“With the exponential growth of free designs and expansion of 3D printing, we are creating enormous potential wealth for everyone,” said professor Joshua Pearce, coauthor of the paper “Life-cycle economic analysis of distributed manufacturing with open-source 3-D printers”, published in Mechatronics.
The study took 20 household objects, including cellphone accessories, a garlic press, and a showerhead, and calculated it would take between $312 to $1,944 to buy them on Google Shopping and have them delivered.