Photographs by Nick Bilton/The New York Times
The 3-D Printer Village at the New York Maker Faire.
Each year, there seems to be one tech theme percolating in online discussions, at conferences and among the nerdosphere. Over the past few years, the conversation has included Web 2.0, social media, augmented reality and the gaming in everything.
This year, the talk is all about 3-D printing.
The technology behind 3-D printing — in which objects are made by a printer that stacks layers of material like plastic or metal on top of each other — has been used for years by manufacturers and designers to build prototypes. But as my colleague Ashlee Vance recently recently wrote, 3-D printing is now being adopted by all sorts of businesses to make all sorts of things.
Over the past weekend at the first New York Maker Faire, a gathering of people who make stuff, 3-D printers were everywhere — churning out cups, intricate artistic designs and even parts that could be used to build more 3-D printers.
One of the fascinating aspects of this technology is that it is so diverse. There are open-source products, like 3-D printers that cost as little as $650 from MakerBot, based in the Brooklyn. And there are high-end 3-D printer options from companies like Dimension Printing, which begin at around $20,000.
And there is 3-D printing on demand, offered by companies like Shapeways, which just moved to New York from the Netherlands.
Below are some photos from last weekend’s Maker Faire.
A complicated design created on a 3-D printer.
Shapeways, a 3-D printing company, showed off some of its intricate creations.
A 3-D printer creates a part used to build other 3-D printers.
The MakerBot 3-D printers are open source and can be purchased as kits.