The Shape of Things to Come

Think about a future of new digital marketplaces where, instead of people simply shopping for products online, they instead design and build the exact products they want. Talk about mass customization.

Our cover story in this issue describes how Kappius Components, a small cycling company that operates out of their family garage in Littleton, CO, is using advanced 3D printing technology from EOS to design, manufacture and deliver new road and mountain bike hubs in ways that could potentially reshape the biking supply chain of the outdoor sporting goods business.

The technical detail inside our cover story in this issue shares some insights about how 3D printing (or additive manufacturing or rapid prototyping, or whatever you want to call it) has escalated into the front runner of a sweeping industrial evolution that promises to reshape manufacturing in this country just as overseas commodity work is returning to our shores.

In New York, for example, another company is making news with its plans to use 3D printing in ways that will transform manufacturing into a world where anyone online can build a product from anywhere in the world. That’s right . . . anyone, anywhere. The April 29 issue of the Wall Street Journal reported that Shapeways Inc. raised $30 million in funding to create an online marketplace for 3D products, where a community of people can design their own 3D artworks or commercial products and then have them fabricated, shipped and sold online via its website.

Here’s how it works. “In the past, professional or hobbyist designers had to have their product concepts refined and manufactured by other companies who required a high-volume minimum order and then charged significant fees or commissions,” explains Peter Weijmarshausen, the chief executive officer of Shapeways. Not anymore.