I really wish that we could replace the phrase "3-D printing" with "additive manufacturing" when referring to metals and/or serious, low-tolerance manufacturing.
"3-D printing" should be used when referring to hobbyists making semi-useless, plastic trinkets. No disrespect to plastics or hobbyists, it's just that the phrase lost some dignity when it became a over-generalizing buzzword.
There is a whole range of machines that can be classed as 3D printers, from a simple reprap like setup all the way to SLS and DMP printers. Yes, they're all 'additive', but additive manufacturing is a concept that is a lot wider than 3D printing. For instance metal vapor deposition is also additive manufacturing and definitely not 3D printing.
One nitpick - metal vapour deposition, when done in-situ through a moveable shadow mask, certainly is 3D printing. One can dynamically "draw" out structures having controlled variable-height profiles inside the vacuum chamber during the evaporation process by altering the position (and thus speed) of the moving shadow mask.
This method is quite different from the "ordinary" metallic vapour deposition process you're referring to that uses a simple fixed-position mask, usually photoresist that is baked right onto the silicon wafer.
Eg, here is my research paper from 8 yrs ago demonstrating nanoscale-level dynamic stencil deposition using a nanopore in a suspended silicon nitride membrane shadow mask. We controlled the mask's position using a piezo actuator inside the deposition chamber during the evaporation process to 3D print nanowires and other nanostructures with programmable height profiles. Eg, we created nanoramps, and nanowires with one or more "valleys" to simulate quantum wells or metallic grains.
http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/journal/rsi/79/7/10.106...
Arxiv link : http://arxiv.org/pdf/0802.1848.pdf
That's very neat, and yes, you're right, when doing it with a movable shadow mask it is 3D printing. Totally missed that option when I gave the examples.
This is what a colleague of my father told him at work some decades ago with microcomputers.
He felt calling those "toys" computers was some disrespectful for the real thing, the one with 125 MBytes hard drive, instead of the ridiculous amount the toys had at the time.
Of course he wanted all the company to buy an IBM mainframe(under his control of course). My father decided to buy 30 micro computers instead. It was a great decision st the end.
Those hobbyists making semi-useless, plastic trinkets are the same people that will make the serious low tolerance manufacturing in the future.
The only dignity the phrase "3D printing" ever had came from hobbyists, the ones building repraps in their basements. You're confusing hobbyists with popularity - 3D printing became a meaningless buzzword only when media and marketing got wind of it and the concept hit mainstream. Industrial technologies used in the past were not even called "3D printing" before that.
It became popular when some key patents expired, which in turn allowed dozens of companies to start producing cheap printers. Previously, the tech had been confined to a handful of manufacturers who focused on industrial/ profitable customers such as automobile prototyping.
"3-D printing" should be used when referring to hobbyists making semi-useless, plastic trinkets. No disrespect to plastics or hobbyists, it's just that the phrase lost some dignity when it became a over-generalizing buzzword.