A lot of the technological hurdles associated with using lasers can be overcome by using a chemical bonding agent 'extruded' onto the particles by an inkjet pri

A lot of the technological hurdles associated with using lasers can be overcome by using a chemical bonding agent 'extruded' onto the particles by an inkjet print head. There's at least one open source printer that's trying this at the moment[1], and HP proposed a similar machine for the commercial sector[2]. The biggest issue, in my experience, ends up being that most non-metal printed parts are relatively brittle and prone to the material rubbing off if the outer layers are even lightly abraded. Ytec3D gets around this by soaking the prints with a liquid glue to solidify the bonds, but between that and the cleanup environment (compressed air, brushes, respirators) it's a hard sell for consumers. EDIT: It's also important to note that FFF/FDM (extrusion-based) printers are getting much closer to 'freedom to print anything you want'. This year, I feel like multi-extrusion systems are going to become much more mainstream, allowing users to print more complex objects with support material that can be dissolved away later (e.g. ABS with HIPS support). [1] http://ytec3d.com/plan-b/ http://ytec3d.com/plan-b/ [2] http://h10124.www1.hp.com/campaigns/ga/3dprinting/4AA5-5472ENW.pdf http://h10124.www1.hp.com/campaigns/ga/3dprinting/4AA5-5472E...