A Credit Suisse research team led by Jonathan Shaffer has revised the firm's 2016 projection for the market up 357%, to $800 million from $175 million.

 

The reason: overlooked opportunities among consumers and "pro-sumers," which Shaffer defines as engineers, architects and educators.

 

3-D printing and additive manufacturing are basically used interchangeably to describe printing readymade objects and components from your own office or home, short-circuiting the normal, capital-intensive industrial production process. 

 

Shaffer explains how this technology could gain widespread use: