Month: February 2017

3D Printing Economics

3D PrintingIn the News

Research by Joshua Pearce (MSE/ECE) and undergraduate student Emily Peterson was covered widely in the 3-D printing industry press, 3-D printing undustry and 3-Ders and Could You Save Money by 3D Printing Household Items? – All3DP, as well as the larger technical press including: 3D printing ordinary household goods can save you a lot of money, study finds – TechSpot, License to Print Money at Home?– Engineering360, and 3D-printing household objects could be top money-saving tip – E&T.

Joshua Pearce (MSE/ECE) was quoted in the article Can Plug-and-Play Solar Systems Lead the Way? in Green Buildings.

Pearce’s lab was covered by BBC Arabic on 3-D printing and CBS Detroitused MTU 3-D printers as examples in The Future Of Manufacturing: What’s Next?

3-D printing research by Pearce and undergradate Emily Peterson was covered by technology sites across Asia including Nanjixiong (China), Weiot (China), 24 Maker (China) and Naver (Korea).

Joshua Pearce (MSE/ECE) wrote an opinion piece for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. The piece was titled “America Should Recruit Smart Immigrants from Every Country.”

Pearce’s research is covered in These Researchers Want To Prepare Us For The Post-Apocalypse-Futurism, and 3D Printers In The Average American Household – Computer Power User.

In Print

Materials Science and Engineering undergraduate student Emmily Peterson co-authored a paper with Joshua Pearce (MSE/ECE) titled “Emergence of Home Manufacturing in the Developed World: Return on Investment for Open-source 3-D Printers,” in the journal Technologies.

PhD student Nagendra Tanikella (MSE) coauthored an article with alumnus Ben Wittbrodt (MSE) and Joshua Pearce (MSE/ECE) titled “Tensile Strength of Commercial Polymer Materials for Fused Filament Fabrication 3-D Printing” that was published in Additive Manufacturing.

Joshua Pearce (MSE/ECE) published Emerging Business Models for Open Source Hardware in the Journal of Open Hardware.

Just Press Print: 3-D Printing At Home Saves Cash

By Stefanie Sidortsova.

Interested in making an investment that promises a 100 percent return on your money, and then some? Buy a low-cost, open-source 3-D printer, plug it in and print household items.

In a recent study published in Technologies, Joshua Pearce (MSE/ECE) set out to determine how practical and cost effective at-home 3-D printing is for the average consumer.

He found that consumers—even those who are technologically illiterate—can not only make their money back within six months, but can also earn an almost 1,000 percent return on their investment over a five-year period. Pearce estimates that using only the random 26 objects analyzed in the study may have already saved consumers who use 3-D printers at home more than $4 million. There are several million free 3-D printable designs available on the web.

Read the full story.

Joshua Pearce Awarded People’s Choice for Opensource.com

Joshua Pearce
Joshua Pearce

Associate Professor Joshua Pearce received a 2017 People’s Choice Award from Opensource.com. Recipients are recognized for having excelled in contributing and sharing stories about open source. Winners were voted on by the community.

Joshua Pearce runs the University’s Open Sustainability Technology group. In March 2015, he wrote about his course that lets students build their own open source 3D printers and use them to complete class projects. Since then, Pearce has shared several stories about open hardware, open source design, and more with readers.