China's 3D Printing Technology Leads to Multinational Crisis

On November 8, 2013, there was a news that shocked the whole country. A certain gun manufacturer in Texas used a 3D printer to successfully produce a “M1911” military pistol and conducted more than 50 live-fire experiments. M far shooting distance has a very high hit rate, enough to prove the practicality of the 3D printing pistol.

Weapons for 3D printing are not limited to pistols. As long as we can obtain templates for related weapons, we can copy and print them. This will also pose a threat to the disclosure of military secrets. At present, the US Department of Defense has strengthened intellectual property conflicts with other developed countries. China's alertness.

Brule, a US IT machinery sales company, opened a 3D printer showroom in Tokyo's Akihabara in September. Most of them are American-made products priced at more than 300,000 yen, but the most attention paid to customers is Beijing's equipment in China. A low-priced product developed by the manufacturer Delta Micro Factory, priced at only 199,800 yen.

It is understood that the product is currently sold in the United States and has been highly praised by local professional magazines. On the other hand, Japanese measuring instrument giant keyence also manufactures and sells 3D printers, but it has not yet been able to enter overseas markets.

According to Mr. Sugimoto, director of the Brule Japan branch, "China's 3D printing technology has long surpassed Japan. Both quality and sales network can compete with the United States."

According to an authoritative report on 3D printing published by the American 3D printing industry research organization Wohlers Associates, China Huazhong University of Science and Technology has the world's most powerful 3D printing research and development group. The report pointed out that as of now, Huazhong University of Science and Technology has obtained a number of research results that can achieve low-cost and high-performance development of 3D printers. In addition, it has achieved some R&D achievements such as Xi'an Jiaotong University and Tsinghua University.

According to the report, the number of 3D printers in China has reached a quarter in the United States in 2012. It is expected that in 2016 China's 3D printing market will reach 10 billion yuan, ranking the first in the world.

On the other hand, with the gradual expiration of the basic patents associated with 3D printers held by US companies, it is very likely that they will be overtaken by China in the future.

According to a statistics released by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), although the current usage of 3D printers is very low, the loss caused by copycats has exceeded 50 trillion yen each year.

According to the Japanese Patent Office’s survey of 400 copies of Japanese enterprises’ copy damage, the total loss in 2007 was about tens of billions of yen, but in 2011 it exceeded 100 billion yen. The forecast of a Japanese home appliance manufacturer's manager pointed out: "With the popularity of 3D printers, the losses caused by copycats to Japanese companies may further increase."

It is understood that the United States has also strengthened various countermeasures in order to distinguish between genuine and counterfeit goods. For example, it is developing a practical tool for authenticating 3D printing, and China's technological development speed is even higher in the United States.

On the other hand, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan formally convened a discussion meeting on the methods of 3D printing utilization in October, but did not mention the suppression measures on copycats.

In his State of the Union address released in February this year, President Barack Obama pointed out that 3D printing is a core technology that revitalizes the U.S. manufacturing industry. However, in the future, 3D printing will inevitably face many problems such as technological innovation and technological intellectual property conflicts.