3D printing resellers Archives - Perfect 3D Printing Filament

3D Printz to Distribute Bondtech 3D Printing Extruders

UK-based 3D printing specialist 3D Printz continues to expand with partnerships and product offerings, now working with Bondtech, a Swedish company that develops and produces novel dual drive extruders for improved digital fabrication.

Currently, Bondtech extruders and other 3D printing products are being sold in over 50 countries through their network of resellers focused on a wide range of users. 3D Printz will be one of a select few in the US acting as a distributor for Bondtech, well-known for its unique and popular extruder design, featuring two counter-rotating gears for a powerful grip in pushing the filament through from both sides.

Tried and true throughout the 3D printing industry, the Bondtech extruding system is fast, precise, and high-performing. Users benefit too from lack of under-extrusion, headaches with filament, and prevented risk of grinding and slipping.

Bondtech extruder technology (Image: Bondtech)

Delivering some of the greatest benefits of 3D printing, Bondtech extruders allow for better 3D prints, greater efficiency during production, and savings on the bottom line.

Martin Bondéus, Bondtech founder (Image: Bondtech)

Founded in 2014 by Martin Bondéus, Bondtech achieved wide acclaim by 2015 for the V2 Extruder, often purchased by users who wish to upgrade their existing 3D printers. Affordability and the potential for improving performance have attracted thousands of buyers over the years—along with propelling Bondtech into the international spotlight.

3D Printz Limited currently offers numerous quality products, but they continue to reach out for other distribution opportunities from around the globe. This includes working with Antclabs, the South Korean manufacturer of BLTouch—an auto-bed leveling sensor developed for semiconductors. 3D Printz also sells the popular 3D Gloop! adhesive product, meant to be used with 3D printing of filaments like ABS, PLA, and PETG. They distribute products for US company Micro Swiss LLC, offering nozzles, hotends, and other adhesives like Magigoo.

Even more importantly, they are now also distributing one of the best-selling and affordable 3D printers worldwide: the Monoprice. Made in California, these printers have garnered enormous attention due to their $200 pricepoint and ease in use. Filaments made from high-quality raw materials also play a large role in 3D Printz distribution activities, from PLA to PETG, ABS, and other alternative materials.

While some 3D printing industry leaders already offer one-stop shops and turn-key systems—on every level—supply and demand continues to allow resellers unlimited opportunity, with experts on one level complementing others on another. With this latest partnership between 3D Printz and Bondtech, the hope is that they will be able to offer their UK customers innovative, comprehensive systems—a goal 3D Printz has been working even harder to achieve in recent months.

[Source: 3D Printz]

The post 3D Printz to Distribute Bondtech 3D Printing Extruders appeared first on 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing.

Nano Dimension Continues its Growth in the 3D Printing Industry

Israeli PCB print leader Nano Dimension showed off its DragonFly 2020 Pro 3D printer at a US event for the first time while attending RAPID + TCT in Texas last year. Not too long ago, I finally had the opportunity to see the machine for myself while attending this year’s RAPID in Detroit, Michigan.

The industrial PCB printer was the first thing I saw at the booth – it’s hard to miss, being much taller than its desktop predecessor. The system stands on the floor and offers a larger footprint, though it has the same 20 x 20 cm print area as the original DragonFly 2020, which officially ended its beta program in the summer of 2017. Tim Sheehan, the VP of Global Sales and Customer Care for Nano Dimension USA Inc., came over to greet me, and we sat down to chat.

Sheehan used the example of an electrical engineer looking to make a prototype board, noting that everything involved in the process – from finding a business to make the prototype, filling out and getting a purchase order approved, having the prototype made and getting it shipped to you – can cost thousands of dollars and take months to complete.

“That’s the standard process that people deal with today,” he said.

“Now, along comes someone who says, what if I could increase your productivity and reduce your cycle time…that’s giving you a return on investment that’s going to help.”

Then we walked over to the DragonFly 2020 Pro so I could get a closer look. Sheehan explained that a dielectric ink (DI) and a conductive ink are both cured at almost the same time within the system.

“It takes sophisticated software to calculate the algorithm to make sure that what you want to be a feature on that board…something as simple as a hole…it places the hole each time at the appropriate place.

“The board is being printed on a chuck, and that chuck is a heating element and a holding element, so it’s holding what’s being printed.”

The chuck moves back and forth, while the ink is being distributed exactly where it’s supposed to go. Nano Dimension uses a free SOLIDWORKS add-in which, according to its website, “creates a design environment optimized for 3D printing multi-material electronics.”

“So all of this can allow that electrical engineer not to take all that time – that two days for approval, a week to get all the signatures, three to five weeks for the board to show back up, ordering of components – all that time. You can now have a board printed overnight.”

Sheehan told me that, as an engineer, the first design you come up with is never the best. The DragonFly 2020 Pro really helps to speed up the design process, so if you need to make changes and iterations, you’re not wasting everyone’s time. He then showed me some examples of what the PCB printer is capable of, including a 12-layer PCB (below) that took a total of 20 hours to print.

“Time is only determined by the amount of silver we want to put down,” he explained.

“No one else in here can do this. The only way this is being done is the old-fashioned, traditional way, which is one layer at a time is created.”

He also showed me a PCB with an indentation on one end where a battery will sit, which also features a circuit that’s on multiple layers.

Next, Sheehan brought out a sample that demonstrates a helical conductive coil – created in 180 extremely fine turns – that’s embedded in the company’s dielectric ink; this shows Nano Dimension’s ability to create non-planar conductors, and embed them in a structure, in a single process. This can be used in applications such as charging cell phones or as a solenoid, which acts like a magnet when carrying electric current.

“Solenoids generally grab something locked…unlock the solenoid, door opens,” he explained.

“I have children, I’m not home, they come home from school, the door opens, the signal gets sent, I know they’re home. This is the whole IoT, right? Related to electronics.

“So how this all plays through for us is I’m helping you increase productivity.”

I asked Sheehan if anything new was happening with Nano Dimension that he could tell me about, and he said that the company had recently begun a European expansion, in addition to completing its partner development in North America.

“We’ve signed on national and global leaders in additive manufacturing.”

He listed some of these, including additive solutions and SOLIDWORKS software reseller Go Engineer, CATI, and Fisher Unitech, which is the largest Stratasys reseller in the world.

“So, what else is new for us? A lot of what we call application development sharing – we’re introducing how we can help people side mount components, how we can help people create three-dimensional applications, like the inductive coil,” Sheehan explained. “That’s just a few of the many different, what we call ‘feature applications,’ we’re introducing to help people stretch their minds around what else you can do with the DragonFly.”

Nano Dimension has been listening to its customers, and until this point, the company’s “addressable market” has been R&D with major research institutes. But now, the US Department of Defense is one of the top markets it’s addressing, after becoming a certified DoD vendor last June.

“They are the biggest single organization buying from us today,” Sheehan said, noting that Tier 1 suppliers are also purchasing DragonFly printers. “There are different Army, Navy, Air Force branches buying this system, doing things that we don’t even really know because it’s not for us to know…we’re probably not allowed to know.

“So that’s exciting because when you bring a product to market, you want to know who to address in the market, you want to make sure you go target that. But what’s important is we gather the information from them, and then come back and do the appropriate things for the future of the product. So that’s been successful for us.”

Before I left, Sheehan presented me with my very own 3D PCB, which now sits on my desk next to a myriad of other prints I’ve made or been given. I was excited to receive the PCB, not only because it’s a good physical reminder of what 3D printing is capable of, but also, as I said to Sheehan, who doesn’t like to be handed a little white box?

Stay tuned for more on 3DPrint.com’s trip to RAPID + TCT 2019, and take a look at more pictures from the Nano Dimension booth below:

Discuss this story and other 3D printing topics at 3DPrintBoard.com or share your thoughts below.

[Images: Sarah Saunders]

We Interview Gil Lavi About 3D Alliances & Selling Through 3D Printing Channel and Resellers

Gil Lavi is a 3D printing veteran who spent nine years at Stratasys doing regional channel management and Strategic Account Management. He then managed strategic accounts for Makerbot in Europe, was the Vice President of Sales at Roboze before becoming Head of Channel Enablement at BigRep. Gil packs a lot of channel and sales expertise as well as very deep 3D printing knowledge. For his next venture he decided not to join a company to manage its channel but to rather bring best practices in channel building and channel management to a wider audience. His company 3D Alliances helps companies built and manage global sales channel and reseller networks. This kind of an approach was new to us so we asked Gil to explain what he’s up to.

What is 3D Alliances?

“3D Alliances is a new 3d-printing consulting company that specializes in deployment and management of channel networks for 3D-printing companies. We identify and team up with companies offering unique and innovative solutions to help them ramp up their global channel network.

We also support them with:

Setting their go-to market business strategy
Training their channel management teams to excel in supporting sales partners”

Why should I have a channel as an OEM?

Channel deployment is managed today by the 3D printing companies themselves. The big players in the market (HP, SSYS, DDD, MarkForged, Formlabs ect) can afford having experienced channel managers for a minimum of 3 regions – EMEA, America and Asia. However, out of the 500 companies in the market that deals directly with developing and selling 3D printers, there are many innovative small-medium size companies (20-100 employees) that are dealing with their first or second product. Most of the employees are R&D, finance, logistics and technology people, and for sales/channel management they employee 1 to 2 people.

Where is the problem for these companies? In most cases they employ people with little experience with 3D printing channel recruitment & management since they can’t afford to pay an ex-manager from the big companies (their revenue stream is not there yet). These people have a steep learning curve and they make mistakes along the way, losing time they can’t afford. We don’t intend to replace their channel mangers, but rather help them to accelerate the process of seeking, filtering, choosing and managing their sales channels, and set the right management methodology with current partners.

What does having a channel do for a company?

Having channel partners is the model most of the 3D printing companies choose to work with, very few sell only direct. Having a channel means first of all selling demo units for each, a revenue which can be significant for small-medium size companies. Choosing strong channel partners, even in only a few leading countries, that generate healthy revenue and can help 3D printing companies get closer to their balance point (expanses ver revenue), and improve their position in their next round of investments.

Won’t having a channel mean I lose contact with the market?

On the contrary. As an example, a 3D printing company from Poland that takes on board a channel in France, can access now with the help of the channel, customers across the different industries in the country. They channel sold to these customers in the past, and already has trusted relationship with the market. This channel will know the French market much better than the 3D printing company will and beyond selling printers in the region, they can send back from the customers to the 3D printing company important inputs on their products. All of this is even more critical, for example, when it involves a 3D printing company from Korea trying to manage their business in Europe.

What makes a good channel partner?

Good experience in prompting, selling and supporting 3D printing hardware (several years of experience, 3-4 years).
Sell complimentary solutions such as CAD-CAM software’s, CNC/Milling, post processing equipment ect.
Already having a large installed base of happy customers where both sides trust each other
Can act independently in his region with minimum support needed from the 3D printing companies. Have a clear business plan how to sell each product in their portfolio.
Long runner and not opportunistic – willing to invest for the long run and not needing revenue in a very short time.
Have the resources to invest in marketing (open houses, trade shows, online campaigns) and in after sales support.
Have the right knowledge and understands clearly how to fit the right product to the right industries/segments/applications. For example – low cost desktop 3D printers for education institutes or high performance 3D printers and materials for Aerospace.

How do you align the interests of channel partners and OEMs for the long run?

The side of the 3D printing company – they are looking for strong and long-term channel partners that can cover the regions they would like to sell in. They are looking for trusted business partners that knows their region well, so they could rest assure they are doing a professional job in prompting and selling their products.

On the side of the channel partners – they looking for 3D printing companies that can deliver, over time, good and reliable products, can offer technical support and have the right vision to evolve with the market, meaning to continue over time to deliver new products that will answer their customer’s ongoing needs.

3D Alliances will act as an independent entity, connecting between both sides. Many mistakes are made by 3D printing companies choosing the wrong channels to resell their products (channels that don’t have the right experience, knowledge, understanding, and resources to sell their products), and mistakes made by channels that don’t check in depth the companies behind new products they wish to sell, and discover later on limitations of the product, lack of support from the 3D printing companies ect.

3D Alliances will bridge this gap and make the right fit between 3d-printing companies and 3d printing sales channels.

How will you handle working with multiple competing OEMs?

The goal of 3D Alliances, at this stage, is to pick up to 5 innovative and unique 3D printing companies that don’t compete with each other. For example – an FDM company, SLS, Metal and PCB 3d-printing company. These companies will be our customers, when the goal would be to fit each other the right channels in different regions. As of today, we have in our network over 550 3D printing resellers (channel partners) from 57 countries. They sell leading brands from professional desktop 3d printers, mid-range, to heavy production systems. So there could be a case in which we approach one channel and he would be fit and interested to sell more than one product out of the companies we are working with like SLS & FDM. So no conflict in that perspective.

What has changed since you started working in 3D printing?

I started to work in the industry back in 2006 for Objet, which later on merged with Stratasys. Back then there were no more than 12 3D printing companies in the world. Today there are over 500 companies globally. Things that changed in this period of time:

Innovation was, and still is, fueled mostly by small start up companies.
Much higher general awareness by all sides.
Many patents have expired, and more to come, which led to more companies in the industry, some are focused on specific segment/solution like dental.
Many new technologies has entered that enable to reduce costs of ownership, cost per part, increase printing speed and enable new high-performance metal replacement materials.
New and big players has entered the market – HP, BASF, Georg Fisher, GE and others, focusing mostly on the implementation of 3D printing in manufacturing.
More players in the software side – slicing software’s, design for AM, data base management ect.

What trends do you see in printers?

First trend – clear split between low-cost desktop printers with mostly PLA for basic concept modeling, to professional printers offering high-performance materials for functional prototyping/short run production of end-use parts.
Second trend – the rise of more affordable and easy to use metal 3D printing solutions. A lot of room there to grow. Out of the 500,000 3D printers sold last year, over 90% of them were desktop printers, the rest are professional/production and a small portion of that were metal.
Third trend – more and more solutions are focused on lower costs of ownership, lower cost per part, faster printing speed and new high-performance metal replacement materials (manufacturing)
Fourth trend – printers that were developed with the understanding of how they should fit a real manufacturing lines, meaning – automation, specs & standards, and software wise.

Will all desktop machines be high temperature eventually?

A clear split into (1) low-cost for education, hobby and basic concept modeling (2) affordable high performance printers with high-temp materials.

Whats your business model?

First of all, our goal as a company is to be the largest trusted global hub that connects between 3D printing companies and resellers. Our business model, as a consulting company, is to form business alliances with 3D printing companies to help them ramp up channel partners. We don’t intend to replace their channel mangers, but rather help them to accelerate the process of seeking, filtering, choosing and managing their sales channels.

What kind of resellers are you looking for?

Although we have over 550 resellers in our network, we are looking to reach out to much more that are eager to expand their portfolio over the coming years, with the understanding that their customer’s needs are constantly changing. We welcome to our network resellers that are looking to focus on 3d-printing solutions for mostly manufacturing.

And OEMs?

3D printing companies that offer unique and innovative solutions, mostly around manufacturing.
Are ready to expand globally and have the right resources and infrastructure to do so.
Understand the value of setting the right working plan on how to recrite and manage sales partners in the 3D printing industry.
Wish to accelerate their revenue stream in a competitive environment, and lay the right foundations for the business growth of their company.

What other issues are there?

In many cases they are cultural gaps between business partners, especially, for example, when an American 3D printing company would like to deploy channels in Asia, or an Asian 3D printing company would like to deploy channels in Europe. 3D Alliances will help to bridge these cultural gaps as well, that sometimes causes misunderstanding and damage the relationship between both sides.