Re: [rp-ml] Slow growth

Yes, I would have to agree with you.

Some developing countries have skipped from no telephone to
all-wireless, because cellular systems are less expensive to
deploy than land-line systems.

In the famous case of the Indian service industry -- low-cost,
international telephony is making this possible -- but, they
are skipping over manufacturing in the process. And still, most of the
population is left out of this.

China is a similar, vexing example. Reports I have heard indicate that
they are not working smarter unless only to duplicate a
piece of foreign-developed technology. In the words of a French-Iranian
-- "It's not industry, it's mass-production."
Meaning that masses of cheap laborers are available to make everything
essentially by hand.

Alan Greenspan says in "The Age of Turbulence" that it takes essentially
thirty years for a new piece of technology to substantially alter the
means of manufacturing in general. That is about the rate of advance of
"creative destruction" -- tearing down old paradigms to make way for
the new.

-Stewart http://us.imdb.com/Name?Stewart+Dickson
Visualization Research Programmer, Integrated Systems Laboratory
http://www.isl.uiuc.edu/~sdickson
4355 Beckman Institute, 405 N Mathews Ave, Urbana, IL 61801
+1(217)333-3923
http://emsh.calarts.edu/~mathart/MathArt_siteMap.html

Bernard Bryce wrote:
> Hi Ayyaz.
>
> The root cause I believe is the cost/benefit of buying and running
> RP machines, relative to the alternative approaches to making an item
> in these countries.
>
> One major competitor to additive RP is milling. (simple 3 axis
> milling, 3 axis with digital readouts, 3 axis cnc , 4 axis...etc.)
>
> In Europe or the USA the cost of a skilled machinist is high, so if
> you can simply print a part on a 3d printer, you have a big cost saving.
>
> Now if you move to a country where skilled labour costs are a factor
> of ten lower than here, then this alone will throw everything in the
> favour of the more labour intensive milling.
>
> It also all depends on what you want to make with your RP machine. If
> you have very low labour costs, its often very viable to make an item
> by hand. For example I know that its less expensive to have a piece of
> jewellery hand carved in wax in Thailand than it is to have it grown
> on a RP machine here.
>
> And what can be done?... I don't know! RP (additive) machines are
> expensive, Milling machines can be cheaper, and are generally easier
> to repair, and they tend to last forever! I'm sure there is someone on
> this list with a milling machine close on 100 years old!
> Perhaps either a ten-fold increase on labour costs in developing
> countries, or, a ten-fold decrease in the running costs of RP
> machines would make a difference!!!...
> Bernard Bryce
>
>
>
> Dear All
> Despite of all the fantastic features and benefits of Rapid
> Prototyping , the idea could not get acceleration especialy at
> small to medium enterprises level largely in developing countries?
> What you people think the root cause of this? and what you will
> suggest to do in this regard?
> Regards
> Ayyaz
> Researcher
>
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Received on Tue Apr 22 19:02:46 2008