Product designers Tom and Tracy Hazzard explain how 3D printing is reshaping retail, medicine, automotive, and aerospace. They stress it requires serious design work and iteration, not just pushing a button. They recommend 3dstartpoint.com and their WTFF podcast for learning, and say entrepreneurs should use 3D printing to test ideas cheaply before scaling.
Questions this episode answers
Over 250 products generating over $750 million.
February 4, 2021.
About 200 hours.
3dstartpoint.com.
WTFF ("what the fused filament fabrication").
Chapters
Foreign.
We're back on the red carpet and with me is a husband and wife team who are expert product designers. They've actually created over 250 products that's generated over $750 million. They, they are also the go to people for everything. 3D design and 3D printing. Please welcome Tracy and Tom Hazard. Thank you so much for being here.
Thank you, Maria.
Thanks for having us.
Okay, so 3D design. 3D printing is kind of like the hot topic right now. And we're seeing it from Ellen, Jimmy Fallon, to TV shows like Bones and also Grey's Anatomy. So how are you seeing this new form of technology being integrated into our lives today?
We're so glad that producers of Grey's Anatomy are adopting it and bringing it in and Ellen and all of those places, because it's really great that we're creating awareness for 3D printing right now. It's going to completely change various parts of our industries. Retail, medicine, I mean, it's completely changing medicine already. Automotive, it's already changed. Aerospace. So there's so many industries that are being impacted by it that we don't yet know what the future is going to be like.
This is really just the beginning where we are today with desktop 3D printing and students learning it at home and in schools. Just wait 10 or 15 years, you won't even believe it.
Well, one of the cool things that you had mentioned before is that people like in the culinary arts, they're using, I mean, 3D printing for chocolate. I mean, that's cool. And also in the fashion industry. I mean, check this out.
Yeah, this is a design of ours. It's a 3D printed tie all the way around the chain on my neck. And it's really just to prove how 3D printing, even with today's technology, is really here and now. You can make real world products that have value to people today.
And they have different forms and designs. So this is printed all in one piece with nothing to assemble, nothing to put together, and it just comes off so completely different. So imagine how much our styles are going to change.
That is so cool. But okay, before we hop on the 3D printing design bandwagon, there are probably some things that we should know or maybe some questions that we need to ask. What should those things be?
The first thing is, what is 3D printing? I mean, 3D printing, it just sounds like this crazy thing. It's just. It's so far out there. And 3D printing isn't actually probably as accurate. It's more like a sewing machine than it is like a printer. So you got to think about it. It's a craft tool tool. And so you don't just spit it out. You don't just press, print, and it prints. So it takes time and craft, and you have to learn and you have to design, and you have to take the time for that.
It's not something that you can decide you're going to do, go buy a printer and then in a weekend be printing all sorts of things. But at the same time, it is very real and attainable to average people today. You know, you do need to take the time. You need to be willing to take the time to learn.
Yeah. For instance, it took Tom about 200 hours to design this tie. And, you know, keep in mind, we've been designing over 20 years, so we should be able to design a product like that. And we design, as you mentioned, 250 products, so we know what we're doing. But it took 200 hours to design this. So it takes time to really design something you're proud of that is different and has the skill level that you want.
That's true. It's design and it's testing and it's perfecting. So, you know, you have an iterative process back and forth between yourself, the computer and the printer. So to really create something unique and different.
Well, one of the cool things that I really like what you've done is you created a resource site that will have all this information. So tell me about that, where people can actually learn how to become a 3D designer, you know, and how to do 3D printing, something. I think that's really great.
Well, you know, we started with creating a podcast earlier in early 2015, which, to help communicate to people what is all about 3D printing. It's called WTFF, which is what the fused filament fabrication. A little geeky term, but that is what 3D printing is. And so what the FFF. So it starts with what you want to print.
So you have to really, really get into your mind as to what it is you're looking for, what is your industry, what is the future of it, or if you just want to go out there and learn. And so3dstartpoint.com which is the website as well as WTFF, the podcast. It's all about jumping the learning curve. So jumping it to where you want to go. So getting it in. In the industry, in. In the what you already want to make, in. In the resources that are already known to be useful for that Particular what.
So you can come to 3D start point to start to investigate your interest in 3D printing, to learn what are the materials, the machines, the tools, the tips that you need to know to get started and to learn and be productive.
Okay, so now that we understand the benefits of 3D printing, what is like the one thing that we can do right now to start heading down that direction?
I think that every business owner, every entrepreneur ought to really be thinking about 3D printing in their business. And the reason why I say that to them is because they don't really yet grasp the understanding of how cost beneficial 3D printing can be for them. Today. It's extremely expensive and risky to launch a retail product. So if you want to do that, the best thing for you to start with is, is a 3D printed prototype and then maybe even a 3D printed first run. That way you can test out the market where the market costs today are the most expensive part. Imagine launching on Amazon and only having to make 10 pieces instead of having to make 10,000. What if you made a mistake? So here you don't, you just start all over again, scrap it, and within a couple weeks you'll have your next round and you'll be able to try again.
But not only businesses. I think every parent should be considering 3D printing for their children. And every school system needs to be considering adding 3D printing to their curriculum because it is the future of manufacturing in the world. Manufacturing is going to go through a major transformation in the next 15 to 20 years to more local manufacturing of products and less of the mass, mass market. Have to make 10,000 if you're going to make one. And that way also everything doesn't have to be the same. You have this unique opportunity with 3D printing to personalize it, make it yours to differentiate.
Yeah, the 3D design economy is the future. We have three daughters and we started our six year old on it and the hardest thing was grasping how to use the mouse, which we didn't think would be so hard, but it is. And so she's excited about it. And she always says, oh yeah, my dad can 3D print that.
But she's doing it herself. She really is making her own models, learning with free software that's available and free tools. Now we do have 3D printers because we're in that industry, but they're not very expensive. Anybody can get one.
Well, you know, thank you so much for really, you know, closing up this gap in this space. So for any, anybody out there who's wanting to learn about 3D printing, 3D design. We invite you to go to the website, shoot over your questions. We're happy to answer them. And thank you again for being here on the red carpet.
