Core77 2012 Year in Review: Slow and Steady Growth for the Proverbial Build Platform as Digital Fabrication Goes Mainstream
Posted in: Digital Fabrication
Made with MakerBot’s Dual-Extrusion Replicator
Insofar as digital fabrication hardware has evolved at a steady pace, we were excited to see several new developments in additive and subtractive fabrication, though it was the former that was increasingly making headlines in the world at large in 2012. While the fabled tipping point for 3D printing remains elusive yet, this year also saw a bit of backlash to the growing hype, as well as a couple potentially far-reaching IP controversies, inevitable speed bumps for emerging technologies. Digifab evangelists continue to herald a shift from the economics of supply-and-demand to that of supply-on-demand, but our latest pulse-reading indicates that the market for 3D printers remains more niche than mass.
Janina Alleyne’s “Exoskeleton” collection
If we’re hedging our bets on the long-term car-in-every-garage-scale adoption of 3D printing, we were excited to report on innovations big and small, from assembling livable spaces down to accelerating nanoscale lithography. In fact, the past year saw new applications across a broad spectrum of fabricated objects, from pediatric prosthetics and skeletal sculptures, and it’s only a matter of time before it will be possible to 3D print interactive objects, whether they’re optically-enabled or materially so. (Plastics proved to be quite versatile indeed, as designers developed ways to 3D print ‘furry’ tiles and a ‘sweater’ iPhone case.
Must-see video via Disney Research
Meanwhile, as we reiterated in an opinion piece on the Future of 3D printing,* the advent of the public makerspace/fablab marks the first step towards bringing 3D printing to the messes, echoing a notion that’s been in the ether for a couple years now. (Commentators speculate that Amazon or IKEA might do well to move into 3D printer space, but no one expected Staples to make the first move in late 2012.) NYC’s 3D printing proselytes MakerBot hopes to carry the momentum from the recent opening of their storefront in Lower Manhattan into 2013. Similarly, local digifab on-demand concern Shapeways got Bloomberg himself to cut the ribbon at their forthcoming Factory of the Future in Queens.
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