Conference Agenda

The current and future state of desktop 3D printing: the uncovered benefits for companies, research and education While desktop 3D printers are currently still regarded mostly as being the domain of hobbyists, more and more companies and educational institutes are now picking up on the added advantages this current state of technology has to offer for them. Solutions that make 3D printing highly advantageous over any other manufacturing technique, rapid prototyping, customizing of products and research objects, and manufacturing of highly specialized parts, are now within reach to put to use on a much greater scale than ever before. Today's technique allows companies to innovate in a highly cost and time efficient manner.

Instead of using highly costly printers for testing the working of an airplane motor at a centralized location, engineers and product developers in all layers and locations of the company can now duplicate this using a $2000 machine. Due to the affordability of the machines, engineering universities are able to set up entire classrooms full of printers, in which not only professors but also their students can now experience design possibilities and limitations in an early stadium. Medical institutions print heart chambers for their research, using a combination of soluble and non-soluble plastics to simulate the veins. They can now do this in multiple variations and adjusting their output while they go, instead of relying on time-consuming and expensive print services to design and print for them, making research easier and more efficient.

In this presentation, co-owner and general manager of Leapfrog 3D printers Saswitha de Kokwill explain the current state of the affordable print technique. Based on Leapfrog's rich experience with real users in automotive and airplane engineering, medical institutions, universities and product developers and engineers within a wide range of companies, he will explain user cases and current applications. He will also provide a glimpse into the future of affordable 3D printing, sketching out a whole range of possible benefits that companies can attain in the coming years.

3D printing holds many unrealised promises. Scan- print -sell- replacing old industries with high quality tabletop manufacturing.

It is actually already old news, because it has already happened and old, capital intensive industries are already struggling to survive.

Innovation reprap- like IBM- is opening new industries.

Collaboration across boarders is unparalleled in technological history.

Trade barriers like Borders & IP hinder success.

So with IP being open source, what are the chances to build a large or super profitable business ?