Paradigm 3D, a 3D printing factory in Dubai, has opened an online order service to complement its new factory. We reported on the opening of their physical physibles factory earlier this summer, with its high quality industrial additive manufacturing capacity thanks to three Stratasys Fortus 400mc machines and a Fortus 900mc. Their 3D Printing factory continues to facilitate the production of prototypes and printed end-use parts for low volume manufacturing.
Paradigm 3D has also been active on the 3D Hubs global network since August this year. There they are offering a start-up cost of $135 per job in ABS in a range of colours at $30 per cm3, or black nylon at $40 per cm3 using their Fortus 900mc — or $20 per cm3 in ABS in a range of colours, or $25 per cm3 for black nylon using their Fortus 400mc machines. Online the company is making an impression on social media with Facebook already gaining an impressive 1842 Likes.
D2M Solutions FZE has been providing a 3D printing service since 2010. As the company’s customer base increased over the years the decision was made to create a division dedicated to additive manufacturing with it’s own factory — and Paradigm 3D was born. Company spokesman Alex Papantoniou provides additional insight:
“In this part of the world, news gets out quickly when ground-breaking technologies are uncovered, and we have seen companies developing diverse products… that are employing 3D printing services to speed their product time to market either by 3D printing functional prototypes or manufacturing low-volumes. Using these services helps companies to shave considerable time off their design and development programmes and will drive down overall production costs. We feel that having a partner like Paradigm 3D in the region, will inevitably encourage new start-up companies to go ahead with local production of innovative products and established industries to manufacture in more efficient ways.”
Service channels provided include: Low volume or pre-production parts; functional prototypes; concept models, marketing mock-up and exhibition models, scale replica models; bridge tooling for injection moulding; parts with a variety of finishes available, including metal or gold-plating; manufacturing tools for processes such as thermo and vacuum forming, sheet metal forming and paper pulp moulds; innovative and customised corporate gifts.
This author is intrigued to read that the company is providing a channel for customised corporate gifts. I may be overlooking an emergent or established niche for 3D printing here, but I haven’t come across many service providers that are working with this particular application of rapid production technologies so far. This perhaps fits in with the company’s previous statement that: “…perhaps not surprisingly as we are in Dubai we have some discerning customers who are simply interested in manufacturing unique high-end and customised products, of which only one unit is required – and it is mainly for the U.A.E. and Saudi market that we can now offer gold-plated parts.”
The division claims the title of the first dedicated additive manufacturing factory in the U.A.E., indeed in the wider Middle East. There are a number of other 3D printing services that have begun operating in recent years in Dubai itself. That said the overall printing capacity of these competitors seems to be less than that of Paradigm 3D.
Examples of other Dubai-based services include Iris 3D Solutions with their Stratasys Projet 660 which offers a range of niche applications such as: full body and face 3D scanning; turning 2D blueprints or CAD drawings into a 3D printable files; turning 2D photographs of places, people and things into 3D, resulting in high resolution three dimensional models for 3D printing or digital use.
Also notable is Precise, with consumer 3D printing orientated pigeon-holes orientated around customised gifts, including their expanding This Is Me (TIM) service that brings the 3D selfie trend to the affluent Dubai area via three branch locations: Mall of the Emirates, Deira City Centre, Atlantis and Dubai Duty Free.
The Dubai area looks to be experiencing the genuine initial growth of 3D printing service provision, with a similar breadth of businesses and services that other major centres of commerce are witnessing. Those include 3D printing service bureaus, personalised 3D printed products such as 3D selfies, scanning and file conversation, CAD for 3D print, plus prosumer printer and industrial additive manufacturing retailers such as 3D Middle East.
I’ll close by adding that Netherlands-based Builder 3D Printers (@3Dprinter4u) is currently looking for a U.A.E. retailer according to a tweet that I caught during the research for this article.
