Category:	Science and Technology
Domain:	Materials
Keywords:	Materials - ink-jet printing, personal fabrication, manufacturing, customisation
Outlook:	Ink-jet technology could give individuals the power to manufacture their own products. This idea has significant implications for high-tech customisation, developing countries' access to advanced technology, and for global economic competitiveness.
Summary Analysis:	Ink-jet printing is a ubiquitous technology of the digital age. While not as rapid or cheap as offset printing or as precise as laser printing or high-quality engraving, ink-jet printing of both text and photos has proven to be extremely popular in homes and offices. Ink-jet technology has also made inroads into wide-format industrial printing, prototyping and custom printing of fabric patterns, and other commercial areas. Now ink-jet technology is poised to enter the manufacturing arena: ink-jet printing is already deployed in the creation of electronic chips, as a way of depositing adhesives to bond chips to substrates in the production of memory chips, but scientists and engineers have experimented with using ink-jet technology to print simple electronics, and in 3D printing of simple structures and product prototypes. In the computer industry, ink-jet manufacturing is attractive for several reasons. Its low cost and easy setup, the ease with which it can be customised, and its ability to be used with new classes of inks and substrates all make it an attractive technology for radical experimentation. For example, ink-jet printing is already used in the fabrication of flexible electronics and displays and in the creation of three-dimensional structures through deposition. Among consumers, ink-jet manufacturing could benefit from a couple of trends. First, the large installed base of ink-jet printers makes the technology familiar and non-threatening. Though controversies could develop over, say, the health effects of increasingly exotic inks. Second, user customisation is already a significant force in the personal electronics industry, and personal fabrication takes that movement to its logical conclusion. The combination of personal fabricators, inexpensive design tools (the electronic or 3D equivalents of Photoshop, which is now indispensable among graphics professionals, or Final Cut Pro, which gives aspiring filmmakers access to studio-quality editing tools), and the Internet could enable the emergence of a user-driven design and customisation movement. By 2025, personal fabricators relying on ink-jet technology could be as common as printers are today.

	Implications:	Increased personal creativity, choice, and power over everyday objects Decreased reliance on conventional mass production and old-style factories, which could have particular significance for China and its status as a global manufacturing powerhouse Empowerment of people in the developing world, where ink-jet technology could serve as a means of locally manufacturing electronics and spare parts for machinery
	Early Indicators:	Development by MIT engineer Neil Gershenfeld of a "fab lab" that allows users in Third World countries to manufacture a wide variety of plastic products Development by researchers at MIT and UC Berkeley, among other institutions, of a variety of ink-jet printed electronics Production of printed RFID tags in the research labs of Philips, Texas Instruments, Motorola, and other electronics companies Use of ink-jet printing in skilled crafts like jewelry and baking (ink-jet printed pastries are already a reality)
	What to Watch:	Plans for printable devices become available commercially or via open sources. Venture capital investment moves into personal fabrication. A shift in language describing ink-jet technology downplays its use in printing and emphasises its use in manufacturing. Designers make their reputations working in personal fabrication, creating designs sold directly to end users. Developing countries begin to demonstrate growing standards of living without dramatic increases in either industrial capability or importation of finished goods, suggesting that personal fabrication could challenge traditional mass production.
	Parallels/Precedents:	Johannes Gutenberg's printing press, which incorporated innovations in type making that drew on Renaissance metalworking Evolution of lithography from a technology for printing images to a technology for etching integrated circuits (though IC lithography is now quite different from its artistic counterpart)
	Enablers/drivers:	Thorough understanding of ink-jet printing technology and maturity of the printing industry Creation by scientists of new classes of inks (often drawing on materials from nanotechnology) that have conductive properties, can be used as semiconductors, or have other special properties Increasing demand in the electronics industry for cheaper manufacturing methods Increased understanding in the electronics industry of the potential of flexible electronics
	Leaders:	Institutions: MIT (work of Neil Gershenfeld, research on ink-jet printed electronics) UC Berkeley (research on ink-jet printed electronics) Philips, Texas Instruments, Motorola (work on commercialising RFID tag printing and expanding its capabilities to microprocessors) Epson (UK) [link] University College, London [link] University of Cambridge [link] University of Manchester [link] Boxford (UK manufacturer) [link] Motorola [link] Orgatronics (Netherlands) [link]
	Figures:
	Sources:	Stephen Mihm, "Print Your Next PC," Technology Review (November/December 2000). [link] Gershenfeld, Neil. 2005. Fab: The Coming Revolution on Your Desktop--From Personal Computers to Personal Fabrication. New York: Basic Books. "Personal Fabrication: A Talk with Neil Gershenfeld." The Edge (2003). [link] Vian, Kathi and Alex Soojung-Kim Pang. 2003. "The Very Small World." Institute for the Future. Henning Sirringhaus and Tatsuya Shimoda, Inkjet Printing of Functional Materials, MRS Bulletin, November 2003 [link] B-J de Gans et al, Inkjet Printing of Polymers: State of the Art and Future Developments, Advanced Materials 16, 3, 203-213, 2004 [link] H Lipson, Homemade (fabrication technology), IEEE Spectrum 42, 5, 24-31, 2005 [link] R Parashkov et al, Large area electronics using printing methods, Proceedings of the IEEE, 93, 7, 1321-1329, 2005 [link]

	At A Glance:	When:	11–20 years
		Where:	Global
		How Fast:	Years
		Likelihood:	Medium-High
		Impact:	Medium-High
		Controversy:	Medium

Related Outlooks: