"Jasen Betts" wrote in message
...
On 2014-08-14, Michael Black wrote:

At this point, most of the hype relates to printers that can only
do plastic, which limits their value. You can have a nice plastic
box that emulates something from the past, but you still won't
have a working device, since the printer can't make the insides.
Even if it's just plastic gears inside, the printer can only make
the plastic pieces, it can't assemble those pieces.

It can build them in-place, so you end up with a working device.

That's fine for a prototype -- but you wouldn't manufacture products that way.

The 3D printer will never be the equivalent of the Star Trek "matter
synthesizer".