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3-D printing has more opportunities than woes: SOLS CEO

Oct. 19, 2015 - 14:28 By KH디지털2

The 3-D printing technology will be the next way of manufacturing, Kegen Schouwenburg, the CEO and co-founder of a U.S.-based 3-D printed custom insoles maker said Monday.

"As opposed to producing hundreds of thousands of products over the world, we produce one for an individual. There are tons of advantages," she said in a press conference in this central South Korean city during a global meeting of science ministers and experts.

"The advantages for that are pretty limitless. In an environmental perspective, obviously, we have no waste," Schouwenburg said. "In a relevance perspective, we are producing products for today."

SOLS sends products to customers and gets detailed feedback, which are then forwarded to the manufacturing system.

"We are going to see the entire manufacturing industry landscape change," Schouwenburg said.

Tons of challenges are waiting in this transitional phase, such as privacy issues and regulations, but there are also an "amazing amount of opportunities," she said.

The 30-year-old encouraged South Korean youths to jump into startup businesses and explore the world around them, saying the conditions have greatly improved.

"I don't think entrepreneurship is something that you choose, I think it's just an innate desire," she said. "And now there are so many different types of capital that you can get access to."

The five-day OECD Ministerial Meeting Daejeon 2015, World Science & Technology Forum began earlier Monday in Daejeon, a city packed with science institutes and located 164 kilometers south of Seoul. (Yonhap)