1. 3D technology and additive manufacturing

1.1 How are 3D technologies changing (or potentially changing) society?

3D printing or "additive manufacturing" actually covers a whole series of processes which have in common the idea of manufacturing objects by depositing successive extremely thin layers of material [or more simply additions such as melted wires], which are solidified as they go along by an energy source (laser, for example) [...]. It is defined by AFNOR as "all the processes that make it possible to manufacture, layer by layer, by adding material, a physical object from a digital object". While...