Japan was all over the infancy of 3D printing, but in
decades since, J-R&D has kinda missed the boat. Unlike the smartphone boat
a few years back, they clearly see this one leaving shore, and with a bit of
technological leapfroggery, hope to jump back to the fore.
Anything, Anytime,
Almost Anywhere
While the technology is over 25 years old, over just the
past 5-10 years or so, 3D printing, also known as additive manufacturing, has
advanced to become one of the most justifiably
oh-my-god/can’t-believe-it’s-real/gee-whiz technologies in the human arsenal -
there isn’t a week that goes by without news of some paradigmatically
disruptive feat of rapid prototyping, or a new recipe for an open-source 3D
printable robot, or 3D printable 3D printers, or very recently, the printing of
biological matter from edible meat to implantable/attachable body parts - even
near-functional mammalian organs. Star Trek replicators they aren’t, but
“Computer, make me an apple pie and a new shirt and an extra finger” doesn’t
seem quite as far away as it did just a few short years ago.
But Then There’s
Metal...
Most commercial and in-development 3D printing devices work
with plastics, plaster-ish stuff, or bio-jelly stem-cell goo, and relatively
speaking, given their more malleable raw materials, those have been a bit
easier to get up and running.