Why The Future Of 3D Printing Is In 'Multi-Material Printing'

The 3D printing space has been filled with ups and downs as investors wait for the next big revolution. It's been a slow process, but Ford Motor Company F gave the industry hope when it signed a deal with Carbon3D.

Carbon3D claims that its technology is capable of printing items 25 to 100 times faster than traditional methods. This reinforced the belief that speed is one of the essential components in creating the perfect 3D printer.

However, that is not the only area that needs to be improved.

"I believe the future of 3D printing is multi-material printing," Daniel Polyakova, co-CEO of Graphene 3D Lab Inc GPHBF, told Benzinga. "It's multi-material meaning functional material."

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Polyakova, who runs the company with Elena Polyakova, said that 3D-printed items need to consist of many materials.

"All of this material has to be combined together to make something useful, to make something that works," he said. "What we are doing is, we are doing functional materials. For example, the conductor for the filament we released. You cannot use wires for 3D printing. Metallic wires [have] different processing parameters than plastics. Metal has a much higher temperature than plastic. You cannot really combine them using the same kind of 3D printing machine."

Mr. Polyakova said it would be "really beneficial" if 3D printers could use a wide range of materials instead of the simple options available today.

"It's coming from a static shape kind of structure to something that functions," he added. Elena Polyakova said she expects 3D printers to become more complex over the next 10 years.

"The difference between what we can do right now and what we can do in the future is like the difference between a calculator and a modern cell phone," she said.

Disclosure: At the time of this writing, Louis Bedigian had no position in the equities mentioned in this report.