What are the disadvantages of an expensive 3D printer

List of Cons of 3D Printing

1. It is faced with limited materials.
At present, 3D printers can only create items out of resin, ceramic, plastic and certain metals. As you can see, 3D printing with the use of mixed technologies and materials, such as circuit boards, is still under development.

2. It has caused manufacturing jobs to decrease.
Similar with the impact other new technologies have, 3D printing will decrease manufacturing jobs, which means that it can have a huge impact on third-world economies, especially China that is depending on a large number of low-skill jobs.

3. It comes with copyright issues.
With this printing technology becoming commonplace, printing copyrighted products to create counterfeits of them will also become more common, and it would be nearly impossible to identify which is the original product. There will definitely be a challenge with intellectual property rights, especially with the value of a product residing in a digital file, where there is a question whether manufacturers would assign licensing rights and insert copy protections to protect their property.

4. It risks producing dangerous items.
It is said that 3D printing will allow for the creation of more dangerous items, such as knives and guns, with little or no oversight. In terms of regulation, this process also has the potential to undermine control mechanisms that make sure products are appropriate and safe. As you can see, customs regulatory bodies would lose their power to oversee goods when they are no longer transported across borders.

5. It creates more useless products.
Another huge danger of 3D printing is that it might be used to create more useless items, which will not do well for our pockets and the environment. Luckily, there are already new methods introduced to automatically recycle objects that are created using 3D printers, holding promise of improved recycling solutions in the future.

6. It has a lot of limitations.
It is still unclear to what extent that this printing method can outperform or even replace traditional processes of manufacturing and shipping. For one, it actually cannot compete with the speed of traditional manufacturing processes, thus it is not a good solution for mass production of goods. As of yet, 3D printers are still limited with product sizes that they can create. Aside from this, traditional mass production processes are significantly cheaper than using 3D print technology to produce large quantities. And for items that require their surfaces to be smoothened, they will still need finishing following 3D print production, as the process will still leave a rough surface structure on objects, especially those made of synthetic fiber.