3D printing: The next trillion-dollar industry.

Three-dimensional printing makes it as cheap to create single items as it is to produce thousands and thus undermines economies of scale. It may have as profound impact on the world as the coming of the factory did. The technology is coming, and it is likely to disrupt every field it touches.— The Economist, in a February 10, 2011 leader.

By offering cheaper, faster, on-demand and personalized products to society, additive manufacturing, with its new innovations, can replace the manufacturing economy in the long term: industrial manufacturing, and the construction industry. In this article, I expose the 3 3D printing sub-industries (construction, industrial manufacturing, and food), how they generally function, and investment opportunities.

The fourth industrial revolution

An industry that will be valued in 2020 at only $15.8 billion (source: Wohler Associates), when 3D printing is applied to the construction and industrial sectors on a massive scale, is a safe industry in the eyes of the best portfolio managers, venture capitalists, and investment professionals.

How it works

3D printing is the computer-controlled production of three-dimensional objects, printed layer by layer from a 3D model file. The technology is capable of developing very complex shapes and geometries impossible to produce by conventional methods. The construction process is divided into two steps: (1) modeling, a process very similar to that of 3D graphics such as sculpture (3D scanning is also used), and (2) construction, a process that can take only a few hours compared to traditional methods. The speed, precision and the opportunity to print on a large scale make 3D printing a promising technology to build everything you see now around you.

The commercialization of the 3D model, not the product, is the future.

Because 3D printing products come from 3D models, in the future, marketing the3D model, not the product, would be the business. Brands could sell the 3D model and customers could print it, in a fully decentralized self-production economy. Each person could have a multitasking 3D printer or have the production done by a close friend and print the product. Additive manufacturing in combination with cloud computing technologies enables decentralized and geographically independent production. Some of today 3D printing marketplaces are Astroprint, Clara.io, Thingiverse, or MyMiniFactory, to name some.

Sub-industry 1: Construction 3D Printing

Construction 3D printing (also called C3DP or 3DCP) is the methodology of manufacturing buildings, infrastructure or construction components using large scale 3D printers. Its enormous advantages over the traditional construction industry are incredibly faster construction, much lower labor costs, greater simplicity in complex projects, greater integration of the different functions, and much less waste produced.

The construction industry is highly outdated

Next generations won't believe that today's construction industry is as slow as it is, handmade as it was 2000 years ago, very expensive compared to 3D printing, and incredibly noisy.

Although reading it already gives a clear picture of how far we are from true innovation, the $11T global construction industry (source: Construction Intelligence Center) is about to undergo a massive transformation with 3D printing, allowing most citizens of emerging economies, frontier markets or developing countries to own a home.

60 years of technological development

Robotic bricklaying started out in the 1950s and there were several innovations in the 1990s, but it was not until the 2000s that marketable applications of automated construction started out, with the D-Shape technology or the 3D concrete printing patents. In 2016 a new office building was opened in Dubai, the Dubai's Museum of the Future, the world's first 3D-printed office building.

Behrokh Khoshnevis. A house printed in 24H, since 2006

Since 2006, Behrokh Khoshnevis has demanded the 3D printing of a house in one day and this time could be theoretically reduced to a few hours. In 2013, operational versions of 3D printing technology for buildings printed 2 meters of construction material per hour were working, with tracking printers proposed to be capable of printing 3.5 meters per hour, enough to complete a building in a week. An ambitious project to build a 3D printed skyscraper in the United Arab Emirates was announced in 2017.

The construction industry of the space-based economy

In the space economy, as would be obvious, 3D printers, not astronauts, would build habitats on Mars or on the Moon. Several corporations named below have already planned to build on Mars and on the Moon. The European Space Agency was working with Foster + Partners to examine the potential of moonbase printing using 3D printing technology.

The Middle East opportunity

One of the greatest investment opportunities in 3D printing (at least for now) is in the members of the Gulf Cooperation Council and their enormous need for hospitality development in the coming years. Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, understanding the peak oil crisis and the dominance of renewable energy in transport in the coming decades, are investing hundreds of billions of dollars in the development of large-scale hospitality, such as smart cities (such as NEOM, $500B), to replace the oil dominance of their economies for the services sector.

3D printing will make it easier for them to finance their operations, as they don't really have enough to move forward. There are already plans in the third quarter of 2019 to start building with 3D printing, at least in a small scale, and in the 2020s there is likely to be a huge boom in 3D printing applications in the Middle East.

Influential private and public companies

Winsun, China, the world leader of construction 3D printing since 2003, but not the most ethical one, being reported the theft of designs by Behrokh Khoshnevis.

BetAbram, already selling home 3D printers.

FreeFAB, Australia.

MX3D Metal, robotic additive manufacturing.

SPECAVIA, Russia.

XtreeE, large scale 3D printing.

SQ4D, Long Island, US, a division of S-Squared 3D Printers Inc. Allows you online to see the interior of the homes they are printing. Recognized as the best 3D homebuilder of 2019 with its first of its kind unlimited footprint design S-Squared ARCS VVS NEPTUNE with its Gantry system 9.1 x 4.4 x infinite. from the United States.

D-Shape, one of the most influential 3D printing companies in the world.

Contour Crafting, including space applications, and technology for the development of large buildings.

Cybe Construction, 3D concrete printings.

COBOD, Europe. It has already imported to the Middle East.

2. Industrial 3D Printing

Global manufacturing is a $14T sector (data source: World Bank) and 3D printing has already produced faster, customized and cheaper on-demand products than traditional manufacturing. Industrial 3D printing is virtually most of the current size of the today 3D printing industry (construction is still a seed) and while it is likely not to dominate the entire manufacturing sector, it will gradually get more and more of it.

Some of the current products developed with 3D printing are cars and their components, jets (Israeli Air Force and Royal Air Force), aircraft components, helicopters, firearms, implants (3D bioprinting), medical devices, cellular immobilization, clothing (bikinis, shoes, dresses, highlighting the Nike Vapor Laser Talon), pills, jewelry or art, to name a few. In May 2015, Airbus announced that its new A350 XWB included more than 1,000 components manufactured using 3D printing. That was 2015.

Applications

3D Bioprinting: Used to implant stem cells that generate new tissues and organs in living human beings.

Medical devices: Creation of prosthetic devices, e.g. E-NABLE designed a 3D prosthetic hand in 2014 for a five-year-old girl from the UK who was born without fingers.

Automotive industry: 3D printing will produce renewable and autonomous transports in the future. The Audi RSQ was produced using KUKA industrial robots. Urbee is the name of the world's first car assembled with 3D printing technology. In 2014, Local Motors presented Strati, a working vehicle that was printed entirely in 3D using ABS plastic and carbon fiber.

Pills: In the near future, the pharmaceutical companies will sell the 3D model, not the product, and we, with the printer at home, will print the pill. That's the pharmacy of the future and this self-production megatrend will dominate the economy. In May 2015 the first pill manufactured by 3D printing was produced and in August 2015 the FDA approved it.

Clothing: With the same self-creation trend, clothing brands will sell 3D designs, not the product, and we will print the clothing. Nike used 3D printing to prototype and manufacture the Talon Laser Steam in 2012, and New Balance is making custom shoes for 3D athletes.

Industrial art and jewelry: Handmade jewelry will probably end in the next few years. Manufacturing with 3D printers produces designs impossible to make with traditional methods, at a more affordable price, and much faster. The printing of jewelry has already been done in gold of 18, 14, 22 & up to 24 carats. In 2005, academic journals began to report on the possible artistic applications of 3D printing technology.

Firearms: In 2012, the U.S.-based Defense Distributed group unveiled plans to design a working plastic gun that could be downloaded and reproduced by anyone with a 3D printer. It has already been running for some years, with the highest number of downloads in the United States, followed by Spain. Defense Distributed has become an influential global weapons organization, with weapons printed all over the world, and with the first detainee in Japan.

Space: The space-based economy requires 3D printers not only in construction but also in food production. The Zero-G printer, the first 3D printer designed to operate in zero gravity, was built under an agreement between NASA and Made In Space, Inc. In 2014, SpaceX delivered the 3D printer to the ISS.

Influential private and public companies

3D Systems, one of the biggest 3D printing companies in the world. Public, DDD (NYSE).

Stratasys, an Israeli manufacturer of 3D printers. Public, SSYS (NASDAQ).

Defense Distributed, 3D printed weapons.

Proto Labs, since 1999, including metals.

Materialise, public, MTLS, (NASDAQ).

Shapeways, On-demand manufacturing, one of the biggest promises of our future.

Voxeljet, supplier of 3D printing systems.

Formlabs, just launched the Form 3L.

Exone, Ex One, metals, and sand 3D printers.

Sculpteo, 3D printing on-demand, from France.

SLM Solutions, metal 3D printing, public, AM3D (ETR).

Nano Di, electronics 3D printing.

Organovo, 3D bio-printing.

DF Printing Compare, design & art 3D printing.

There are other hundreds of companies involved in the industry, but these ones give out a clear image of the trends, investment opportunities, and the ideal vehicle: private equity and late-stage venture capital.

3. Food 3D printing

3D printing is the future of food, and combined with cellular agriculture and cultured food products, will allow the decentralized, mass-customized production of food through 3D printers. The technology is up to solve one of the biggest problems on earth, it is the best candidate to dominate the food industry in the space-based economy, and now it is a very emerging industry, used both for professional and personal applications.

A wide variety of foods are suitable candidates, such as chocolate and sweets, and flat foods such as crackers, pasta, and pizza. NASA is studying the technology for creating 3D printed foods to limit food waste and make foods that fit an astronaut's diet.

For this reason, 3D food printing is the food industry of the space-based economy.

Influential private and public companies

Natural Machines, a Spanish company, creators of Foodini.

WASP, the Italian 3D printing company involved in construction, manufacturing and also food printing.

XYZ Printing, owned by New Kinpo Group.

ByFlow, 3D food printing.

NuFood, creators of the NuFood Robot, involved in food production.

Procusini, 3D food production.

BeeHex, a NASA-Spinoff company

Mmuse, chocolate 3D printer.

Pancake Bot, now in a restructuring.

Conclusion

The 3D printing industry, with the 3 sub-industries we've talked about in this article, is very likely to be worth a trillion-dollar, and from my point of view, a multi-trillion dollar industry by the 2030s. Institutional investors entering in the trend with venture capital, private equity or public stock markets, could perform well against any other type of investment strategy, and especially against the recession of the banking system in the 2020s.