3D printing and geopolitics: Marcal Sanmarti suggests that a revolutionary new manufacturing technology could have profound impact on international relations in future.

• Author: Sanmarti, Marcal

When we think of a technological race to achieve geopolitical hegemony (some might even say technological Cold War), most of the times two concepts appear in our mind: artificial intelligence and 5G. Warnings about the perils of the use of artificial intelligence have not stopped governments or even private corporations such as Google from pursuing supremacy in the field. The case of 5G is even more notorious. The anxiety of Western countries to find a local champion to dispute China's Huawei leadership is well known. Those are not the only disruptive technologies that are powerful assets in the chessboard of geopolitics. Industrial 3D printing could join them in a not distant future.

Is 3D printing a disruptive new technology or an under the radar slow development? It is the construction of a three-dimensional object from a digital 3D model. The concept can refer to a variety of processes in which material is deposited, joined or solidified under computer control to create a three-dimensional object, with material being added together (such as liquid molecules or powder grains being fused together), typically layer by layer. 3D printing technology is not exactly a new technology. The first 3D printing filed patent was registered by a Japanese researcher called Hideo Koyama back in April 1980. Unfortunately, his creation did not generate much attention and the project was terminated.

It was a few years later when 3D printers took the shape we are familiar with the creation of the Stratasys company. Stratasys was founded in 1989 by S. Scott Crump in the United States. The idea for the technology came to Crump in 1988 when he decided to make a toy frog for his young daughter using a glue gun loaded with a mixture of polyethylene and candle wax. He thought of creating the shape layer by layer and of a way to automate the process. In April 1992, Stratasys sold its first product, the 3D Modeler. Still, 3D printing's exponential growth did not start until several decades later. It was back in 2009 when Stratasys domestic 3D printing patents expired that real competition expanded the use of the technology.

Exponential boost

3D printing is another of those technologies that the COVID-19 pandemic has boosted exponentially. 3D makers around the world have been saving lives printing artificial ventilators, masks, valves and many other medical tools, especially when exponential growth in demand could not be covered by traditional suppliers.

Major global disruption is...