3-D printers replace Santa's elves this holiday season

A whole new toy market is evolving as computer-aided design and manufacturing meet the creative ideas of consumers.

3-D printing technology is advancing rapidly, allowing more consumers the freedom to make toys from spools of plastic filament. They can dream up their own designs or choose from existing databases and use the CAD files to control a printer that lays down tiny plastic blobs layer by layer. Complex items can be 3-D printed on readily available desktop printers that can be purchased for as little as $500.

“It's almost magical what 3-D printing can do,” said Hilmar Gunnarsson, a manager in the consumer and 3-D printing division of professional and consumer software developer Autodesk Inc. in a phone interview. “It brings imagination to life, so that people aren't just consumers of what is on the shelf.”

3-D printing is unlikely to supplant traditional toy production anytime soon. The toy market is too big — about $20 billion a year in North America — and many consumers can't be bothered to master digital technologies for creating objects that are, well, just toys. But 3-D printing is establishing a new toy universe that promises to be much bigger than other pursuits that appeal to do-it-yourself hobbyists, or “makers” in the jargon of the 3-D printing world.

Toy majors can't ignore this encroachment on their traditional turf and are forming alliances with companies possessing digital expertise in order to partake in the 3-D revolution.

Mattel, for example, teamed up with Autodesk earlier this year “to power the Mattel toy line with cutting-edge 3-D design and 3-D printing technology,” the toy giant said in April. New apps under development by the partners will allow consumers to dream up their own toys, then design and customize them to make them real through 3-D printing. Mattel says the new apps will allow kids to learn while they play, giving them pride in accomplishment while they explore their creativity and imagination.

“Technology is changing daily and by harnessing Mattel's expertise in play and Autodesk's expertise with creative apps and 3-D printing, we're able to offer a new kind of 3-D design experience, continuing the Mattel legacy of inspiring imagination and creativity,” noted Doug Wadleigh, senior vice president and global brand manager for Mattel's Toy Box unit.

Mattel said along with the new apps, it will dedicate an online hub for its 3-D printing initiatives. Mattel and Autodesk declined to describe the progress the two firms have made so far, but Gunnarsson did say Autodesk generally strives to make more content available, to make 3-D printing easier for consumers and to allow design of increasingly complex printed components.

“Autodesk's Tinkerplay is a free app designed for kids of all ages that lets them design and customize toy characters digitally before having them 3-D printed,” explained Autodesk spokeswoman Jill McChesney. Users can drag and drop interchangeable parts to make custom creations and the parts are optimized for 3-D printing as ready-to-play characters and creatures.

Tinkerplay is one of several Autodesk apps appealing to consumers. Autodesk got into consumer apps about five years ago after a long history of developing CAD software for professional markets such as movies and architecture. It now has a suite of consumer-oriented apps including apps for do-it-yourself projects, photo editing, artwork and home design. Its Tinkercad apps are easy-to-use, browser-based 3-D design and modeling tools. Autodesk bought the Tinkercad business in 2013, two years after Tinkercad founders brought their design platform to the general public. Tinkercad now boasts more than 4 million designs and hundreds more are added daily. In total, Autodesk counts 250 million users worldwide for its suite of consumer apps. Tinkerplay is under the Tinkercad umbrella.

My Little 3-D Printer?

Hasbro Inc. too is staking out a space in the 3-D printed toy universe. Last year the toy major partnered with 3-D marketplace and community company Shapeways to launch a website called SuperFanArt. The website allows consumers to showcase their artwork inspired by Hasbro brands and sell their 3-D printed designs.

SuperFanArt started with Hasbro's My Little Pony franchise, which has more than 200 licensees worldwide. Hasbro fans have been able to print Little Poly figurines — as many as 900 different ones are possible — since the website started up in 2014. Hasbro has been adding other brands since then.

3-D printing was invented by a U.S. engineer, Chuck Hull in 1983, and was soon adopted by some toy companies to quickly and cheaply make prototypes before committing to expensive scale-up to commercial production.

Production-scale use of 3-D printing is too cost-prohibitive but the technology is finding a niche in special made-to-order toys. One toy company in London is already using 3-D printing to commercially produce dolls. MakieWorld Ltd. allows kids to customize the company's standard doll by designing facial features, hair color, etc. MakieWorld then has the doll 3-D-printed overnight in nylon and then shipped.

More options in resin

3-D printing, like toys in general, is a market for plastic resins but usage is pretty much restricted to filaments that feed 3-D printers. Polylactic acid and ABS are the predominant filament resins but nylon, flexible polymers and other resins are becoming more available to create toys able to take rougher handling. Resin is extruded into filament in standard thicknesses of 1.75 or 3 millimeters and sold in 1-kilogram spools or in cartridges containing spooled filament. Dozens of filament suppliers are in the market and their prices start at about $25 for a 1-kilo spool. ABS processes at a higher temperature than PLA but it is less prone to softening after the part is printed.

PLA often is the material of choice for extrusion-type desktop consumer-level printers for a number of reasons, according to NatureWorks LLC, a major supplier of the bioresin. Low thermal warpage allows high resolution printing and part accuracy. PLA-printed layers fuse well during printing and the polymer's relatively low melt point allows lower temperatures during printing. Emissions of unpleasant odors during printing are low, another benefit.

“Many new suppliers are entering the PLA filament market, while a breadth of experienced suppliers large and small are formulating and compounding to provide additional filament properties and options,” stated NatureWorks manager of 3-D business development, Leah Ford, in an email. “That's the sort of innovation that NatureWorks is aggressively supporting and amplifying with a comprehensive and broad-based initiative.”

Ford said her company has introduced a new series of its Ingeo PLA designed for 3-D printing and offers a range of technical support services for filament and equipment producers. NatureWorks runs an in-house print laboratory for rapid testing and collaboration with the industry's suppliers. The firm's Ingeo 3-D850 is aimed at the 3-D printing market with its balance of processability during filament extrusion, consistent filament quality and print quality, Ford noted. NatureWorks is developing a new grade with higher heat resistance and toughness that could compete with ABS for customers looking to switch to PLA. The new resin should be introduced in 2016.

Village Plastics Co. is one plastics processor that partakes in the 3-D printing market by extruding printing filament for its parent company 3-D Systems Corp. and for sale to other players in the market. Village Plastics extrudes PLA, ABS and nylon, in addition to its other businesses such as plastic welding rod. The Barbeton, Ohio, company recently invested in new machinery for the 3-D printing market.

3D Systems of Rock Hill, S.C., is a major hardware supplier to the 3-D printing market. The firm's product manager for consumer products, Scott Cost, said in a phone interview that his firm's lowest desktop printer in the Cube line retails at $999 but is being discounted to $949 for this holiday season. The printer with a 6 inch by 6 inch base can print a hand-size toy in five or six hours. Cost said competitors' comparable products sell for several hundred dollars more. 3D Systems also supplies professional printers priced at up to $4,400.

“We follow the Apple model so that our machines can print right out of the [packaging] box,” Cost explained

Cost said printers can be bought in the market for as little as $400 but they tend to be kits that need to be assembled. If a consumer can't afford a printer he can try to access one in a library, school, online and in some retail, printing and office supply stores that offer “maker spaces.”

3D Systems product lines include water-soluble filament based on a blend of polyvinyl alcohol that can be rinsed out of a printed part after its support function is no longer needed. The company also sells a hand-held scanner to turn 3-D objects into CAD files for printing. The iSense scanner developed by Apple retails at 3D Systems for about $300.

Cost said his company targets educational institutions and consumers who are hobbyists or fashion fans. Most sales occur online although some retailers like Microsoft Stores and Best Buy also offer 3D Systems products. Printer sales this season are doing well and are 15 percent ahead of last year, he estimated.

MakerBot Industries specializes in desktop 3-D printers. Since 2013, it has been a subsidiary of Stratasys Ltd., a 3-D printing and additive manufacturing solutions company based in Minneapolis, and Rehovot, Israel. MakerBot opened a new factory in Brooklyn, N.Y., where it is headquartered, in July 2015. Its new printer production capacity is double what it previously had in Brooklyn.

Stratasys claims it was the first to commercially introduce thermoplastic for 3-D printing. In 2002 it was the first to debut a printer priced at under $30,000. In 2012 it introduced a printer that can combine more than 100 materials. Stratasys offers an unusually broad range of printing materials, including polycarbonate and blends, polyethylene and engineering polymers.

Tripling 3-D

Market numbers for 3-D printed toys aren't publicly available but other metrics hint at the growth ahead. United Kingdom-based technology analyst company CCS Insight predicts the global market for 3-D printers will reach $4.8 billion in 2018, about triple the market size in 2014. The number of printers in operation will reach 845,000 units, up from 158,000.

The biggest unit growth is forecast for business desktop and consumer machines but expensive industrial printers — costing upwards of hundreds of thousands of dollars — account for the biggest dollar volume of sales. Canalys, a technology research firm with offices in Palo Alto, Calif., predicts that the total 3-D printing industry revenue will grow to more than $20 billion by the end of 2019.

Toys, of course, are just a fraction of the 3-D printing industry. Some consumers have already used the technology at home to create plastic replacement appliance parts. Consumers are also dabbling in other materials, with one of the most promising avenues being the printing of edible decorations for, say, wedding cakes.

If newlyweds can print small figurines of themselves for their wedding cake, will this spell the end of modeling cake figures in the likenesses of Ken and Barbie, Mattel's iconic toys?

Global toy sales are strong, researchers say.