From the July 2017 issue
In the bad old days, when you busted one plastic switch on a Pontiac Bonneville, your dealer forced you to buy an entire set. Now you can pay a Russian who builds replica Star Wars guns a couple of bucks to ship you a brand-new, OEM-quality part for your old Bonnie. And soon you may want to just make it yourself in your garage.
At this point, an aftermarket car part made by a 3D printer could save you hours and hundreds of dollars, or it might simply snap in half. But just as computer-aided design rewrote automotive engineering in the 1980s, 3D printing is looking to revolutionize the replacement-parts business, allowing car owners to create precise copies in their own garages, albeit with varying degrees of success at this early stage.
A high-six-figure price puts Shapeways’ printer well beyond what the average DIY user would buy. Its laser-sintering process shoots a laser into a tray of plastic powder, fusing it layer by layer. Other forms of 3D printing deposit new material, as if from a big tube of glue. Laser sintering allows multiple parts to be ?cast? from a single tray of powder.
?There?s no physical barrier anymore for people to start mass-producing parts,? said Peter Weijmarshausen, CEO of Shapeways. A contract printer based in New York City, Shapeways can make any cosmetic part out of fused-filament plastic, steel, and even platinum. While many of its 1 million users hawk scale models and jewelry, a savvy seller can create a custo...