Steelcase, one of the largest office furniture firms in the world, has partnered with MIT to create a new form of 3D printing that it believes could potentially change the way that furniture is designed and created.
3D printing has struggled to take off in any meaningful way in the consumer goods industry, after a groundswell of hype. Most traditional 3D printing methods tend to be very slow even with small objects and use impractical materials, and the finished products often are pretty rough around the edges. While there have been some improvements in speed by companies like Carbon (which is working with Adidas to print soles for its next generation of sneakers), many printers are still limited by the fact that they have to lay down layer after layer of material to build up their items.