What if the 3D printer could print anything?, asks lawyer John Hornick in his book, 3D Printing Will Rock The World, published in 2015. Well, 3D printers can print a range of items today. But Hornick dreams of the day when companies become extinct because 3D printers will evolve into replicators, like those of the Star Trek TV series, and print everything.

This book reads like a lawyer arguing a case before a jury on why they should buy a 3D printer. Hornick is clearly enamored by 3D printing technology, especially the consumer-oriented home based 3D printers.

In his view, the 3D printer can do anything. And if it can’t now, it will soon, by 2025. He thinks it will replace all other forms of manufacturing, including CNC machining and injection molding. (Yes, that old viewpoint again.) It is always amazing to me that people, with no clear manufacturing background, seem so anxious to eliminate machines honed to do a job quickly, efficiently, and cost effectively.

The current limitations of many 3D printing machines, including build size, speed, material availability, will be solved sometime around 2025, claims Hornick. He suggests that everyone will have a 3D printer in their home, or access to a service provider for the technically challenging items they want to print. Such as a fully functional, “no-assembly required” car that includes a 3D printed motor, wheels, drive train and so on; because the 3D printer assembled all the needed parts as it printed the car.

This is not the first time such a claim about 3D printing capabilities has been made. It’s been part of the hype cycle for the last five years. While there are a number of experts who hypothesize a similar view as Hornick, there are a number of experts with a different view.

Hornick, however, is dismissive of the skeptics. “Don’t believe the short-sighted critics,” he says. And he points to two of history’s famous naysayers, IBM’s Tom Watson, and Digital Equipment Corp.’s Ken Olsen, both of whom allegedly said that there is no market for personal computers. So, obviously, anyone who disagrees with the view that 3D printing will eliminate all other forms of manufacturing is clearly wrong.

It’s interesting to note that within the first months of 2016, several large 3D printing vendors have either eliminated or are downplaying their consumer 3D printing units, primarily due to insufficient sales.

Hornick even uses a fictitious company, ZeframWD, named after a Star Trek character, to illustrate how 3D printing will create virtually anything, which will eliminate all companies the way the automobile eliminated horse and buggy whip makers.

According to Hornick, like the replicator, one 3D printer will do it all. “It will make things with almost any functionality,” he claims. For example, you will be able to build your own functional smart phone from a 3D printer, including all the electronics, battery, memory, touch sensitive technology, and a pretty good camera all at once…and in one build…and it’s ready for immediate use.

And, right after that, you could build a fully operational Ninja blender, with 3D printed motors, blades, and more, from that same 3D printer. The blender will rise out of the printer and be ready to turn on and blend your next Margarita instantly.

Sure.

Anything is possible.

But is it probable?

A device that pulls subatomic particles out of the atmosphere and rearranges them to create virtually anything fully assembled and functioning, as some think the Star Trek Replicator does, is quite a dream. Today, we still have to feed 3D printers build material. I would bet we will be doing so ten years from now; I don’t think these devices will be taking molecules from the atmosphere for conversion to other objects anytime soon.

As far as I know, no one has figured out the subatomic rearranging thing yet. Better alert the quantum physicists to work on it. But Hornick counters that the omission is not a problem and we shouldn’t stop from dreaming. So if you want to read one lawyer’s idea on how 3D printing will change the world in 233 pages, enjoy the book.

Dreams are fine.  I just prefer mine with a little more reality potential in my lifetime.

Leslie Langnau
llangnau@wtwhmedia.com