July 24, 2015 | By Alec
With all those promising news items coming from the high-end metal industry, where company after company is adopting metal 3D printers as manufacturing tools, it’s easy to assume that the 3D printing revolution is doing well. Even aviation companies like Airbus have started 3D printing metal parts for planes. But a recent survey suggests that the competition has not been beaten just yet. Just last week, FMW Fasteners rejected 3D printed manufacturing after customers responded negatively in a survey.
FMW Fasteners is a Houston, Texas-based web shop for (contractor grade) metal nuts, bolts, anchor components and more, that began looking into the advantages of 3D printing. To gauge customer response, they sent out a survey from 24 February to 15 March of this year, in which 302 of their customers participated. And the results were clear. Nearly sixty percent of those surveyed did not believe that 3D printers could produce viable materials in the near future, saying that they were unlikely or very unlikely to turn to 3D printed supplies. Only 10 percent approved of 3D metal printing being used, with the rest of the participants being not sure.
These results are somewhat surprising, and they surprised FMW Fasteners too. Marketing director Steve Baker said, ‘There's a lot of noise around 3D printers so we thought it was prudent to gauge what our customers thought about them – whether they could foresee a future where they could create their own fasteners with their 3D printer. About 60 percent of our customers run their own business or are self-employed with 40 percent of purchases coming from DIY enthusiasts.’
The company itself was fairly optimistic about what 3D printing could do for them, so this survey result is quite remarkable. ‘Our suppliers are the best in the business – trusted and quality assured. We think 3D printing is innovative and has immense potential in the medical and engineering fields, but with something as intricate as a fastener, the 3D printing market still has work to do,’ Baker says.
Logically, FMW Fasteners have therefore rejected 3D printed parts for now. ‘Our results are a pretty definite 'no' from all our customers. Fasteners have got to be strong – they've got to be able to be robust enough to not fail under stress. Is plastic that strong and robust? Until we can see genuine strength from a fastener produced from a 3D printer, the trust will not be there to go ahead and mass produce,’ Baker concludes. While we can’t fault any company for listening to their customers, this does suggest that the 3D printing revolution hasn’t exactly caught on outside the making community.
Posted in 3D Printing Applications
Maybe you also like:
- 3D-Printed Truecartier ring showing sounds from luxurious jewelry stores in NYC
- Tiny planetary gears set 3D-printed on a Makerbot Replicator
- The first 3D-printed sex toy prototype is there
- 3D printed ear adapter turns your earbuds into headphones
- Stop-motion Movie 'Paranorman' used 3D printers to create 31,000 individual facial parts
- Edible Chocolate Brain created from MRI scan and 3D printer
- Jay Leno uses 3D scanner and 3D Printer to replace old car parts
- 3D-Print a battery adapter for Canon Powershot SX200
- 3D printed Tanorexic Doll inspired by Tanning Mom
- One piece 3D printed hand glider that flies
- 3D printed Atlas co-op bot from portal 2
- 3D printed milk jug tells if you have milk at home
3D printing is still in its infancy. New materials and processes are being developed as we speak. We should not ignore this technology or we may end up like Polaroid and Kodak.
3Ders.org provides the latest news about 3D printing technology and 3D printers. We are now seven years old and have around 1.5 million unique visitors per month.
