fiction really, yet it’s available to us today. In an attempt to help everyone understand what this is all about, I have found a printing guide, or an infographic rather, that will explain it all more in detail.

The intricate process has eluded innovators around the world for years, but the simple solution has been cracked, and is now being refined down to the smallest micron. It’s a process that is as mind boggling to think about as it is to watch. Right now you can compare it to the first generation matrix printers that were made available to us. They took forever to print a single page, at least compared to the speed of laser printers today. In order to understand it, we really need a printing guide to take us through the process.

The first generation 3D printers are slow, and that’s not an understatement, but they are rapidly becoming faster and more accurate. 3D printers can now print in up to a staggering 100 different materials. The most advanced 3D printers of course cost a lot of money, but there are plenty of household 3D printers made available to us for around $1,500 up to $4,000.

This printing guide infographic (presented by HighTable) called Objects On Demand: The Rise Of The 3D Printing Revolution is a beginners manual for how it all works. 3D printing is still very new to a lot of people, even though it has been available for several years now. However, the progress has always been fueled by the number of people who find it useful, and I guess that is why this 3D printing guide is such a great read. The printing in itself is said to be the easy part to figure out, but it is the printing head’s incremental positioning that is the real problem.

As you read through this information packed 3D printing guide, you will quickly see that it doesn’t only deal with the process of printing, but the industry as a whole. It has always been important to educate people about how the industry itself is progressing in order to make sure people know about their choices. Competition makes perfect, and this infographic is surely a great introduction to the future everyday occurrence of 3D printing implementation in our lives. Right at this moment, it would take very little to make this industry boom, and I am totally excited to continue to follow the progression of it all. Hopefully you are too.