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product development | Opinion


Gordon Styles is managing director and owner of China-based Star Prototype and has been involved in the prototyping and rapid tooling business for more than 20 years. Here he shares his personal view with Injection World on the future potential of 3D home printing


Looking beyond the hype


Right: Gordon Styles predicts 3D printing in the home is


still at least 10 years away


When I bought my fi rst stereo- lithography apparatus (SLA) in 1993, 3D printing as an industry was a mere six years old. The SLA machine, along with selective laser sintering (SLS), fused deposition modeling (FDM), laminated object manufacturing (LOM), and a smattering of other fl edgling technologies, were all ‘workshop’ rapid prototyping machines.


In the 1990s, SLA proved to be


the only platform that provided stable and accurate prototypes that could take a coat of paint with ease. In fact, it wasn’t until the early 2000s that other technologies such as SLS and FDM really got a foothold at all. By 1997, people were talking about and launching


the fi rst 3D offi ce printers. These were mostly based on some kind of ‘multi jet modeling/printing’ or MJM/MJP. But some of the technologies such as SL, LOM and FDM made their way into this industry as well. But again, it took ten years for these technologies to stabilise. We recently saw the two front-runners, Z Corp and Objet, get swallowed up by 3D Systems [Jan 2012] and Stratasys [Dec 2012] respectively. Now here we are in 2013 with the whole world


talking about 3D home printing. The planet is alive with talk of the ‘democratisation’ of manufacturing – what- ever that’s supposed to mean. Governments all over the world are earmarking large sums of money to get into the game, no more so than the Chinese with an estimated US$1bn budgeted to ensure that the country becomes a leader in 3D printing of every kind. Everyone is now launching a 3D home printer. I have


just returned from TCT 2013 [the Time Compression Technology show at Birmingham in the UK] where there was an entire zone dedicated to personal printing. Two private equity companies have recently interviewed me


32 INJECTION WORLD | October 2013


wanting to get an inside track on which technology or company is going to ‘win’. Where should they put their $50 million? All this activity just gives you an


idea of how in vogue 3D printing has become. Investors are looking at the 60 to 120 P/E ratios in this market, and it is making their mouths water. So, are we about to have a home


invasion of 3D printers? My personal view is no. Today, I think any industry insider would


consider that 3D home printing, and 3D printing generally, is experiencing the mother of all bubbles. Home printers are great fun for innovative people


who like to tinker at home; but they are at least fi ve years away from being suffi ciently stable and appropri- ate for unattended home use. As sure as day becomes night, 3D home printing will mature and it will become mainstream, but I think we are still at least ten years away from that happening.


About the author: Gordon Styles has been working in the prototyping industry for more than 20 years and was a pioneer in what was then known as rapid product development. He set up Styles RPD in the north east of England in 1993, growing it to become the UK’s largest rapid prototyping company with sales of more than US$6m. He sold the business to Arrk in 2000 and embarked on researching the Asian prototyping industry, resulting in the forma- tion of a new business Star Prototype in 2005. What started out as a representative offi ce in Yihua has grown to become a complete factory at Zhongshan Port with more than 3,500m2


of production and offi ce space. The


company employs more than 100 people, including technical specialists witin and outside of China.  www.star-prototype.com


www.injectionworld.com


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