Ford, Rivian and GM are "democratizing 3D printing." Democratizing. A machine that melts plastic into a bracket now has a voting record.
The pitch is simple. Print prototypes. Print factory tools. Print low-volume parts. Spend less. Move faster. Nobody checks whether the bracket asked to be printed.
Rivian makes trucks for people who own kayaks they have never touched. Ford makes trucks for people who own kayaks they have touched once. GM makes trucks and also apologizes a lot. All three now own machines that build things layer by layer, like a lasagna with a mechanical engineering degree.
The word "democratizing" is the best part. Democracy means everyone gets a say. Here, a printer gets a say. The printer says "bracket." Everyone nods. Someone in a fleece vest calls it innovation.
Retail traders will read this and buy a 3D printer stock. They will not check which one. They will buy it at the top, print a small plastic rocket, and tell their spouse it is "an asset."
The plastic rocket will not go up. Neither will the stock. The spouse will keep the dog and the printer.
Is this a big deal? Prototypes are a real expense. Faster tooling is faster tooling. A factory that waits less is a factory that waits less. That is the whole story, and it is fine. It is a sentence about a Tuesday.
Financial media will turn that Tuesday into a thesis. Someone will say "additive manufacturing supercycle" with a straight face. A man in Ohio will mortgage a duplex over it.
Ford once built a car on a moving line and changed the world. Now it prints a clamp and calls a press conference. Progress is just a smaller thing with a bigger announcement.
Your 401(k) is also built layer by layer. Each layer is a mistake, and none of them are plastic.
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