3D Printing adoption rate difference of Europe vs North America

I am wondering why the Europeans are having a considerably highter adoption rate of 3D printing vs North America?

Is it promotion, creativity, philosophy differences?

I'm from the US and 2 Months ago I knew very little about 3D printing and had only heard about it a year or so ago
through watching a show that Jay Leno had been using this technology to make replacement parts for his rare cars.

Since I'm a creative type and like DIY stuff and innovating on my own projects I investigated the technology and decided
it was advanced and cheap enough that I could use this technology at home.

Now I have an Ord Bot Hadron 3D printer built and am starting to print some things and making my own 3D models for my projects.

I have since learned that Prez Obama has mentioned the technology in a speech and it has given 3D printing a bit more exposure
to the masses here in the US.

Any ideas on what all those Europeans are printing?

I did find it rather funny that one of the first thing that folks in the US would do, that gets publicity for 3D printing , is to print a Gun and now various other gun parts.
Never mind that this gun is more of a danger to the user than any target.
Seems like a stereotype is being maintained and of course our media here would sensationalize it and try to spin it into a civilizationaltering event.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/10/2013 04:13PM by jb92563.

Besides a possible difference in adoption between EU and USA, I guess it's necessary to differ a bit more: Obama probably didn't know about reprap, I assume he talked about SLS or core-making or other professional uses of 3D-printing. So it's quite a difference if there are lots of hobby-3D-printers in EU (that are active in forums or community, so that you know of them), or if there are many professional 3D-printers in use in EU (what we probably won't notice, since these guys don't go to "reprap.org" and write about their experiences ;-))
Other than that, my experience is, that most of the companies, which provide parts for reprap, have their home in the US, so that we europeans have sometimes trouble to source the parts listed in various BOMs. So i guess that the 3D-printing community is strong in the US, too.
(does that make sense what i wrote? I'm no native writer as you probably notice ;-))

jb92563: this is like deja vue. I live in the UK and have not long built my first 3d printer. I also saw a program showing Jay Lenos car collection and the 3d printer and scanner setup he had. I thought I must get into this. I researched what was out there and I also went for an OrdBot Hadron.

Our Education Minister in the UK, Michael Grove, has said he wants a 3d printer in every school and this is one of the positive driving forces. It is still rare though to have a 3d printer at this time but it is taking off. Maplin and RS components are just two retailers now selling both kits and fully assembled printers. The press comments about printing guns has not helped. Everyone who knows I have a 3d printer asks me "can you print me a gun?" as a joke but it gets a bit tedious after a while.

It is more difficult to source parts here in Europe. I have ordered stuff from UK, Germany, Holland, Finland and also USA, Hong Kong and mainland China. It means waiting sometimes for weeks. Guys in the States are lucky.

i've been following reprap for 3 years now, and have had a working reprap for the last 2,5 years.
i can't believe how much stupid stuff i see on TV about 3D printing.
today they had something that you can now scan yourself and print a small version of you in 3D.
great. we are 3 years back again.

Hey,
I am actually surprised by your conclusion of "Europe is accepting the technology faster".

I can list 10 times more American (USA, not canada included) companies than Europeans in the sub $3000 printers.

3D printers were patented first by the French (Jean-Claud André) then couple month later by the American (Chuck Hull). But then again, the concept was out in the open for a while.

Europe has a lot of companies developing/selling metal additive machines.

Both Europe/USA are doing a lot of research on the topic. China is actually catching up.

Low cost printers = USA
Metal printers = Europe