Once upon a time, the urban landscape was dotted with small, house-shaped boxes called Fotomats. People would drive up, drop off a roll of film, and return the next day to pick up their processed pictures.

Fotomats are all gone now, rendered obsolete by digital photography and home printers. There is no need for overnight or one-hour developing when all pictures are stored on a hard drive or in the cloud, and professional-quality photographs can be printed at home.

With 3D Printing, we are on the cusp of another revolution in printing. It’s impossible to predict the full level of industrial disruption this technology may produce, but 3D printing is already making inroads in several industries.

How it Works

The concept of a 3D printer is (somewhat) similar to a 2D printer. When you print a document at home, the machine places a thin layer of ink on top of a piece of paper. If you were to repeatedly print the same image on the same piece of paper, you would eventually be able to feel the buildup of ink on the paper.

That’s basically how 3D printing works, except instead of taking a 2D image and replicating it on a piece of paper, a 3D printer uses a 3D computer-aided design (CAD) digital file and translates that into a physical object.

When printing, this design is split into hundreds of 2D cross-sections. It’s these cross-sections that are printed. A 3D printer uses nozzles to add thin layers of material, often 0.1-millimeter thick, in precise alignment that replicates each of the cross-sections. The liquid material is allowed to dry and bond with the layer beneath it before another layer is added. This process can take a couple of minutes to several days, depending on the size and complexity of the object being printed.

Current 3D printers can use over 500 different materials in these creations. Picture the periodic table, and you get the idea. Possibilities include glass, plastics, metals, ceramics, leather, rubber, and even some foods, like chocolate and plant-based proteins.

3D printing is also called “additive manufacturing” because it builds an object by adding material only where it is needed. Additive manufacturing is the opposite of the typical manufacturing process – which has lately been termed “subtractive manufacturing” – that begins with a slab of material and cuts away the excess to create a part.

There are many benefits to manufacturing an object using 3D printing. The process significantly reduces waste, typically down to nothing unless you count the cartridges that held the raw material. 3D printed objects also use fewer components and tend to be lighter than conventionally manufactured goods. However, a study by Loughborough University found that when 3D the printers utilize heat or lasers, they use 50 to 100 times more electricity than traditional production methods.

From healthcare (printing artificial joints and organs) to automotive and aviation (GE reduced the individual components of a turboprop engine from 855 to 12 using 3D printing), 3D printing is making an impact on a variety of industries, including some that are very near and dear to our hearts.

The Events Industry

According to the fourth edition of Sculpteo’s “The State of 3D Printing,” prototyping, production, and proof of concept models were the three most popular 3D printing applications in 2018. Those are the exact uses for 3D printing the events industry is embracing.

For example, nearly two decades ago, the planning phase for large custom exhibits was done using to-scale 3D models, where planners and clients could physically move and place items before any large-scale construction began. These models were effective, and clients appreciated their tactile nature. The problem was that they were costly and time-consuming to create. As technology advanced, computer renderings and 3D animations replace the physical models.

However, 3D printing is revitalizing the use of to-scales models. A 3D printer can quickly create to-scale models of custom exhibits, including furniture and modular elements that can easily be moved around.

3D printed elements are also making their way into the exhibits themselves. For example, at the 2019 EXHIBITORLIVE conference, we used our 3D printer to create to-scale models of our mobile architectural structures. Each detailed rendering was lit from the inside with battery-operated fairy lights.

3D printing is impacting experiential activations, as well. An important part of any activation is those Instagram-worthy moments where people just have to stop and take a selfie…or seven. An example from a recent Nespresso pop up in Kuala Lumpur is a selfie area that featured a gigantic Nespresso machine and coffee cup with creamer being freshly poured as coffee and milk splashed over the rim. It was a fun sculpture and generated social media buzz, but activations of this size can be costly to build and take time to conceptualize and produce. However, with 3D printing, production time can be dramatically reduced. Similar activations may be conceptualized and created on a spur-of-the-moment basis. It will even be possible to easily and quickly switch out selfie stations in the middle of an activation or bring in new elements for an area that is not generating the desired traffic.

The Retail Industry

Similar activations are currently used in the Retail world, but that is not where 3D printing will make the most significant impact on this industry.

The future of retail will be about customization, and 3D printing will lead the way. Currently, consumer retail goods, such as clothing, furniture, and housewares, are mass-produced. For example, when you head to the store looking for a new sofa, the show floor appears to be filled with several varieties of sofas, each one very different from the next. However, in reality, there are several varieties of the sofa you select sitting in a warehouse. Even stores that offer customization options, such as fabric or leg varieties, choose those from a predetermined set of possibilities stored in another section of the same warehouse. Only the wealthiest people can afford to go to an artisan and ask them to craft a piece of furniture that is one of a kind.

3D printing completely reverses this scenario. First, the need for a warehouse is eliminated (unless a warehouse is needed for printing parts and material storage). Second, the 3D printing process makes it possible to mass-produce one-of-a-kind items. Sure, that sentence seems to make no sense, but it’s accurate: picture plates where the design is never replicated from one buyer to the next, “off the rack” clothes that are tailored to fit each shopper, and chairs designed for a buyer’s exact body type. 

It’s a notion that sounds straight out of a science fiction movie, but we live in a world where doctors are 3D printing hearts using human tissue. Does a fitted shirt really seem so impossible? 

What is needed for this retail revolution to become a reality is for the technology to advance (it needs to become much faster) and mass adoption. The first is happening, and the second is highly likely. It will probably occur the same as any new technology, such as when Blu-rays were first introduced, and players cost $1,000. Now you can pick one up at Best Buy for $35.

Boutique stores will probably be the first to offer bespoke 3D printed items, and other retailers will adopt the technology to compete. Eventually, the experience will just be another aspect of a trip to Old Navy.

At The Trade Group, we’re excited about the possibilities that 3D printing offers the events and retail industries. Give us a call at 800-343-2005 to discover how we currently use the technology, how we intend to keep up with it as it progresses, and how it fits into our plans for the future.

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