"this is the ripple maker. your ripple makercan customize coffee with high quality images in just a few seconds," a spokeswoman forcoffee ripples said. a brand new tool for your neighborhood baristais using 3-d printing to bring some fun to your morning pick-me-up. the company told 3dprint.com it wants to "addmeaning, depth and joy to the coffee experience" by allowing users to print anything they canthink of on top of their cup of joe. this growing wave of mainstream 3-d printingtechnology took nearly three decades to get here. the first patent was issued in 1986. now, companies are using the technology toprint shoes, glasses and even human organs.
the uk has invested 100 million euros intoresearch to 3-d print aircraft components. (video via netflix) research company gartner told internationalbusiness times "technology has officially become mainstream when it reaches an adoptionlevel of 20 percent." and 3-d printing is finally past that afteralmost 30 years. a 2014 survey found two-thirds of the 100 industrial companies questioneduse 3-d printing. one reason 3-d printing is so revolutionaryis its additive process. instead of traditional manufacturing where producers take raw materialand cut away at it until they have what they want, 3d printing starts from scratch andproduces far less waste. (video via creative
tools) website techrepublic says you also may beable to keep products longer because instead of having to throw the whole product away,you or a company can just print the part that has stopped working. 3-d printing also allows for more niche businessesto enter the business world because of low overhead when entering the marketplace. but it's not all good news. in a report on disruptive technologies bymckinsey and company, the research firm found 3-d printing presents new legal challenges.
take for example the fact you can go on awebsite and print off free designs from around the world. those designs could just be a ripoffof something with intellectual property protection. but forget about the business world, whatabout the average consumer? the good thing about the increased interestin the world of 3-d printing is that more
3d printing companies in uk,affordable printers are entering the market. thanks to a 3-d printer featured on kickstarter,you can order one for just around 400 bucks. and with big companies like ge, apple andford behind it, the technology is here to stay, which probably isn't a bad thing, especiallyif you fancy a face in your morning cup.
