3D Printing: Capability & Economic Potential

No matter what insanely high number Wall Street applies to the '3D Printing Industry Potential' for the next five years, one thing is clear, 3D printing technology is here to stay. Speculation will point towards down years for Stratasys ($SSYS) and 3D Systems ($DDD) stemming from a lack of interest or too high of a price for one printer, but the heart of the conversation lies within what many investors are not looking at.

The general public has come to take 3D printing as a far fetched idea rather than a reality. Assumptions are high that one of these personal printers cost thousands of dollars to purchase, and a few more thousand to maintain. But the public is sadly misinformed on the flexibility and variety of 3D printers on the market. There are hundreds of different 3D printers out there today all printing different material at different sizes in different ways. Additive manufacturing is a fascinating technology that dates back to the 90's and just now we are starting to see overwhelming results from a corporate perspective.

The 3D printing industry undoubtedly has legs. General Electric ($GE) made a killing last quarter in the jet industry thanks to their parts manufacturing being automated through 3D printers, a move already adapted by many for bulk production. When it comes to innovation, publicly traded Organovo Holdings ($ONVO) is in the process of bioprinting human tissue samples using 3D printers, or samples to be used by large pharmaceutical companies to speed up their lengthy drug trials. The list goes on and on, but if there is one key takeaway it is this:

The 3D printing industry is emerging in front of our eyes and to think we have not even tapped the software potential yet is exciting. This is not a promotional cry for the 3D stock market, it is applying simple analysis of the technology we have today to conclude this technology is powerful, this technology is trending upward, and we have barely scraped the surface of this technology's capability.