On the disruptive potential of 3D printing

Against the background of narratives fuelling big promises on the disruptive potential of 3D printing, this chapter seeks to describe a variety of contexts in which 3D printing technologies are expected to emerge over the next 15 years and exert their so-called disruptive potential. In the section 2, we first provide a brief introduction to 3D printing and we explain how it actually works. Next, in section 3, we describe the paradigmatic change allowed by 3D printing in the industrial sector with a shift toward mass-customization. In particular, we focus on the biomedical sector (section 3.1.), which is an interesting case in point because of the important number of innovations and the growth of 3D printed biomedical parts, a trend which is expected to continue in the future. To account for the dramatic, transversal, and transformative potential that 3D printing has in that whole sector, we first concentrate on 3D printing of biomedical instruments and implants for patients (section 3.1.1.) and, second, on additive bio- manufacturing of human tissues and organs (section 3.1.2.). Then, in the subsequent section 4 we address the expectations raised by 3D printing to empowering users in non-industrial domains (e.g. in fabrication laboratories or with desktop 3D printers at home). In section 5, we turn to discussing the impact of 3D printing on the governance actors and we raise important issues for further research in the political economy of 3D printing technologies. The chapter posits that 3D printing, and its governance, are closely associated with more participatory means of manufacturing (and of decision- making, through various governance structures) – but that, as things currently stand, such openness and participation does not play out in practice. There is a distinction between the rhetoric and reality of 3D printing, as one might expect in the case of newly emerging technologies.