The technology can be used to quickly print low-cost houses – but it’s not right for every manufacturing scenario. To the layperson, 3D printing sounds less like a manufacturing technique than magic.

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Often, people misunderstand it as “a replicator from Star Trek ,” said Kent Mages, owner of Custom Design and 3D Printing. “Some sci-fi thing [where]… I can just snap my fingers and boom.” That’s not how it works, though. Yes, you can 3D-print lots of things, including large-scale things like bridges. But you can’t do so instantaneously, Mages explained. It takes time. It also takes the right hardware and support structures.

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“You need something to actually print on,” he said. Here are the broad strokes of how the process works: You start with a printer. Some models can fit on a desk. Industrial versions, on the other hand, can measure more than 20 feet tall and need […]

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