But the reality is not quite the same, says 3D printing expert Joris Peels.
Can there be defense trade control in the era of the internet and 3D printing?
Will 3D printing be bigger than the web like Chris Anderson and others are predicting?
By reducing the barriers to entry for manufacturing, 3D printing should also promote innovation.
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The name 3D printing is a misnomer it is more accurately called additive manufacturing.
The site will become a "search engine for 3D printing, " according to its founders.
Some financial newsletter services have been extensively using 3D printing as bait to attract new subscribers.
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The project makes Nokia one of the first big electronics firms to seriously back 3D printing.
Mr Ruijssenaars is working with large-scale 3D printing expert Enrico Dini on the project.
Enter 3D printing, at the very least to help build up local parts suppliers.
While that remains years, or decades, in the future, 3D printing is already affecting travellers in other, less-obvious ways.
But where 3D printing of the type Kyttanen envisions could be useful, Reeves said, is with more personalised items.
Makers who create affordable 3D printing technology open the door to a whole new model of distribution.
Go to 9:24 in this video to hear the possibilities of 3D printing to build a house.
The same is happening in fields such as robotics, AI, 3D printing, nanomaterials, medicine, and synthetic biology.
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To be sure, the most revolutionary advances for 3D printing are probably a decade or more away.
With all the attention on 3D printing, I started wondering if anyone had created a 3D scanner.
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Defcad, as the firm will be known, has already been dubbed the Pirate Bay of 3D printing.
Advanced energy manufacturing and additive manufacturing (including 3D printing) are two areas of potential for manufacturing innovation.
Apart from the boon to 3D printing it brings mobile telephony to an interesting fork in the road.
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American manufacturers are recapturing some markets once lost to imports, and pioneering new processes such as 3D printing.
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The market for 3D printing is certainly increasing, and I can see this quickly becoming a multibillion dollar industry.
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The movie studio contracted the services of Augsburg-based 3D printing company Voxeljet to make replicas of the vintage ride.
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Those early experiments have made Cody Wilson into one of the most controversial figures in the 3D printing community.
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Benny and his sister now know more about 3D printing than most grown-ups.
This technique is considered an additive manufacturing technique not unlike 3D printing that builds a product layer by layer.
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The sudden buzz about 3D printing and its potential has triggered a deafening din in the media and elsewhere.
"There'll be 3D printing labs, artists and designers will drop in, " he explains.
Makerbot has a duo of tempting deals through Cyber Monday for anyone who's been wanting to get into 3D printing.
He referred to 3D printing as an example of a future technology for which the U.S. should be a leader.
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