ASX publicly listed 3D printing companies?

[SilverDJ]

I've got a feeling (nothing based on serious research) that we're currently in something like the equivalent of the pre iPad (EDIT: iPod I pressume?) era for 3D printers. At that time there were plenty of digital mp3 players around, but nothing really caught the imagination of the buying public until the iPod, and the rest is history. At the moment, home 3D printers are finicky and are really still at the hobbyist level.

Correct. And where are iPods and portable MP3 players now? If not dead, have become a worthelss commodity market.

The risk with 3D printer investment is that draconian IP regulation could kill innovation. It may take a powerful corporation with serious legal muscle to get these things into the mainstream once the technology matures a little more.

The patents on SLS have expired, and that is now the next big thing in 3D printers.
If you have ever tried to coax a consumer FDM 3D printer into a working reliably and repeatably, you'll understand.
The point I'm trying to make is that if you are looking to invest, then invest in the big companies that make the huge and expensive commercial and industrial 3D printers. The consumer 3D printer market is an over-saturated cut-throat me-too race to the bottom, and will only get worse.

 

[SpacePete]

The risk with 3D printer investment is that draconian IP regulation could kill innovation. It may take a powerful corporation with serious legal muscle to get these things into the mainstream once the technology matures a little more.

The patents on SLS have expired, and that is now the next big thing in 3D printers.
If you have ever tried to coax a consumer FDM 3D printer into a working reliably and repeatably, you'll understand.
The point I'm trying to make is that if you are looking to invest, then invest in the big companies that make the huge and expensive commercial and industrial 3D printers. The consumer 3D printer market is an over-saturated cut-throat me-too race to the bottom, and will only get worse.

I agree with you on everything. The point about IP is more about the digital models being used to produce objects rather than the IP of the printers themselves, and that companies may, at some point in the future, see them as a threat and lobby the government for even more draconian IP laws and restrictive DRM idiocy to make it difficult to share and innovate in that space without licence fees. I've already heard of medical device manufacturers getting pissed off with medical researchers and surgeons sharing and developing innovative once-off patient-specific objects instead of buying expensive stuff from a dominant manufacturer.

 

[SilverDJ]

The point about IP is more about the digital models being used to produce objects rather than the IP of the printers themselves, and that companies may, at some point in the future, see them as a threat and lobby the government for even more draconian IP laws and restrictive DRM idiocy to make it difficult to share and innovate in that space without licence fees. I've already heard of medical device manufacturers getting pissed off with medical researchers and surgeons sharing and developing innovative once-off patient-specific objects instead of buying expensive stuff from a dominant manufacturer.

It's a brave new world!
The powers-that-be don't like, it ruins their retirement plan.