3D Printed Sternum/Rib Cage: 23 Quick Facts on the Next Industrial Revolution

Spanish cancer patient gets a 3D-printed
sternum and rib cage – see first video

---71.1% of manufacturers worldwide have currently adopted 3D Printing to some degree.

---52% of manufacturers expect 3D Printing will be used for high-volume production in the next 3-5 years.

---22% of manufacturers predict 3D Printing will have a disruptive effect on supply chains.

---Over the past 27 years, the 3D printing industry has averaged a 26.2% annual growth rate

---Global spending on 3D printers was predicted to reach $11 billion in 2015 and forecast to reach about $27 billion by 2019.

---Worldwide revenues from the additive manufacturing and 3D printing industry is expected to reach $12.8 billion by 2018, according to Wohlers Associates. By 2020, Wohlers forecasts revenues from all products and services in the 3D printer industry to exceed $21 billion.

---Sales of desktop 3D printers, the majority of which are still purchased by companies and schools, skyrocketed last year (2015) to the tune of a 69.7% increase.

---As a whole, the additive manufacturing (3D printing) industry, grew 25.9% last year to $5.1 billion in sales or services.

---This year (2016), the 3D printing industry, which includes machines, materials and printing services, will reach $7.3 billion.

---Nike has said 3D printing has revolutionized the way it designs and manufactures footwear.

---Lockheed Martin, Airbus and United Technologies are also becoming bigger users of 3D technology.

---98% of hearing aids worldwide are manufactured using 3D printing.

---Research firm Wohlers Associates believes 3D printing will eventually capture 5% of global manufacturing capacity, which would make 3D printing a $640 billion industry.

---Alcoa, a leading producer of aluminium, recently said it would supply Airbus with 3D-printed titanium fuselage parts and the pylons used to attach engines to wings. Alcoa is spending $60 million expanding its R&D centre in Pennsylvania to accelerate the development of advanced 3D-printing materials and processes.

--- GE has spent $50 million installing a 3D-printing facility at a plant in Auburn, Alabama, to print up to 40,000 fuel nozzles a year for the new LEAP jet engine it is making in partnership with Snecma, a French company. The nozzles will be printed in one go, instead of being assembled from 20 different parts. They are made from a powered “super alloy” of cobalt, chrome and molybdenum. The finished item will be 25% lighter and five times more durable than a fuel nozzle made with conventional processes.

---LITE-ON, a leading contract manufacturer based in China, has just installed a set of 3D printers in a Guangzhou factory that makes millions of smartphones and other portable consumer electronics. The printers, made by Optomec, an Albuquerque-based firm, use a process called Aerosol Jet to focus a mist of micro-droplets into a tightly controlled beam, which can print features as small as 10 microns (millionths of a meter). LITE-ON is using the machines to print electronic circuits, such as antennae and sensors, directly into products instead of making those components separately and assembling them into the devices either by robot or by hand.

---New York doctor’s 3D-printed windpipe may one day let patients breathe easier:
“It sounds incredible, but doctors at St. Luke's and Roosevelt Hospitals in Manhattan are creating bio-engineered tracheas using stem cells and 3D printing technology. The pioneering research, led by Dr. Faiz Bhora, the hospital's director of thoracic surgical oncology, began with printing a 3D silicone model of the trachea - the 4-inch tube that starts below the voice box and connects with the bronchi - based on data from a CAT scan. The model trachea is created on a 3D printer in about 15 minutes.”

---3D printed knee replacement:
“Skier Paul Wilmott feared he might never hit the slopes again after an old injury to his left knee flared up again last June. Even mowing the grass became painful and doing any exercise made it swollen, painful and unable to withstand pressure. He was forced to abandon his favorite pastimes of skiing and cycling. Yet thanks to a new type of bespoke knee replacement created with the help of a 3D printer, the 51-year-old company director was back in his skis by December …. Paul has been fitted with a bespoke implant made by the US company Conformis which uses the latest in 3D technology. The company says the implant makes recovery faster, there is less bone and tissue removed during surgery and knee function may turn out to be as good as new.”

Spanish cancer patient gets a 3D-printed titanium rib cage

Roswell police get 3D scanner

3D Printed Artificial Limbs in War-Torn Sudan

Medical 3D Printing

3D Printing at Ford

Sources

A printed smile: 3D printing is coming of age as a manufacturing technique http://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21697802-3d-printing-coming-age-manufacturing-technique-printed-smile

30 things being 3D printed right now (and none of them are guns) https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/jan/29/3d-printing-limbs-cars-selfies

7 Ways 3D Printing Is Making Manufacturing More Competitive    http://www.forbes.com/sites/louiscolumbus/2016/04/24/7-ways-3d-printing-is-making-manufacturing-more-competitive/

As 3D Systems, Stratasys Jump, Is 3D Printer Market Set To Rebound?    http://www.investors.com/news/technology/as-3d-systems-stratasys-jump-is-3d-printer-market-set-to-rebound/

Sales of desktop 3D printers explode, growing nearly 70%    http://www.computerworld.com/article/3052384/3d-printing/sales-of-desktop-3d-printers-explode-growing-nearly-70.html

3D printing industry to triple in four years to $21B   http://www.computerworld.com/article/3066862/emerging-technology/3d-printing-industry-to-triple-in-four-years-to-21b.html

Inside Ford's 3D Printing Lab, where thousands of parts are made     http://www.computerworld.com/article/2490192/emerging-technology-inside-ford-s-3d-printing-lab-where-thousands-of-parts-are-made.html

How a TIME Article Led to the Invention of a $100 3D-Printed Artificial Limb   http://techland.time.com/2014/01/07/how-a-time-article-led-to-the-invention-of-a-100-3d-printed-artificial-limb/

3D Printing: The Next Revolution in Industrial Manufacturing https://pressroom.ups.com/mobile0c9a66/assets/pdf/pressroom/infographic/UPS_3D_Printing_executive%20summary.pdf

New York docs’ 3D-printed windpipe may one day let patients breathe easier http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/health/new-york-docs-3d-printed-windpipe-represents-future-transplants-article-1.1589497

3D-Printed Crime Scenes Are Coming to a Courtroom Near You http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/3-d-printed-crime-scenes-are-coming-to-a-courtroom-near-you

Back on my ski knees, thanks to a 3D printer http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2657986/Back-ski-knees-thanks-3D-printer-Bespoke-replacements-using-new-technology-reduces-recovery-time.html

Wonders of 3D Printing in 9 Brief Videos http://www.mybestbuddymedia.com/2015/03/wonders-of-3d-printing-in-9-brief-videos.html

The Meteoric Rise of 3-D Printing http://www.mybestbuddymedia.com/2015/05/the-meteoric-rise-of-3-d-printing.html

Photo: http://www.engadget.com/2015/09/11/spanish-cancer-patient-gets-a-3d-printed-titanium-rib-cage/ CC

Jerry De Luca is a Christian freelance writer who loves perusing dozens of interesting and informative publications. When he finds any useful info he summarizes it, taking the main points, and creates a (hopefully) helpful blog post.