Stay tuned for an ongoing example of how to save money and time by prototyping in America.  Labor is not the only cost when you’re looking at a new product roll out.  Time is often more expensive.  The longer it takes to bring a new product to market, the more lost revenue you will experience.  Examples and photos to come this month.

Let’s face it, additive manufacturing for the masses is right around the corner. Kinkos anyone? Machine costs are coming down, and 3D modelers are more and more common. Does this spell the end of service bureaus though?

Hardly. As an example, anyone can purchase an all in one office machine for around $100 today. It faxes, copies and prints. Sounds like doom for Kinkos, right? Not even close. These all in one machines meet some needs, but at the end of the day, professional copy services are still in demand. I believe the same will hold true for additive manufacturing.

Now, Kinkos has yet to adopt additive manufacturing (or 3D printing, as I think they’d call it), but even when they do, the need for professionals in this space will continue, and possibly grow.

Clients rarely send a perfect solids file to us. They need to be inspected and fixed before we can kick off the model. This is an area that will potentially grow when the masses begin having models made. I know, there are automated tools that will fix a model. Well, sometimes they work, but often times, they distort geometry, requiring an undo, and manual fix.

We’ve worked hard to develop a new website that will provide a source of information and inspiration for our customers. We’ve added a section called the Knowledge Center where we’ll continue to develop an information repository for additive manufacturing. Our goal here is not to provided graduate level details, but rather a more practical level of information that everyone will be able to understand and action.

This blog is yet another new piece of Alchemy Model’s web presence. Here, you might find little details on new additive manufacturing technologies, information on projects that we’re working on, or maybe a great recipe. The blog will be a kind of free for all, if you will.

Finally, we’d like to invite you, our clients, to provide feedback and ideas on what you’d like to see here. Just send us an email with your ideas!