Eddie, I think 2014 will easily be the year of metal 3D Printers, but perhaps more importantly high quality plastic printers. The Laser Sintering techniques which are under patents which expire next year means the the current fused deposition modeling method used in most plastic printers, which gives you lower quality prints, will fade into the background, while plastic products will begin to be printed at a quality that can be used for all sorts of things, with no trace that they were 3D printed. A few years back the fused deposition modeling patents expired and we saw prices go from $15,000 per printer to under $300 for some. I think it's possible to see similar price drops for laser sintering printers, both metal and plastic.

Why do I think 2014 will be the year of the metal 3D Printers? Because the patents expire in February. There are already several companies about to release some cool new printers as soon as those patents expire. Prices will be driven down greatly, and in my opinion, the future demand for metal printers will be far greater than plastic printers. The questions will be, will prices of metal powder also drop?