There are quite a few, so let us deal with the most important!

Myth 1: Most people consider 3D printing to be a simple push button kind of technology, expecting a finished, usable product to appear out of nowhere.

Fact: There is tremendous human involvement required at every stage – before, during and after the actual 3D printing process – right from conceptualisation and designing of innovative products, the need to process files, clean the prints, remove supports, post process and finishing a piece for end use.

Myth 2: Anything can be printed.

Fact: While the number of 3D printable materials is increasing every single day, there is definitely a limitation on the material types and printing resolutions commercially available today. This needs to be communicated well to the masses.

Myth 3: 3D printing is only for kids making plastic toys and trinkets. Nothing of real importance gets made through 3D printing.

Fact: Not true. While hobby printers do print in plastics, even these have tremendously valuable applications such as making customised limb prosthetics at an extremely low cost. At the same time, these hobby printers are becoming an indispensable tool in classrooms and labs around the world, at a stage where computers in their early days were (think of newly introduced computer labs in schools, teaching interesting tips and tricks to students along with basics of programming, etc).

Having said that, there is an entire spectrum of 3D printers that goes unnoticed by the public – these are the professional-grade and industrial-grade 3D printers that are churning out millions of parts globally across sectors/product categories such as hearing aids (100% 3D printed), dental aligners, jewellery, architecture, product design and prototyping, automotive design, small batch manufacturing, patient specific implants and many more. These are all game-changing applications, slowly empowering individuals and companies that struggled to bring their ideas to tangible form up until now.

Myth 4: 3D printing is a very new technology.

Fact: Not really – it is over 30 years old. The technology was invented in 1984 by Chuck Hull.