For younger
Reprographers who may not be familiar with Rodney Dangerfield (one of my all-time-favorite comedians who
passed away in 2004), his most famous catch-phrase was…..
“I don’t get no respect!”
His words
came to mind as I was skimming my way through a 99 page paper, titled “Printing Changed the World – now the world
is changing printing, 2012-2022”, compiled by a team of RIT (Rochester
Institute of Technology) students, who, in this paper, shared their opinions
and predictions on where the Printing Industry will be in 2022.
I’ll get to
the “paper” in a couple of minutes, but, first, I’d like to point you to where
I found out about this “paper.”
This
morning, Nicole Schappert, who posts
on “TheDigitalNirvana” Blog, put up
a post entitled…..
This was the intro to Nicole’s post….
“It is not
the strongest or most intelligent species that survive, but the ones who are
most willing to adapt.” ~Charles Darwin I like this quote because it
removes the idea that survival and success are not based on natural selection,
but are based on intelligence and strategy and looking at how to adapt for...
And, here’s
a link to the full post:
At the very
end of her post, Nicole provided a link to the “paper” I mentioned above, and
here’s the link to that paper (click on
the bold blue type below):
Okay, let me now get back to the “paper” the
team of RIT Students put together …. and why I had a Rodney Dangerfield moment!
I skimmed my way through the paper, hoping to
find a section where the students put forth the their opinion(s) on the future
of “technical documents”, and, while I did find a section with that title,
there was absolutely no mention, at all, of A/E/C technical documents in that
section. I went back through the entire
paper and did not find a single mention of A/E/C document - - I’m referring to
plans and specifications, of course!
Perhaps RIT’s curriculum doesn’t take into consideration that there’s
long been a “reprographics” industry and that our industry is a sub-industry
under the greater “Print and Graphics Industry”???
Inasmuch as I wanted to see the student team’s predictions of
the future of A/E/C technical documents but could not find any mention of that
subject, I’m now going to e-mail Frank Romano (who, evidently, assigned this
project to the students) to ask him if he could ask the student team to append
its paper ….. to add comments about the future of A/E/C technical documents.
Anyway, no mention of A/E/C Technical Documents, hence the
feeling, “I don’t get no respect!”
The paper did mention 3D Printing *under the “Industrial
Printing” section, and, for those of you who are too lazy to find that section
on your own, here’s what the student team said about the future of 3D Printing
(note, 3 up-arrows mean good future):
3D Printing
“3D printing is a process by which an actual
three-dimensional product may be produced, built up layer by layer with a
printing process using various kinds of inks.
↑↑↑
3D printing may become a common manufacturing
process in many different industries due to its ability to create three-
dimensional products by building up patterned layers of inks. 3D printing can
process multiple “inks” of different chemical or material compounds within a single
print job, allowing simultaneous production of pre-assembled product pieces,
such as joints, bolts, or screws. This eliminates the need for manual or
complicated automated assembly procedures in the manufacturing process. There
will be a large potential for growth as 3D printing is creatively integrated into existing workflows, or designed into entirely
new manufacturing lines.
Companies are already developing new inks for
inkjet printers, since they are capable of printing almost any kind of jettable
polymer, ink, or other material. Jettable materials and their associated drying
processes are limiting factors, but developments will reveal new opportunities
for creative industrial printers. Through 3D printing, previously low-speed, and
high-cost production can become low cost, high-speed production. 3D printing
can especially reduce the need for specialized production equipment, since 3D
printing can create components within other components, reducing production
complexity and increasing the speed of assembly tasks. Also, 3D printing can
generate multiple parts of a product in one location with minimal need for
manual labor. Thus, 3D printing has the potential to radically change
manufacturing.”
Blog Publisher’s final comment about the “paper”:
Personally, I think the students did a very
thoughtful, thorough job (with one minor exception!) This is not to say that I agree with all of
their predictions, but, all the same, it was an exhaustive process … and how many of us have taken on such a project?
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