In The Future, You're Going To Print Automotive Parts

In The Future, You’re Going To Print Automotive Parts

Yes, one day — and people can already do it to a limited extent — parts stores will be able to print the parts a customer wants. Sound outlandish? It's not.

In the future, you’re going to print auto parts, almost like you would an invoice.

Waiting for the punch line? There isn’t one.

Yes, one day — and people can already do it to a limited extent — parts stores will be able to print the parts a customer wants. Sound outlandish? It’s not.

3D printers have already successfully made a range of objects, including jet parts, gun parts, toys and even scale models of James Bond’s Aston Martin DB5 that appeared in the recent movie “Skyfall.”

Currently, as I understand it, the types of plastics used in the printing process mean some materials can’t yet be processed by the machines. But it’s not going to be that way forever.

Imagine a company that holds the patent to a particular part and a store or program group buys the rights to print X number of parts. This is print-on-demand to the extreme.

3D printers are truly beginning to take off and the cost, like all technology, is tumbling.

Persistence Pays Off
The Realtor who sold us our home several years ago is a tiger, a top performer. She could sell buckets of sand to someone living in the desert.

One thing that strikes me about her is she always stays in contact with her clients and she always tries new ideas to drum up business. Some ideas work, some ideas don’t. I’ve met many real estate agents in my lifetime but she’s the only Realtor I can remember by name. Why? Not because she sold us a home. I can’t remember the names of anyone who’s ever sold me a car, and that’s a big purchase.

It’s because she reminds me who she is almost every quarter. Not a quarter goes by that I don’t get some kind of little calendar, card, letter or something else that basically says, “I’m in business. Let’s talk.”

We have a popular ice cream chain locally and every birthday, she sends me a coin that buys ice cream at those stores. For the New Year, it’s a calendar. Or a card — handwritten. Other times, it’s something else — always something else. She doesn’t give up. It’s infrequent enough that it’s not annoying, and frequent enough that you can’t forget who she is. I don’t know where she learned it, but she had a good teacher.

Even though I’m not in the market for a house and haven’t been for years, guess whose name comes to mind when a friend needs a Realtor?

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