GE has officially dubbed today, Dec. 3, 3-D Printing Day to wrap up its yearlong additive manufacturing media blitz.
To celebrate, GE (IW 500/6) has teamed up with an odd assortment of celebrities and institutions — ranging from Al Roker to the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum — to design and print an even odder assortment of 3-D printed gifts, trinkets and thingies that you can win in a twitter contest described here: #3DPrintMyGift
This contest is the latest in one of the most aggressive and impressive 3-D printing campaigns the world has yet seen. Since acquiring 3-D printing company, Morris Technologies, late last year, GE has very publically begun integrating additive into its works — most notably announcing plans to integrate a 3-D printed fuel nozzle into its new LEAP engine next year.
Beyond that, it is throwing money at any innovator or inventor even outside the company who can design other novel uses for the technology — see: "Innovation from the Masses."
In all, it expects 3-D printing to touch at least half of its total manufacturing footprint in the next 20 years.
With that commitment, I think GE has probably earned the right to declare any kind of 3-D printing holiday it wants.
