Today, most industrial 3D printing is a closed shop—printers are tied to brand-specific polymers and proprietary software. That’s an obstacle to growth and antithetical to the rest of the manufacturing world, says Cosine Additive Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer Andrew McCalip.
“The basic analogy is, if you go to Home Depot and you buy a Dewalt table saw, they don’t require you to use Dewalt lumber, you just buy commodity lumber,” McCalip says. “So the way I see the 3D printing industry evolving, and for the 3D printing industry to experience exponential growth, we’re going to have to make a commodity out of the software and materials.”