Tag Archives: 3d Printing

3d printed car in it for the X Prize

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The Urbee 2 is a car that has been printed via 3d technology. This Popular Mechanics article shares some information on the Urbee and 3D printers ability to print carbon fibre.

Impact will be on car body panels as spare parts. In Australia, manufacturers have great logistics systems to express spare parts around the country. The logistics cost is huge per unit.

What if the Geelong crash repair centre can print that bumper for the MY13 Corolla instead of getting it shipped from Sydney overnight?

Link to Popular Mechanics article

 

Opportunity to decrease Australian consumer goods prices by decreasing transport costs

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Things are getting interesting now that 3D printing is firmly on the radar.
Australia is a long way by sea or air for imported goods that arrive via transportation methods that cost time and fuel.
The cost to internally distribute goods throughout Australia is also high given our relatively small population and vast distances.
Import/Export and internal distribution costs are a significant cost component of our everyday items.
In a world where clothing, spare parts and potentially cars prices are potentially able to be manufactured by a suitable variation of a 3D printer, importers, wholesale and retail will all be touched in someway by 3D printing and its impact on distribution costs.
I found the article below interesting and thought you might as well.

http://www.strategyand.pwc.com/perspectives/2015-commercial-transportation-trends

Nokia enables 3D printers to print their own phone cases.

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Nokia has released specs to enable users to create their own cases for their own phones by “printing” their own using a 3D printer.
Yes, it’s early, yes the technology is probably not ready for the consumer yet. Yes, importers of such product could potentially wave goodbye to middleman margins.
This article in particular reminds me a little of the promises of digital press printing in the early days. Disruptive business models were proposed that assumed that production and distribution could be combined to decentralising printing to the point of purchase.

http://gigaom.com/2013/01/18/why-nokias-3d-printing-move-embraces-the-future/