3D Printing is everywhere these days: on the news, on the cover of Wired, and even in its own dedicated retail space.
But how does the new popularity of 3D printing affect our field of 3D scanning and imaging? Direct Dimensions president (and frequent LiDAR News contributor) Michael Raphael tackled this topic in one of his recent columns.
Additive Manufacturing Brings Layers of Opportunity to 3D Scanning
There is no question that 3D scanning is coming into its own as an industry and a profession. We are seeing news about 3D scanning grow nearly every day from not only within our own industry sources such as LiDAR News, but also in more mainstream publications such as The Wall Street Journal and The Telegraph. I did a quick Google search on “3D scanning” (which admittedly I do pretty often to keep up) and as usual found a whole bunch of interesting links, news, and stories.
But if you think the news in our world is growing, you should Google “3D printing” and see what’s happening over in this sister field to us, also called “Additive Manufacturing,” or just “AM.” I say “sister field” because to me, our world of 3D scanning is all about digitizing things in our physical world INTO digital forms in the computer - where AM is all about taking 3D data OUT OF the digital world of the computer and bringing it into our physical world.
Right now the AM industry is undergoing an amazing explosion of interest, growth, news, and especially attention. Those of us involved in anything related to 3D scanning should be paying at least some attention to this news and watching at least some of what’s happening over there. I say this because I believe that growth in AM can and will affect growth in our world of 3D scanning. Why you say?
Click here to read the full article at LiDAR News.
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