3D printing is on  a roll!

Check out this 2015 metrics article about the "state of 3D printing". Highpoints:

The market for 3D printing resources for use in education (printers, materials, software) is expected to growth from 200M to 500M in 2019

The availability of "Low end" 3D printers (those that retail for $1,000 or less) is expected to grow 12% through 2020.

The article also give a great summary of filament types, both in current use and experimental:

Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) - aka Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) = "devices that extrude a continuous filament of thermoplastic material". In the Feb 2016 SEP 3D printing class, the UVa printers we used and the 3D printing pen created project using this method.

Stereolithography (SLA) - 3D objects created by "laying down layers of liquid polymer that harden when flashed with a laser". Check out my earlier blog post from April 2, 2016, about new technology using your phone as a 3D printer!

Coming soon to personal 3D printing:

Select Deposition Lamination (SDL) - "uses paper as the printing medium, which is tightly compressed, akin to wood..."

Material Jetting - "... like inkjet printing, but instead of dots of ink being sprayed onto paper, the printer jets polymers and plastics onto a print tray from multiple print heads, and a UV light is used to cure [harden] the layers."