3-D printing is disrupting the $12 trillion manufacturing industry worldwide, and companies such as Ford, L’Oreal, Siemens and others are training workforces to adopt skills in this technology.

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The technology is having the largest impact on industries that manufacture low-volume, high-value parts that may benefit from mass customization, says an analyst at IDTechEx.

• A French cosmetics giant uses one to create artificial skin.
• A Wisconsin start-up designs ceramic guides that pinpoint tumors in individual cancer patients.
• Workers on a remote North Sea oil rig make replacement parts on the spot rather than wait days for a ship or helicopter to arrive. .

.All these actions are made possible by one technology: 3-D printing. Developed in the 1980s, 3-D printers create three-dimensional objects by laying down successive layers of material, a process called additive manufacturing. The technology has evolved to work with different types of substances: plastics, metals and now biological […]

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