5 Ways That 3-D Printing is Going to Shake Up Retail

For example, industrial processes involving plastic injection molding have, for decades, been limited by the time it takes for molten plastic to cool before a new batch could begin. But with 3-D-printed molds allowing for the innovation of printing cooling channels into products so that they can be cooled quickly by passing water through them, efficiency is being increased as much as 30 percent. 3-D hubs, connecting whole fleets of distributed 3-D printers and making their production capacity available for rent, stand to act as the factories of the future, making fully scalable local production simple to access. Retailers will then have the option of creating products in-house on a made-to-order basis or using locally available mass production as economy-of-scale costs dictate.