[MUSIC] In this video, we are chatting with Howard Lipton, who's a professor of mechanical engineering at Columbia University. And he's going to help us understand some of the characteristics of 3D printing that have made it so popular in a wide variety of contexts. A couple of the main points you'll hear from him. One is the fact that he talk about complexity being free and variety being free. So complexity referring to the fact that the 3D printer doesn't care about the features that you are building in your model. And variety refers to that you can create object that are one of a kind. And in the same build, you can have four different objects being built or you can activate over time with slightly different versions without worrying about the traditional economy's of scale. That would constrain traditional manufacturing, so he talked about something called the economies of scope, which is where 3D printing really shines. Finally he referred to some of the other things that have made 3D printing so popular, such as the lower amount of skills required in operating a printer. Of course, they are different, but not that much training required to operate, being a technician and operate a printers. And some of the things you already heard about such as low waste, low lead times. And of course the ability to iterate quickly and create prototypes and eventually functional products as well. >> So I always get heat for saying complexity is free and I want to explain exactly what I mean by that. The idea of complexity as free means that if you make an object, if you print a three dimensional object and now you want to add a feature, you want to have a hole in it somewhere. Or you want to inscribe your name. Or you want to round off the corner, you want to add some complexity. That additional complexity will not cost you more to make. So the same cost before the complexity and after the complexity per kilogram of part. The marginal cost of manufacturing complexity is zero. That is not true for any other manufacturing method. So if you look at CNC injection molding, any other manufacturing technique. If you want to add complexity to your part it's going to involve more time, effort, skill, money. But with 3D printing it does not, and that changes the equation dramatically, because when complexity is free a lot of new possibilities emerge. These printers, all the information about the part that needs to be made Is in the print file. So it does not cost you. It does not take any more effort, time, or skill to make complex things. Another thing that's free is variety. There's no economy of scale. If you want to print 50 different things or 50 identical things, it's all the same. These two things allow you to start making products that are optimized and customized. And that's the real benefit. Few companies can understand what that means. But those that do, really create new modes of business. The best example I know, this is invisalign. So, invisalign creates orthodontic liners, braces. If you remember the old days braces were these metal things that somebody, and then just needed to adjust, it was a one-size fits all and then a dentist would adjust them on a weekly basis. Now, these braces are 3D printed. The sequence of them are 3D printed. There are 150,000 of these printed every day. Each one of them unique. Each one of them complex. That's varieties free. That's complexities free. And that's, not a business model that would even remotely viable using the commercial manufacturing. So, often people will ask at what point does this technology break even with injection moulding or commercial manufacturing. And that's not the question to ask, the right question is, what new business models are enabled because complexity is free and variety is free? And if you can answer that, that's where the gold is. [SOUND] If we can harness this idea of economy of scope, as some people call it, instead of economy of scale then there are opportunities. And there's also other disruptives. The fact that almost no skill is required to manufacture. And, literally, you have kids that make things that would traditionally require a trained engineer. The fact that it's a very mobile technology. That you can move it around packs, a lot of manufacturing might into small square footage. The fact that it creates relatively little waste byproduct when you print in metal especially. And the fact that you can duplicate things. All these different aspects of this technology are very disruptive, all very different than conventional manufacturing. The fact that there is almost no lee time from when you finish designing, when you start manufacturing allows you to iterate very quickly. The fact that there is no constraints on the geometry allows you to reach places of the geometry. That you couldn't reach otherwise for free or not for free. It was just impossible. So, all these things mean that it's a very, very disruptive technology, very, very different than conventional manufacturing. It's not yet another manufacturing technique, it's completely different. The question is, how do you use it? [MUSIC]
