I read below article;
Formlabs Starts to Ship Its Professional 3-D Printer | MIT Technology Review
I am not sure with patent and resin issues, but at least for the production issue, I think that the technology and know-how of Japanese manufacturing industry should be able to help a lot.
Japanese people normally say that the core competency of Japanese manufacturing industry is "technology" but it is too vague, and sometimes incorrect. When we talk about the technology, it often means technologies which are applied to the products. However, in my opinion, what Japanese can contribute to the world is mainly in aspect of agile transfer process with high reliability. For example, when I was working in a motor (not automobile, but a small tiny parts in electronics or likes) manufacturer, Taiwanese or Chinese makers were usually better than us in terms of cost and responsiveness, and we were almost in the same range in terms of specs of the products. However, Taiwanese and Chinese competitors often messed the customer's schedule up with quality or delivery issues, though it was very rare in our company. I think that Japanese companies have had to get used to responding to the super high requirement of Japanese OEM's such as Toyota, Panasonic, Sony, etc., requesting to make the schedule without sacrificing productivity, line capacity, and process capability. Due to this, it is natural for them to establish mass production really fast and make the lines produce less defects.
My assumption is only based on my experience in only one company, so I am totally not sure, but I think that we should highlight this point more.
Changing the topic...
Looks like 3D printer is still a hot topic in the US. It's been almost 2 months after I returned to Japan, but I do not see 3D printer is mentioned in the media that much.
(Looks like Nikkei, the biggest business journal in Japan, is following with a huge interest, though.)
One of the biggest reason 3D printer is, I guess, that it would jeopardize Japan's small and mid companies, which are engaged in manufacturing. In Japan, companies with less than 300 employees represents more than 99% of manufacturing industry, and they employ more than 75% of employee there. I do not know the exact data, but most of them focus on small-batch manufacturing, such as prototyping and sample, and if 3D printer becomes very popular in R&D process in Japanese big manufacturers, they will lose their jobs. 3D printer will jeopardize tooling industry as well, because customization of small stuff will become popular and they can do that without making tooling.
This could be a really big issue for the future of industries in Japan, and job market.
