3D Printing

A 3D Printed Customizables Marketplace and 3D Printer Network Rolled Into One

A new Israeli start-up, involved in 3D printing for the past six months, has launched a 3D printing marketplace that they claim will solve many of the constraints and limitations of the technology. Objectifiers.com, spurred from a stint at a Tel Aviv University-based accelerator called TheHive, will bring together a community of 3D printing designers to help non-technical people reap the rewards of the new technology, without becoming intimately involved with how it works.

When they got in touch with 3DPI, Objectifiers’ Jeremie Zazoun and Mathias Frydman told us that, “It is obvious to us that the average consumer will not start mastering 3D printing even in the years to come. It requires too much CAD skill, operating the printer is complicated, buying a 3D printer is expensive and having a 3D printer at home means being limited on size and materials. We could actually go on and on about constraints and limitations!”  Objectifiers’ answer to that problem? Rely on the help of 3D printing experts to design the objects for you, saying, “There are now thousands of 3D printer owners who have gained expertise in designing and printing on very diversified 3D printing technologies. Those hobbyists are not taking enough advantage of their own skills and their 3D printers are often under exploited.

objectifiers 3d printing shop

Objectifers, then, is an online marketplace where 3D printer owners with CAD experience create templates that can be customized for those who lack the skills to design their own models.  The shop owners price their templates and personalizations, listing exactly what sort of customization can be made on an object for a customer. These customizations include: “Basic modifications: set of customization a customer can make for free (ex:color, size, add text, change shape, whatever you decide)” and “Extra modifications: set of paid customization a customer can add to the object (ex: color,size, add text, change shape, whatever you decide). ” The shop owner then prints the object out on their own 3D printer and ships them to the customer.

In this way, Objectifiers is basically a combination of a distributed 3D printing network, like 3D Hubs or Maker6, and a customizable objects marketplace, like MixeeLabs or Versoteq. The biggest deviation from any of these sites, however, is that the customization is handmade, performed by the CAD artist him/her/zirself. Though this is Objectifiers’ greatest strength, it is also their greatest weakness.

Objectifiers has explained that they plan to deduct a 15% commission for each sale that takes place, yet, it appears that almost all of the work that is being performed is by the 3D printer owner/designer.  The CAD artist manually changes every object to the specifications of the client, prints it on their own machine, and ships it to the client, with Objectifiers offering helpful advice like, “You are in charge of delivering the product to your customers wherever they are located in the world. Therefore, use a delivery service featuring a tracking system or provide us an acknowledgment of receipt. PACK IT WELL! Your object is going to travel, do not hesitate to use extra bubbles or any protection method.” Essentially, then, the 3D printer owner is paying 15% for use of the company’s website.  This makes me wonder if the name of the site is meant to be a double entendre or if the irony was lost on its creators when choosing it.

This is the same pricing model that 3D Hubs uses, so I would guess they are looking around. A key difference, however, is that 3D Hubs attempts to make local 3D printing connections possible, so that customers can simply walk over to their local hub and pick up an object. In the Objectifiers scenario, the items are shipped from anywhere to anywhere in the world. I guess I’m just used to “free” online networks, like Facebook and Google+, where I just have to pay them in privacy and content to connect with people I already know IRL, but am too lazy to call.

So, 3D printer owners/CAD designers, maybe it’s worth it! What do you think? Let us know in the comments!

Source: Objectifiers