3D Printing Goes Corporate in 2015

Authored by Elizabeth D. Ferrill, John F. Hornick, and Benjamin T. Sirolly

2013 was a year of consumer and media hype about 3D printing. In 2014, much of the hype evaporated, but the industry continued to grow at a clip of more than 30%. 2015 may be the year that 3D printing reaches its inflection point in the corporate arena.

Corporate America is getting into 3D printing in a big way. Amazon launched a 3D printing storefront, Staples offers a walk-in 3D printing service, and The Home Depot is stocking consumer-grade printers. In 2015, 3D printers will become increasingly common in the average home and on factory floors. Research firm Gartner reports that shipments of worldwide consumer and industrial 3D printers will double in 2015.

3D printing will continue to revitalize U.S. manufacturing in 2015. 3D Systems took a page from history to build its Continuous, High-Speed Fab-Grade Printer, an assembly line of 3D printers where the print bed is mobile and the print head is stationary, the opposite of traditional 3D printers. 3D Systems and Google plan to mass produce 3D printed modular smart phones using this technology, beginning in Q1 2015.

GE, one of the best cheerleaders for industrial 3D printing, is building an Alabama factory that should be up and running next year, using a 3D printing process called Powder Bed Fusion to mass produce fuel nozzles for jet engines. 3D printing the nozzles reduces the number of parts from 20 to one and reduces their weight by 25%. Because of such efficiencies, GE says 3D printing is "the future of manufacturing."

On October 29, 2014, HP shook the 3D printing industry by announcing that its long-awaited 3D printer will be at least ten times faster than the competition, and will make higher quality parts at lower cost. According to HP, 3D printing 1000 gears with its proprietary Multi Jet Fusion process takes only three hours, compared to 83 hours with traditional Material Extrusion machines. Being beta tested by select customers next year and expected to hit the market in 2016, HP's machines seem to combine as many as four types of 3D printing processes: Material Jetting, Binder Jetting, Powder Bed Fusion, possibly Directed Energy Deposition. One x-moving carriage of the machine seems to jet materials to form a bed, after which a second, y-moving carriage with an array of thousands of tiny nozzles jets "chemical agents" onto the layer - at a rate of 30 million drops per second - followed by a shot of energy from the first carriage that fuses the layer while more material is deposited. HP says its machines will deliver accuracy, detail, color, and material characteristics (including strength, elasticity, and electrical and thermal properties) not seen before in 3D printing. More details should emerge in 2015, including insights into whether HP will make good on its 2013 promise to "lead this business." In any event, HP's machines are likely to force its competitors to spend big R&D dollars in 2015 to attempt to meet or beat HP's technology.

Much has been written about the expiration of basic 3D printing patents, which has opened the technology for consumer-grade 3D printers. But there is no dearth of industrial 3D printing patents. Currently, big players in the industry own about 8,000 patents and 4,000 pending patent applications for 3D printing machines, processes, materials, and products. Moreover, the ability to 3D print products that have always been made with traditional methods has also started a race to the Patent Office by product manufacturers. Nike filed several applications related to 3D printed footwear. Gillette filed an application claiming a way of 3D printing a razor cartridge. Seeing the handwriting on the wall, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office plans to develop a classification system tailored to 3D printing next year.

One group that may start to cry foul in 2015 is replacement parts makers, who may find that traditional forms of IP protection are inadequate to prevent their customers from making or repairing parts with 3D printers, instead of buying them. An IBM 3D printing study says that 3D printing will leave "companies unable to generate profits from selling spares." Expected reactions include litigation, calls for new legislation, and new business models that accommodate both widespread 3D printing and protection of revenue streams. It will be interesting to see where the smart money goes in 2015 and beyond.

Originally printed in Intellectual Property Today. This article is for informational purposes, is not intended to constitute legal advice, and may be considered advertising under applicable state laws. This article is only the opinion of the authors and is not attributable to Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner, LLP, or the firm's clients.