A third industrial revolution. Additive manufacturing: Solid print. INSIDE A LOW-RISE building in a business park at Rock Hill, South Carolina, is a vision of the factory of the future.
Several dozen machines are humming away, monitored from a glass-fronted control room by two people looking at computer screens. Some of the machines are the size of a car, others that of a microwave oven, but they all have windows that you can peer into. One is making jewellery, others are producing the plastic grip for an electric drill, the dashboard of a car, an intricate lampshade and a bespoke artificial leg. One is even making parts to build more machines like itself. Layer by layer. Collaborative manufacturing: All together now. NEW YORK CITY was once the capital of manufacturing in America, with more than 1m people working in the sector in 1950.
Today that number has shrunk to a mere 80,000, and they are employed largely by specialist producers in areas such as furnishing, food processing and the cluster that makes up Manhattan's vibrant garment district. Yet nourished by the city's entrepreneurial spirit, a new industry is emerging. Framtidskommissionen.