Vote for the TCT Top 20

TCT is 20 years old - gulp - that makes me feel old. 

As part of its celebrations to mark this anniversary the magazine is currently taking votes from readers and the industry at large to find the Top 20 Influencers to the Additive Manufacturing industry (no mention of 3D printing but I think 3D printing people will get voted anyway!). The results are to be published in an upcoming issue.. This is a great feature — last carried out 5 years ago for the 15 year anniversary — and over a 1000 votes were cast back then. With the explosion of online activities and social media in particular, I would expect the vote numbers to be exponentially higher this time round. I will be very keen to see the results too, so much has changed in just five years in this vibrant industry, which continues to evolve apace.

I urge you to vote, and, if, like me, you want to recognise the work of more than one of the many fantastic individuals within this industry that dedicate their careers to driving it forward technologically and/or help people to understand it, you can vote more than once, although the Editor might frown at you a little (sorry Jim). I've voted three times. After which I kept thinking of more people that I really should vote for too. But I've made my choices and I'll stick to them. However, below is a list of people that I think will make the grade based on the work they have done in the last five years, although it should be noted that one has left the industry recently and one (maybe two) is due to formally retire. 

Can't wait to see if I get close:

In alphabetical order ie not my preference order or where I think they will come in TCT's Top 20 line up.

Adrian Bowyer, Bath University / RepRap

Phill Dickens, Loughborough Univeristy

Todd Grimm, T.A. Grimm & Associates

Lisa Harouni,  Digital Forming

Dan Johns, Bloodhound

Hod Lipson, Cornell University

Jason Lopes, Legacy Effects

Gary Miller, IPF

Vanessa Palsenberg, iMaterialise

Bre Pettis, Makerbot

Jeremy Pullin, Renishaw

Julie Reece, previously ZCorporation

Abe Reichental, 3D Systems

Martin Stevens, A1 Technologies

Scott Summit, Bespoke Innovations

Graham Tromans, GP Tromans & Associates

Wilfried Vancraen, Materialise

Peter Weijmarshausen, Shapeways

Terry Wohlers, Wohlers & Associates

An Uninspiring Consensus on the Future of 3D Printing from the Trade Press

A fair proportion of my time is spent reading — whether in print or online — as there is a great deal of information and endless opinions about additive manufacturing (AM) and 3D printing (3DP) available these days. I like to keep up, partly because it is good for my business, but also because I like it! I do sometimes miss the more classical material that I used to lose myself in, prior to two children and running my own business, but sleep deprivation is something I don't cope well with. 

Anyway, the reason for this post? A noticeable consensus between the two Editors of the only two trade magazines that focus heavily on AM and 3DP in the UK. And strangely enough, both aired similar opinions when discussing the arrival of the two new ZCorp 3D printers (see previous post). 

In a blog post dated 27th July, entitled 'The Rise and Rise of 3D Printing,' James Woodcock, Editor of the TCT Magazine stated: 

"Some see the ultimate goal for 3D Printers to be on every desk next to your home computer. I don't see it happening myself, but I realise that could be a 'one computer in every town in America' type of statememt." 

And then, today I was flicking through the latest print edition of Develop3D and came across this commentary from Al Dean, Editor: 

"The mass adoption of 3D printing has been talked about for some time, but I'm not entirely convinced that everyone is going to have a 3D printer in their home for a good long while .... if at all." 

The similarity in their opinions is striking, but notice that they both include a get-out clause!! 

Having been there myself, it is a tricky course to negotiate. One can't be too negative, there are clients to consider after all, and they sell these machines and pay your bills!! On the flip side, if you go out too positive then you risk credibility. 

For my tuppence worth, I am still where I was about 6 months ago, I think that the volumes of machines sold, starting at the entry level sub-£5k machines, will continue to increase. System and material performance will be incrementally improved, as will usability. This will open up the rest of the market and when one or more of the system vendors taps into a universal application and is in a position to scale up their own production, then at that point the universe will be the limit!

For positivity and a genuine interest in making this happen — my vote goes to Shapeways. This is a company that is doing AND saying, albeit online only. I wonder what would happen if they went into 2D print????