3D Infinity
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3Dinfinity
Printing sector
LTD.
Belgium
Quality and velocity
Simon Truant
Simon Landsheere
Simon Truant, Anneleen De Roo
Summary
Bring your ideas to life with the technology of a 3D printing service. From the smallest button for a vest to a solid house. All your wildest imaginations can be printed by 3Dinfinity. This innovative technology has been introduced a while ago and meanwhile it has proven that it is not just a hype. The applications are endless, and 3D Infinity can print most of them. With every project, they manage to achieve the right precision. For your 3D print service, you must contact 3Dinfinity!
Background
3Dinfinity was started by Mr. Truant because he wasn’t able anymore to do his former job and he decided to search for something new. He is interested in everything that has something to do with technology and so 3Dinfinity was born. He and his wife started the company on their own. They had to buy a 3D printing machine of €60.000. They financed this half by themselves and the other half by a loan of the bank.
3D infinity can be best described as a company that delivers high-qualitative 3D printing materials in the fastest way. They focus on a personal service to make sure their customers are getting the best service within this division of printing.
Mission
Providing their clients of 3D printed products with the best quality and the best service.
Vision
Becoming a good reference in the 3D printing sector on the Belgian market.
Business Model
Before they started with their company they did some research. They checked what the different types were of 3D printing, what the difference was, … That deskresearch showed them 2 main types of 3D printing. There is a type of glass-colour printing, but this means that when you print a bottle, it breaks immediately when you drop it on the floor. The other type is plastic printing. This can’t be printed in colour yet, but the advantage is that it doesn’t break when you let it fall on the ground. 3Dinfinity has chosen for the 2nd type.
Their selling price depends on the volume of the print. They have a price per cm³ and this differs also from model to model. They sell the final product mostly with a margin of 300%. This is probably more expensive than a lot of their competitors, but they focalise on the service and on the high quality. An example of this is that the AZ hospital of Bruges asked for something that had to be delivered within a day, and 3Dinfinity succeeded in this. No other company would be able to do this so fast and with probably the best quality of the Belgian market.
But their service is more than just velocity. They don’t ask for starting-up costs, so customers can ask for small scale productions and the customer can still do adaptions to the prototype if the result is not what he expected it to be. And they produce with less waste so they are also very sustainable. To start up this company, they didn’t consult any organisation. So of course, he experienced some advantages and disadvantages. An advantage is that they have more freedom and are in closer contact with their customers, a disadvantage is that conquering the market is not as easy as they expected.
Growth
They’ve expected their company to grow faster and to gain more customers in a shorter time. Their expectations were maybe too high in the beginning but 2016 should be the year that 3D-printing will break through.
Customers
Their main focus is on the B2B market. These are companies who would like to see a prototype of what they will produce, for example aluminium profiles for porches, casings for locks, end use parts for the Volvo factory in Ghent, etc. But they also sell their products for research & development institutions and to medical institutions like the AZ hospital in Bruges. This year, they will focus more & more on those institutions. Consumers can also order a 3D print, but they don’t focalisze on this segment.
Competitors
There are a lot of competitors on the 3D market. Examples of direct ones are Materialize, Shapeweis and 3ID. An example of an indirect competitor is Layerwise. This one is indirect because they only produce printings in steel. Dit is een paragraaf. Klik hier om uw eigen tekst toe te voegen.
Conclusion
The biggest opportunity for 3Dinfinity are the medical institutions. They focus more and more on this segment because there is more demand. An important threat for them is the growth in the 3D-printers for consumers. The price of a 3D-printer for customers(consumers) has dropped, and the quality is lower, but maybe customers will not see the advantage anymore of paying a higher price for a prototype.
The main things they’ve learnt from starting up their own business is that everything costs a lot of money and that it is hard to find customers. So to future starters, he wanted to say that they should be aware of this but that they also shouldn’t be scared of starting up a business if you have a good idea.
The ambition of 3D infinity is becoming a reference on the Belgian market and making the big competitors jealous of the projects 3Dinfinity gets.
Posted on 19/04/2016