Italian firm IRA 3D has launched a new global 3D Print on Demand service and now Poetry Express is looking for experts around the world to help make this ambitious project a reality.
3D printing is set to become a part of everyone’s life, but print shops are still in their infancy. The likes of Shapeways are trailblazers, but there is still a gap in the market and increased competition can only be good for the end user. Prices should drop and the market will decide the right balance between the price and the quality of the end product, so there’s a market here.
Got the right printer? You can sign up
Anybody with an acceptable 3D printer can sign up completely free and become a Poetry Express partner for 30 days. A lot of major companies have dreamed of creating a global network of printers, but the cost is mindboggling. By adopting an Uber-style approach and allowing users to rent out their printer to paying customers, Poetry Express could potentially solve this conundrum.
Partners that want to go straight in to the 3D printing industry at a pro level can apply for the chance to become a Hub. You’ll get the Box Infinity Express package, which is a business in a box. It includes the Poetry Infinity printer, the upgrade packages to get the most of the Fast Layer Deposition technology, a range of filaments to handle any job, software and more.
Poetry Express offers training courses, installation and ongoing support to ensure that even a beginner can, theoretically, go from a novice to a professional 3D printer in one confident stride.
What about the Poetry Infinity?
The printer itself is a slick piece of kit that can has a large build volume of 250x250x300mm and can reach speeds of up to 400mm/s. It also has superb resolution, up to 15 microns on the Z axis.
The metal extruder can handle temperatures of up to 540 degrees Farenheit, which means it can handle all manner of plastics, graphene filaments and light metals. It also comes with a Soluble Support System for support structures that are soluble.
It is fitted with systems that will allow the printer to keep going if the power goes out, which saves expensive interruptions, and there are other features on this high-end printer that mark it apart from the consumer herd.
With the intense global competition set to ramp up, this Poetry Express service is a neat addition to the business plan. Essentially any customer has a way to make their money back after spending a considerable amount on a printer that retails for $2700 on its own.
You don’t need to have a Poetry Infinity to join the program, any decent 3D printer will do. In the end, though, it makes sense for IRA 3D to have an upper tier of preferred partners and they may well opt for their own customers.
This could be the future
Local production has been a goal of the 3D printing industry for some time, but nobody really knows how to make that happen. One day we may have a 3D printer in every household, but even then there will be jobs where you need the best quality finish. A local network of experts with high-grade equipment could prove the answer.
Anybody that joins the Poetry Express network will get 70% of the money from every order and you can choose the jobs you accept based on the specification, color, materials and quality of the finish specified by the customer. As an added bonus, Poetry Express partners will get 15% off their own materials.
It’s a novel concept and if Poetry Express can offer a quality finish and consistency in its service then there’s no reason this ‘Uber of 3D printing’ cannot go on to be a massive success.
We wish them well with this pioneering project.
