The Shape of Things to Come: Frontiers in Additive Manufacturing

Additive manufacturing technologies—machines that can automatically fabricate arbitrarily shaped parts, pixel by pixel, layer by layer, from almost any material—have evolved over the past three decades from limited and expensive prototyping equipment in the hands of few, to small-scale commodity production tools available to almost anyone. It has been broadly recognized that this burgeoning second industrial revolution will transform every aspect of our lives. Clearly, we will see the usual improvements we have come to expect of any burgeoning technology: more material options, better resolution, faster printing, easier and more reliable operation, and lower costs. But where will this technology go next? 3D printing is only the tip of a much larger phenomenon. We can look at the evolution of additive manufacturing technologies’ past, present, and future as a series of milestones in humans’ increasing control over physical matter.