Haven't they had something similar, but done with a "printer" for manufacturing 3-D products from plastic?
Yes. Buddy works at SporTech and they have a 3-D printer that they use for prototyping.. Same concept, but in plastic. Been around for years.
IIRC, they threw a Matchbox car in the scanner and had a plastic replica not too long later.
True, metal is different, but the concept effectively the same. Evolutionary, not revolutionary.