The middlemen of 3D printing
It has become extremely difficult for companies to get a clear picture of the crowded 3D printing sector. But now that’s changing: ETH spin-off Additively.com brings transparency to the market and helps customers find the right provider.
A row of seats from a Swiss charter airline sits in the office of Matthias Baldinger and Fabian Rahm. Three seats for a two-man company? “At some point we would like to grow and be able to hire more employees,” says Rahm, who was given the seats by his sister, a flight attendant with the airline.
But now that the two founders’ ETH spin-off, Additively.com, has gained some speed, the first task is to take off. The new web portal with which Baldinger and Rahm aim to reach their initial cruising altitude has been online since 17 March, but just what the final altitude will be remains an open question. And with that, we’ve exhausted the aviation analogies. After all, external page Additively.com concerns itself exclusively with 3D printing.
Hinge between providers and customers
The idea behind the young start-up is to help companies find the right solution on the booming 3D printing market – help in the choice of the right printing method and the right providers and with obtaining bids. Additively.com is a consulting and referral company that acts at the junction between the demand and supply side of 3D printing products – a position that puts Baldinger and Rahm in a class of their own.
Over the last three years, the 3D printing market has exploded, becoming crowded and opaque. One factor is the variety of 3D printing technologies, with each application requiring its own technology. Although there is a fast-growing and diverse market of service providers, they have widely varying technological orientations and different business models, which can make it difficult for customers to find the ideal partner. The result is that companies that want to produce 3D-printed parts need a lot of time and technical expertise. “Because of this complexity, many promising 3D printing projects are simply not carried out,” says Baldinger.
To bring order to the chaos, he and Rahm created the Additively.com platform. Users can upload 3D data of the parts to the platform and specify the requirements. The young entrepreneurs then help the customer find the right 3D printing technology for the manufacture of their parts and obtain offers from suitable providers among its ever-growing directory of more than 250 vendors. Customers can then compare prices, select the provider and order the required parts. At the end of the process, they can also evaluate the producer. Baldinger and Rahm receive a commission from the provider for new orders. The website also provides a wealth of detailed information about 3D printing in a learning environment.
Factor 28 was the key
The idea for the company was hatched by Baldinger. He had had to prepare some documents about 3D printing for his former boss, and was fascinated by the technology and products that could be produced with 3D printers. So he gave up his job at Accenture and began a doctorate under Professor Paul Sch?nsleben at the Department for Management, Technology and Economics (D-MTEC) at ETH Zurich. His dissertation examines the question of how 3D printing can be used in the manufacturing industry.
In Rahm, Baldinger found a software developer to set up and refine the web portal. Rahm had previously worked as a computer scientist at Swissair and had survived the grounding of the airline, first at Telekurs and then at an SME that makes flight simulators. In 2012, he decided to strike out on his own and met Baldinger, who asked him if he wanted to start a company. They first put their heads together to develop the concept in June 2013, and in mid-September they moved into a small office in Zurich’s Technopark.
In the past year, the two entrepreneurs laid the foundation for their company with a comparison study. They called for offers from various 3D printing providers for five reference objects and then compared the prices and technologies. The results of the study confirmed their project. The price differences for printing the same part differed in some cases by a factor of 28. Reason enough to comb through the industry and establish transparency. “This is in customers’ interest, who save a lot of time and money thanks to our service,” says Rahm with conviction.
3D printing luminary lends support
The new website has been online since mid-March. The launch was preceded by a six-week test phase in which they conducted 15 jobs with test customers. They obtained up to six quotes for each part. “This showed us that we were on the right track; it was the proof of concept,” says Baldinger.
Currently, the young entrepreneurs cannot pay themselves salaries – Additively.com still needs to generate more business. But that looks set to change soon: the financing situation should be clarified by this summer.
The two founders are being advised by a CTI coach, who has accompanied them through the start-up phase, and they are revising their business plan with his support. “What really helps us is the long-term perspective that the coach brings to the table,” says Baldinger. They often lost sight of the bigger picture as they dealt with more immediate concerns. Moreover, 3D print expert Gideon Levy has also lent advice and a helping hand. “He helps us with content and spreading the word, generating buzz. He’s extremely well-connected in the industry,” says Rahm with admiration. Levy predicted 20 years ago that 3D printing would become the production technology of the future – and that’s exactly what the spin-off founders are building their business on.
3D printing
Three-dimensional printing – additive manufacturing – refers to a variety of different external page production technologies, including laser sintering, fused deposition modelling (FDM) and stereolithography. Just as diverse as the print technologies are the materials used, which has resulted in a plethora of different machine types that can cost upwards of CHF 1 million. This method of manufacture has many advantages compared with conventional manufacturing processes, in particular in the production of components in small batches or with complex geometries. These capabilities make 3D printing attractive for prototypes, support parts and small series, with numerous potential applications in every industry.