At the Object Shop in Pasco, Florida, a U.S. government subcontractor wanted a model of an existing airplane with specific modifications. “For a model maker to do this, it would take a month and cost between USD$5,000 and $10,000, and if they wanted to make any changes, it would be another month,” owner Zuckerman said: “We can save them months of time in making these prototypes, and to them the value is the time.”
Brian Zuckerman and Grant Posner opened the Object Shop store in March. The Object Shop hasn’t even done any marketing yet, but the business is already attracting significant custom… “There’s only one other company in Tampa Bay that has equipment like this,” Zuckerman says: “The printer can handle any intricacy, so we don’t have to price for that, we charge simply on size.”
The business uses a professional-grade powder composite 3D printer that produces full colour objects. Zuckerman brings decades of pure business experience to the table, having owned restaurant businesses, telecommunications businesses, consulting businesses and so on. Posner, who is finishing his masters in business administration at Saint Leo University is the real tech-head of the duo.
The technology was quickly embraced by manufacturing companies, who calculated that they could save money and time when producing scale models and final parts. Their 3D printer can produce objects with moving parts down to a tenth of the cost. Their next venture will be medical printing, including some amazing work with an orthopaedic surgeon to create a 3D printed replica of his patient’s spine, based on MRI data, to simulate surgeries in advance.
“One of the biggest issues in the industry is it’s too expensive and it takes too long and customer service is terrible. We’ve solved all those problems.” Says Posner. “One of the things we do is we live-stream the print. The designer in France, he watches it all the time. He’ll stay up all night — he’s fascinated.”
