The ‘razor and blades’, the ‘camera and film’, the ‘printer and ink’……It’s a proven business model where the consumables associated with a particular product are responsible for most or all of the profits. It’s also a model that has made its way into the 3D printing world. By the time large 3D printing equipment manufacturers develop the technology, design, engineer, test, manufacture, market, sell, and support the equipment, there probably isn’t much margin in the system itself.