Affordable housing?

globalds

cells wrote: »

having said that i know that the real excitement or purpose of 3D printing is to supposidly bring a factory into your living room but even then it is likely to fail at most things.

the large 3D printers (ie conventional factories) will always be able to make at a lower cost vs the small 3D printers on your desk simply becuase they can buy their materials in bulk and get a far better price.

technically the 3D printers dont stand a chance vs dedicated plants but you dont even need to worry about that when you simply can conclude that the factories can sell a finished product at a price you probably couldnt buy the print material for

a factory is to 3d printing what a calculator is to a smart phone app.

A factory has to be retooled to go from producing TV's to fridges.

a theoretical (at the moment ) 3d printing facility ..would just need a new software update.

I am not going to argue the present technology ...
I am happy to dispute your conclusions ..you have misunderstood what you have observed.

cells

globalds wrote: »

a factory is to 3d printing what a calculator is to a smart phone app.

A factory has to be retooled to go from producing TV's to fridges.

a theoretical (at the moment ) 3d printing facility ..would just need a new software update.

I am not going to argue the present technology ...
I am happy to dispute your conclusions ..you have misunderstood what you have observed.

What makes you think retooling is prohibitively expensive?

Also typically factories do not go from making TVs to making fridges. They go from making one type of TV to another.

Also factories and manufacturing plants typically have the ability to produce a range of products. Eg a still mill does not output just one product it might output a dozen different products at a hundred different specs so uaing its existing eqyipment it makes a thousand different options.


But most importantly of all. A 3D printer on your desk lets say you can get it to do all modern manufacturing (impossoble). How will it compete with a factory with a thousand of these printers purchasing the raw goods for 1/20th the price you can?

cells

The same is true for a bakery

most people buy their bread from a super market when they have the option of 1 DIY or 2 use a bread printer (commonly called a bread makig machine) yet they opt for the bakery

And they will opt far more for the factory when the product is not perishable foods.


Anyway I hope im wrong as 3D printers able to produce all the products under the sun would be a huge benifit to developing nations and help drag the lpwest 2-3 billion people out of abject poverty. Whatever happens we are nowhere near ready to offset traditional manufacturing (ie factories....which are effectively large 3D producers)

globalds

cells wrote: »

What makes you think retooling is prohibitively expensive?

Also typically factories do not go from making TVs to making fridges. They go from making one type of TV to another.

Also factories and manufacturing plants typically have the ability to produce a range of products. Eg a still mill does not output just one product it might output a dozen different products at a hundred different specs so uaing its existing eqyipment it makes a thousand different options.


But most importantly of all. A 3D printer on your desk lets say you can get it to do all modern manufacturing (impossoble). How will it compete with a factory with a thousand of these printers purchasing the raw goods for 1/20th the price you can?

Ok lets forget printing stuff off on your desk it is not gonna happen

I will give you an example that is a present reality ..Where the factory and tooling method is being slaughtered by 3D printing.
Top end military small run parts.
Lets say you have a fleet of planes ..even a big fleet is probably less than 500 ..maybe like concord when it got withdrawn there are only a handful left ...Now replacing or retrofitting of this equipment can be Hellish expensive when priced per item ..3d printing and yes ..they do print metal ..using powdered metals shot at with laser ..this can turn an item that might cost many many thousands per item to make ..into an item that just costs thousands ..and that line does not have to be retooled when the next small run of parts needs to be manufactured.

the other thing is the whole lead in time ..if you can produce a prototype and test it and improve on this and test it and then go into production in a 3rd of the time it takes a normal tooling production line to get rolling ..then you will gain for that advantage.
I had a friend in Japan who worked for Honda.
he visited me many years ago when the rover 75 came out ..I mentioned how I thought it looked OK ..He siad flat out it was doomed ..it was a five year old design before it was manufactured ..as it took that long for rover to get from inception to creation ..Honda and most other Japanese companies took 18 months ..they had 3.5 years of flogging that shape before rover got one on the forecourt ..
cost is one thing ..but bringing things to market in a timely matter will get you an edge that will be worth a heck of a big investment.

3D printing is not the only thing to give you that edge ..but it represents a huge opportunity.

You may want to take a look at this :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dw6cs7opvzA

CLAPTON

globalds wrote: »

Ok lets forget printing stuff off on your desk it is not gonna happen

I will give you an example that is a present reality ..Where the factory and tooling method is being slaughtered by 3D printing.
Top end military small run parts.
Lets say you have a fleet of planes ..even a big fleet is probably less than 500 ..maybe like concord when it got withdrawn there are only a handful left ...Now replacing or retrofitting of this equipment can be Hellish expensive when priced per item ..3d printing and yes ..they do print metal ..using powdered metals shot at with laser ..this can turn an item that might cost many many thousands per item to make ..into an item that just costs thousands ..and that line does not have to be retooled when the next small run of parts needs to be manufactured.

the other thing is the whole lead in time ..if you can produce a prototype and test it and improve on this and test it and then go into production in a 3rd of the time it takes a normal tooling production line to get rolling ..then you will gain for that advantage.
I had a friend in Japan who worked for Honda.
he visited me many years ago when the rover 75 came out ..I mentioned how I thought it looked OK ..He siad flat out it was doomed ..it was a five year old design before it was manufactured ..as it took that long for rover to get from inception to creation ..Honda and most other Japanese companies took 18 months ..they had 3.5 years of flogging that shape before rover got one on the forecourt ..
cost is one thing ..but bringing things to market in a timely matter will get you an edge that will be worth a heck of a big investment.

3D printing is not the only thing to give you that edge ..but it represents a huge opportunity.

You may want to take a look at this :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dw6cs7opvzA

I'm not sure that UK housing has much competition from Japan.

globalds

CLAPTON wrote: »

I'm not sure that UK housing has much competition from Japan.

why would any particular industry not feel the effects of a global market?

You know when you walk through a UK city centre and look at all that glass and aluminium stuck to the sides of buildings that is constructed as part of a sealed unit in a factory ..Do you really think it is all being made in the UK ???

CLAPTON

globalds wrote: »

why would any particular industry not feel the effects of a global market?

You know when you walk through a UK city centre and look at all that glass and aluminium stuck to the sides of buildings that is constructed as part of a sealed unit in a factory ..Do you really think it is all being made in the UK ???

what has that got to do with anything?

Generali

wymondham wrote: »

Would the printer need to be like, really really big??? bet the ink cartridges cost a fortune!

Ah, yes well that's how they get you. The printers are dead cheap but the cartridges? Aye-yi-yi.

This is the Coming Zombie Robot Apocalypse of Builders and Labourers.

vivatifosi

I saw this on Sky news. They were all single storey, though the firm said that they could build multiple storeys. But given the problems in the past with 'concrete cancer' and mortgages being tough to get on non-standard constructions, would it fly? In the UK it would need massive mods just to get building regs approval.