By Editor
The UAE looks to become the regional hub for 3D printing as more regional companies and individual hobbyists are looking into investing in 3D printing technologies. When they do they will most likely acquire their solution from Jackys Business Solutions. Ashish Panjabi, COO at Jackys, explains
Discuss how much the 3D market has matured in the region
The 3D market is in its growth stage in the region and very much still in its infancy. Last year was all about creating awareness; this year we are starting to see some business happen but there’s still a lot of building blocks along the way in terms of creating the awareness and getting it out there. The major development from last year for Jacky’s Business Solutions is that we added another brand in the portfolio, MakerBot, and with that brought their entry-level solution to the region. Last year we had a 3D printer that was 10,000USD; today we have one for AED 5,000, a six times price drop from the year before. This meant that we have an opening in a lot of the places that we were held back from by budgetary reasons.
From a technology perspective, what have been the major developments in the one year since?
3D Printing is getting cheaper, better in quality and faster. Speed has been the one big limitation for 3D printing-depending on the type of structure you are printing, it could take anything from an hour or two to two or three days. Now we see speeds getting faster with quality improving drastically as well. One of our partners is Stratasys which has introduced technology within the last one year that combines three materials simultaneously to print. This allows users the flexibility and a lot of opportunities on what they can do. It can be three materials which can be printed on their own to make one design or combine materials to make new materials.
On the materials side, there have been a lot of improvements on the number of materials used. MakerBot provides us with a new material called PLA recently launched in the market. PLA is a plastic-based material that is organic. It is completely recyclable and has given us the ability of bringing in a plastic-type of materials as well. Its strength is similar to that of Lego Blocks and it comes with a whole lot of colours and varieties.
What are some of the key segments for 3D printing in the region?
There are a few of segments in the region where we see real demand for 3D printing. One of them is education with 3D printers increasingly used in schools and universities mainly for STEM (science, technology engineering and math). It’s a lot more fun when students are in a science lesson when using 3D. The other major segment is architecture. Construction is of course a major industry in the region and many architects are adopting 3D printing into their design process. The dental industry however has seen one of the fastest uptakes of 3D printing. By combining oral scanning, CAD/CAM design and 3D printing, dental labs can accurately and rapidly produce crowns, bridges, stone models and a range of orthodontic appliances. Globally, 3D is most popular is in prototyping but the region is not a major manufacturing market.
Discuss some of the local partners Jacky’s Business Solutions is working with to take 3D to market.
On the software side, we have several 3D design companies including Autodesk and SolidWorks for their CAD solutions where we work regionally through their distribution channels. We measure 3D printing success by the number of 3D licenses sold on the software side which provides a pretty accurate indication of the health of the printer market. Our focus is also on selling through resellers, because given the number of vertical segments we have to look at, whether its architecture, medical/dental, education etc. we need to have people with deep knowledge of those particular industries.
Discuss Jacky’s Business Solutions growth in 2014 and prospects for next year
Our B2B focus has grown in the last one year-we created Jacky’s Business Solutions last year which was basically a collection of B2B solutions initially spread out but now put under one umbrella. This focus has allowed us to start looking at common opportunities and resources we see where we can get further with them. We are in the process of implementing a CRM solution for Jacky’s Business Solutions as an entity. We are also in the process of upgrading our ERP system, a process that should happen by end of Q1 2015 which allows us to handle after sales and service better than in the past. We recently moved into our new headquarters in which we are building a new Demo centre for our customers where they can see the whole portfolio of products in one place.