While many people are debating whether 3D printing technology will enter the mainstream or not there is a bunch of people who are making the big bucks with the help of this technology.
There are many people who have turned their hobbies into a source of earning. The best example I think is that of Alex Hornstein and Bilal Ghalib who roam about the United States of America with four 3D printers in their car trunk. This duo started the Pocket Factory project with an aim to produce products that are made out of low cost 3D printers. The expertise of the team can be understood by the fact that time that they require to design, test as well as produce the object is just a day.
Another example is that of Daniel Brown who has recently started a company which works on prototyping. Daniel uses three printers in his office all of them are desktop 3D printers – Makerbot’s Replicator 2, a Printrbot and a Flashforg Creator Pro. His work is expanding each passing day with average revenue of $700 weekly and at the end of the month the revenues are as high as $4000.
Daniel says, “I found that many immediately understood the possibilities 3D printing offered them, even without resorting to expensive industrial systems. Many inventors and engineers sometime don’t follow through with their ideas because they are afraid to send it abroad to get it prototyped. All they needed was access to a desktop 3D printer to address this issue. In Australia, 3D Printing has been quite slow on the up take, in fact one might say it is as slow as printing itself. In March last year, I was saddened to see that literally no-one in my entire state seemed to have a 3D printer so that I could pay them to use to print out my complex, large designs. So I started up this business. Now I spend lots of time just thinking about what I could 3D print that has not been done yet.”
There are many such individuals who have found a way to earn money with the help of a 3D printer. This can be verified on the website of Shapeways which shows that in 2011 around 2, 500 shops have opened and currently the number has increased to 4, 400. Several designers are making a lot of money by selling products that have been 3D printed. With the help of this technology people can design and print various objects and upload the pictures of the various websites such as EBay and Etsy.com and earn money. Most of the hobbyists prefer the MakerBot 3D printer as it has proved to be the best DIY printer.
Like the technology this concept of minting money with the help of 3D printers is spreading like wild fire. As the software is becoming cheaper and easily available the usage of this technology has increased several times. Apart from this, there are a lot of open source software such as Google SketchUp, Open SCAD, Blender and Wings3D.
Undoubtedly 3D printing has the potential to materialize creativity and provide business opportunities to many but the main question is that how long will it take for printers to work according to the expectations of the users.
Also Read: 3D Printing in India to know more about 3D printing industry in India