As I drive around town, I notice a lot of things. First, there seem to be a lot more cars in driveways throughout the day today than a couple of years ago. Tells me that either a lot more people have gone into business out of their home, or more likely, they are out of work.

Another observation is all of the vacant stores. From small corner stores to abandoned big box stores. There is a lot of unused square footage out there.

Well, I’ve had some ideas developing that would help alleviate some of these issues. Additive manufacturing is an integral part of the idea.

Today, much manufacturing is performed in industrial areas where the noise, traffic and environmental issues don’t conflict with other residential or retail areas.

Many versions of additive manufacturing are so clean, that the one that we chose to start Alchemy Models with was placed it in our kitchen. Outside of a little dust, it wasn’t an issue. Besides, it was a big hit when we had company over. How many other people had a 3D printer in their kitchen five years ago?

Basically, my thoughts here center around implementing clean additive manufacturing facilities in vacant store locations. The rationale is that this will bring jobs directly into or very near neighborhoods and the blight of vacant stores would be elliminated.

Challenges do abound with this idea. First and foremost for me is the capacities of today’s additive manufacturing equipment. Speed and size specifically. Details.

More to come. The ideas flow.