What isn’t made in China? Take a look at this list from International Business Times.
Besides owning 20% of US debt held by foreign nations, they produce a massive amount of goods using traditional manufacturing methods. China is sometimes mistaken as being off the ball or behind the mark when it comes to 3D printing. They are not. China’s 3D printing is estimated to grow to $1.6 billion (USD) by 2016, up from $163 in 2012. The Chinese government has invested around $33 million,which funded an established network of 10 3D printing innovation centers. They aren’t new to the industry and have been involved in R & D since 1992. Many of China’s universities and vocational schools such as Tsinghua University and South China University of Technology offer courses in additive manufacturing.
Besides dealing with the US government to the tune of 20% of US National Debt held by foreign countries, their partnerships in the technology sector trickle down to the growing 3D printing industry. 3D printers are cheaper to manufacture in China, which isn’t really surprising, but is surprisingly not focused on too often.
The Up! 3D printer technology was licensed to the US company Microboards Inc., from Tiertime, China’s largest 3D printer manufacturer. They turned it into the Afinia 3D printers, which proceeded to compete well against Makerbot, who have been losing more of their dominant market share since 2009 and a falling short on sales predictions.
Makerbot has created some features that exceed those available in Chinese 3D printers. But the former CEO of Tiertime, GuoGe said that their goal was to become the largest 3D printer manufacturer in the world, and wanted to send 80% of their products to developed economies such as the United States and Europe.
At the same time, Makerbot wants to score some of the market share in China’s economy to make up for their less than spot-on predictions about their sales numbers. What do they do? This past November, they partner up with Alipay and, now, Chinese customers have access to Makerbot products to love, use, cherish forever and reverse engineer without consequence. But does China even need to do this?
Take HLH Prototypes, for example, which is one of China’s top 3D printing manufacturing and rapid custom injection molding companies in China. By adding 3D printing to traditional manufacturing techniques, such as injection molding, they are able to quickly make a prototype and then produce significant volumes via rapid injection molding to produce plastic and metal components.
According to Susie Su, a prototyping consultant for HLH, “In their state-of-the art facility, HLH Prototypes is one of the leading 3D printing manufacturers in China. HLH Prototypes offers custom injection molding in China from their UKAS ISO certified facilities.” Like many other industrial designers, they have a team of design engineers who produce drawings for a wide range of programs for a variety of applications. Also, like many industrial design services, clients are given 3D prototypes and models for them to test and evaluate,until a final prototype is designed and produced.
“Their engineers are able to work on plastic injection molds to fit any program requirement regardless of product size and complexity. HLH Prototypes is able to shave weeks off lead times to ensure clients get high quality products on time and every time.”
They will be attending many events in 2015 to feature the advancement in their services. In March 2015 they will attend the TCT Show + Personalized.
My point is that China does not, in any way, need to reverse engineer fantastic American products. They are capable of innovating and dominating the 3D printing industry based on their years of experience as the world’s producer of pretty much everything via traditional manufacturing, which is not a hindrance to creating great 3D printers and materials. Their main obstacle is, in my opinion, creating great customer support and really great software for 3D printers. These advantages lay with the US, Europe, and Australia.
Sometimes, details of Chinese and American partnerships in the 3D printing industry are hard to come by, but it will be interesting to see how 3D printing companies around the world create new partnerships in 2015.
