The coming decentralization of Manufacturing

The move towards decentralization is on.  Large scale centralized power is inevitably doomed but they will not go down without a fight.  As James Dale Davison and Lord William Rees-Moog presciently wrote 15 years ago:

Governments will violate human rights, censor the free flow of information, sabotage useful technologies, and worse.  It is a fact of human nature that radical change of any kind is almost always seen as a dramatic turn for the worse.

Five hundred years ago, the courtiers gathered around the duke of Burgundy would have said that unfolding innovations that undermined feudalism were evil.  They thought the world was rapidly spiraling downhill at the very time that later historians saw an explosion of human potential in the Renaissance. Likewise, what may someday be seen as a new Renaissance from the perspective of the next millennium will look frightening to tired twentieth-century eyes.

One of the unfolding innovations that will dramatically undermine the status-quo is 3-D printing.  If you are not familiar with this technology you need to be.

It is in its nascent stage, but the technology is improving extremely fast.   The real life version of the Star Trek replicator is here.

I remember back in the late 80′s my dad had a computer that was connected to a thing called the intranet. I was able to go to “forums” and discuss philosophy with PhD’s. I thought this  was super cool as I was just 20.  I had no idea what the internet would become. The technology was changing so fast I had a hard time fathoming it.

The same will be true of 3D printing.

Brook Drumm is a guy who was hoping to raise $25,000 to create an affordable desktop 3D printer that anyone could put together.  So he made a little video with his prototype and put it on kickstarter.com.  He had no problem raising his $25,000 and in fact he actually raised over $830,000!  What does it mean when someone exceeds their funding goals by 33 times?!  It means this technology is HOT.  Check out his video here.

This technology is improving so fast you will be able to print cell phones and computers within your lifetime.

This decentralization of manufacturing will cut off at the knees governments’ abilities to tax and control commerce. The sales of cell phones in the future will be like iTunes downloads. You can pay 99cents for the newest smart phone plan and then print it at your desktop.  Also many of the designs will all be open-sourced. Think about thousands of designers around the globe all contributing to making the perfect products.

This is not science fiction.  This is happening right now.  Check out  Thingiverse.com.   You can download thousands of  plans for free.  For example…

 

Or if you have a broken part on an appliance.  No problem just measure it and print a replacement.

Imagine buying a car that is printed directly on top of a standard chassis.  For example you want a 2018 Ford supremo electric supermatic, the dealer puts the chassis in the machine and the car is “printed” with your choice of colors, options and features.  The next guy wants a Ford delivery van, same chassis, just now a van is printed on top.  Another guy wants a 2018 Ford Retro mustang that looks like a 1970 Mustang with modern drive-train and interior.

Speaking of cars, Jay Leno has a lot of old cars.  And old cars have a lot of obsolete parts.  When he needs to replace these parts, he skips the error-prone machinist and goes to his rapid prototyping 3D printer.  Simply scan, print and repeat.

In his own words:

One of the hardships of owning an old car is rebuilding rare parts when there are simply no replacements available. My 1907 White Steamer has a feedwater heater, a part that bolts onto the cylinders. It’s made of aluminum, and over the 100-plus years it’s been in use, the metal has become so porous you can see steam and oil seeping through. I thought we could just weld it up. But it’s badly impregnated with oil and can’t be repaired. If we tried, the metal would just come apart. So, rather than have a machinist try to copy the heater and then build it, we decided to redesign the original using our NextEngine 3D scanner and Dimension 3D printer.

These incredible devices allow you to make the form you need to create almost any part. The scanner can measure about 50,000 points per second at a density of 160,000 dots per inch (dpi) to create a highly detailed digital model. The 3D printer makes an exact copy of a part in plastic, which we then send out to create a mold. Some machines can even make a replacement part in cobalt-chrome with the direct laser sintering process. Just feed a plastic wire—for a steel part you use metal wire—into the appropriate laser cutter.

Like all new technology prices will decrease rapidly. Soon you will not have to be a rich comedian to afford this stuff. It is an exciting new world!

Resilience is not having to rely on fragile supply chains to get necessary products and what better way to eliminate the supply chain than to manufacture your own necessities right in your home!

Check out theses sites for more info: