Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/652863
68 The PCB Design Magazine • March 2016 Matties: Well, thanks so much for sharing. This is really great to see. It looks like this is an explosive market. It reminds me of when the personal com- puter came out. It was slow, but it empowered so many people and it changed the world, and that's what 3D printing is going to do. We're going to see a lot of innovation, new products, and new ideas. I think there's a manu- facturing renaissance that's going to happen in America because of this and the types of services that you guys are providing. Johnson: We're having a lot of fun. Just this morning I was talking to someone from a con- tract manufacturer, and he said they do a lot of different short-lived projects in their contract manufacturing business, and they need some- thing like this. Matties: Perfect, that's what you want to hear. Nolan, thank you so much. It's great to catch up with you again and it's exciting to see what you're doing. Johnson: Thank you, Barry. For more information on the relationship be- tween 3D printing and PCB design, read this Sun- stone Circuits case study. PCBDESIGN into the consumer sector in 2012. They do all the fun things, but they are mostly a novelty or toy, and not too industrial. Then you see peo- ple doing projects like, "Well, can we 3D print a car?" Or "How much of the car can we 3D print?" While conceptually you could actually do that, is it drivable and up to the real-world rigors? At this show, just as an example, there's a car here, the Blade, that's 3D printed, but what they're 3D printing is the key structural compo- nents to connect the carbon fiber tubes. That connecting part is being 3D printed and the rest of the car is being done in a traditional way. 3D printing is rapidly finding realistic, achievable applications in the industry and doing the right thing for the right part of the overall industry, but not taking over everything. I think there's going to be a place that will make business sense for the right customer do- ing the right thing. Otherwise, they have to in- vest a lot of time and resource in getting their own in-house expertise for running that equip- ment. Matties: Is this the same sort of process where they download the files, place the order, and a few days later their product is in their hands? Johnson: Absolutely, it's all done online. sunstone circuits r&d: 3d printing great for prototyping