Customization
The additive manufacturing process is quite literally 3D printing, explained Frank Marangell, president of Israel-based Objet Technologies.
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| Objet 3D printed implant model, printed with Objet VeroDent Material |
"We take a 3D design of a product... then we slice it up and print it layer by layer," he said. "We print it like ink on a page, but we print it 2,000 times per inch."
Using materials anywhere from plastic to medical-grade titanium to human cells, printers can create intricate, 3D products and items with far greater variety than possible through traditional means.
This leads to one of the early draws to 3D printing: its ability to allow designers to customize products to exact customer specifications. This can mean significant changes to the overall market, said Harouni.
"What interests my company the most is the fact that you can create individual, unique products en masse," she said. "There's no need to do a run of thousands of millions or send that product to be injection molded in China. You can just make it physically on the spot. Which means that we can now present to the public the next generation of customization. This is something that is now possible today, that you can direct personally how you want your products to look."
This presents the opportunity for discrete manufacturers to fundamentally alter the consumers' experiences, said Harouni. Far more than the "variant production" options offered by brands like Nike Inc., she said, "what you could do is really influence your product now and shape-manipulate your product."
