Say you are a company that is looking into getting a new prototype done. You may – or may not – be an additive manufacturing early adopter. Perhaps you do not have the personnel and means for studying and researching each 3D printing technology. You might be a small architectural studio, a freelance designer or a company used to small scale hand-made productions. Or even a large company looking for the fastest way to compare pricing. You probably have heard about all the advantages of 3D printing but do not know how it might work for your specific needs. What do you do?
Additively, a spinoff of ETH Zurich, thinks you should turn to them. What they offer is an extremely accessible website where you will find all the basic information on the most widely adopted 3D printing technologies, quotes on prices and a directory of the 3D print services that can get it done right near you.
All you have to do is post your parts, preferably in STL or SLEP format, specify the product name and the number of parts required. You can select materials and colour, then input tolerances and surface and upload any technical drawings (PDF, JPG, PNG or GIF).
You will also find easy to access background information on 3D printing technologies in a straightforward interactive menu with detailed infographics to describe each process. Additively was created by Mathias Baldinger and Fabian Rahm, who worked on the technical and research aspects, with the support of Prof. Dr. Gideon Levy, a leading (and long time) expert on additive manufacturing, as Scientific Advisor. This, in fact, makes it an excellent resource for anyone researching 3D printing.
The website also includes a directory of service providers, where visitors can find the right 3D printing partner according to their material, geographic and methodological necessities. All the main countries are present, from Australia to Venezuela, though in some cases Additively will refer to services that ship products to that specific country (mainly Materialise), rather than an actual local provider.
