Printable View
Curious questions here. Of course we are all somewhat experts in the field of 3D printing and additive manufacturing, but what about our friends and families? Out of all your connections in the real world, what percent of them have at least somewhat of an understanding how 3D printers function?
Nope. When I told a friend of mine I was making 3D printers, his sister asked what that was, and he replied "you know, raised printing."
i get about the same responses davo. very few people i talk to know about it. occasionally i will say something though and people will surprise me and be all up on it.
When we tell people we do 3d printing they assume its the kind of printing with the 3d glasses and when we explain to them they just looks lost haha
The CAD guys here know all about it, as they used them during their college courses. They almost certainly know considerably more about it than I do.
The girl at the phone shop (a young bubbly 20-something...) who sold me my last mobile offered me a new case. I showed her my current case and said nah thats ok thanks, I print my cases. She looked at me, looked at the case and had absolutely no idea what I was talking about. I then proceeded to attempt to explain to her what it was in the most simplest terms, and still after half an hour she was still baffled as to how a computer could print the case she saw before her..
As far as I know, in the two schools my kids have been to now over the past few years, there are no other kids who's parents have 3D printers, or know anyone that do. Even now, besides the guys here like Old man Emu from Aus, I only know 2 people that own them besides me. It's not something thats catching on as quick as I'd hoped here. Right now I'm planning a big school thing, I thought it would be good to take the machine into school, the kids can model something and print their own thing out. Sure, not everyone will get a turn but ill pre-print some goodies for them so no one gets left out :)
I am often surprised to find that even people who I have talked to about 3D printing really didn't understand what we were talking about all along, and once they see something I printed they're totally confused. The people that I have run into that do (sort-of) know about it only know from youtube clips that were about printing guns, so they have a twisted tunnel-vision preconception of what it's all about.
Compared to everyone here it seems I am the opposite. I do live, after all, in a college neighborhood but every student I talk to when I bring up 3D printing has heard of it in some shape or form.
Here in Austria - Vienna not long ago almost no one knew about it.
One guy thought I was talking about printing holograms until I showed him a print.
I'm not sure how it's now since recently there where some news about 3D printing in the mainstream television media.
The first "offline" shop in Vienna has opened recently - thus I guess it won't take too long until a more widespread knowledge will emerge.
Up till now I had to explain 3D printing to each and every one except at the reprap-wien meeting.
My grandparents just asked me about it the other day, asking about its implications, so its getting around.
I think most people younger than 40 have at least some knowledge of 3D Printing. Very minimal perhaps, but they at least know that 3D printers exist. I'd say only about 2% of the population know a good amount about 3D printing, like how it works, etc.
I do get the same response as you guys; and whenever I explain what 3d printing is all about, they’re pretty surprised that this kind of printing process actually exists. Sometimes, they are puzzled on how it works so I always show a demo for them to easily understand.
Interesting to hear that so few people on your side of the ocean really know about it. I can see it could be a way to impress the girls then :) But not so much over here in the Netherlands, most young people know about it by now, and a lot of schools are buying 3d printers. People aren't really buying them yet for at home, unless they are designers by profession. But even among designers there are very few who own a printer themselves. As from next week I will be among those lucky ones. All in all I would think that about 30-40% of the population here knows what 3d printing is.
By the way, raised printing for desktop printers is also being developed, by Oce. I think they call it 2.5D printing, it's just multiple layers of ink printed on top of each other up to about 4 mm. It looks amazing, I saw it at the 2013 Dutch Design Week.
I'm not really sure I would agree with this. I would probably guess about 45% of people under 40 know that 3D printing exists. However I doubt they know how it works, or very many details about it.Quote:
I think most people younger than 40 have at least some knowledge of 3D Printing. Very minimal perhaps, but they at least know that 3D printers exist. I'd say only about 2% of the population know a good amount about 3D printing, like how it works, etc
James