Abstract
This paper aims at providing a comprehensive outlook on the economic and organisational rationale of 3D printing technologies and their implications for innovation in the Italian manufacturing industry. Despite its limited impact on the industrial world, the idea of printing actual 3D objects has clearly captured the popular imagination; 3D printing is often linked to 'big changes' or to sometimes indefinite industrial revolutions in progress because it is considered that 3D printing will eventually enable 'mass customisation'. None of the most significant actual applications of AM in Italian manufacturing, however, suggests that any real 'manufacturing revolution' has started or can be foreseen in the near future for consumer goods. For these AM is neither competitive today, nor can it be made so in the future, unless some sort of technological quantum leap occurs.
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