I’ve been to many of the largest cities around the world, but I can honestly say that I’ve never been in a city quite like Shanghai! Mind-bogglingly big, mind bogglingly beautiful and complex…and infinitely interesting. With its mix of Chinese and European, old and VERY new architecture…not to mention its 24 million inhabitants, it is definitely a place everyone should visit, at least once!
…And yet, in spite of its immense size and wild mixtures of cultures and styles, surprisingly familiar moments are possible. We (my students, my son and myself) arrived the day before the show began and had settled into our hotel near the city center. Feeling good, we headed out for dinner only to, almost literally, bump into the crew from Rokit checking in along with several of their very newest 3D printers, the Edison II…all very carefully packaged in large boxes. Mr. You, their CEO, was kind enough to show me some of photos of them on his smartphone and told me to be sure to come over and see them at the show as we “would be impressed.” We said yes, of course, and went out and had one of the best, and largest, Chinese meals I’ve ever eaten. …And no, we were definitely NOT hungry 30 minutes later. The food was fantastic!
Due to scheduling issues, I was able to attend only the first day of the two-day conference, but what I did get to hear on the first day was amazing. Even a few days on, and I am still processing all of the information I gathered.
Day 1 of the conference ran over a single track all day, and to combat any language barrier issues
The conference was opened by Insider 3D Printing regular and stellar keynote speaker Terry Wohlers, President of AM & 3D Printing Consultancy, Wohlers Associates, who advised the attendees of two very basic, yet very important, points about the 3D printing sector. First, not to put too much faith in industry projections, since they are only predictions and no one, no matter how well informed, can see the future. Pretty heady stuff from one of the most respected industry insiders. The second was that we have only seen the tip of the iceberg when it comes to this technology. The uses we all know about; prototyping, basic medical, aerospace and the like are only the beginning…a beginning that will lead to a future that most of us cannot even begin to contemplate yet. “Keep an eye open worldwide…there will be a lot of growth.”
William Cass, Esq. followed Mr. Wohlers and gave a solid discussion on the current, and changing, state of global intellectual property protections, with notable mentions of the Chinese market. He noted that last year China leapfrogged ahead of Germany in the number of patents, making China the third most prodigious patent producer in the world. He then spoke about the different kinds of protections available including design patents and trade dress and how one form of protection can morph into another over time. He expressed a hopeful, but cautious, tone on the benefits that the open source movement may have on the development of the technology.
At the break we headed out to the exhibition floors…both of them. The exhibition filled both the first and second floors of the Shanghai Exhibition Center and was populated with largely local companies and products, many of which I had never even heard of. There were some that were familiar such as Rokit with their new printer, which I was able to see (as promised) but not appraise as time (and staff) was short, but it was…for lack of a better description…cute. I don’t know if it is as versatile or rugged as Rokit’s other models but I am sure time will tell. MakerBot also had a presence on the show floor by way of the company’s new Chinese resellers uCRobotics. Robox, Materialise and Arcam were also in attendance.
Of course, and almost needless to say, Tiertime, China’s largest 3D printer manufacturer was front and center with their newest printer models, including the new, and fairly stylish UpBox. Other companies present included Xery, who had a couple of different models, Honsmaker, Sandishikong Network Technologies…which we just called “3dfocus” after their website address, Hori, D-Wei, iSun, and Haiyuan. To my mind, virtually all of these were your typical gantry FFF machines. One more unusual one I saw, however, was the Golden Laser, a FFF platform that bore a fairly strong resemblance to 3D Systems original Cube. I watched it for a few moments and wasn’t sure if it was going to shake itself apart as it was vibrating so badly. Not sure if it was a design flaw, or if the show operator had not set it up correctly, as I recall when I first got my Makerbot Replicator 2, it damn near shook itself apart until I fully read the instruction manual and adjusted it correctly. Nice looking machine though.
There were also quite a number delta FFF platforms present, such as the Qubea, as well as several DLP machines like the CTC, the Prismlab “Shadow Cube”, and the Uniz. And don’t even get me started on the build material suppliers! Literally there was filament, pellets, powder, and liquid providers everywhere. Brilliant to see, and I think they may have outnumbered the machine dealers…though many combined both. One of my personal favourites was 3D Printer Filament, out of Hong Kong. This company was showing a huge selection of materials and colors and their staff, Cathy and Addy, were just the nicest people ever. Their chief materials engineer, Rainer (who I had spoken to before) was not present as he had to be in Germany. I was disappointed as I had been looking forward to meeting him again. Maybe next time.
One machine that really caught my attention, and provided an “oh, snap!” moment was the “Choc Creator 2.0”…a seriously solid looking syringe extruding machine specifically for chocolate creators from Choc Edge. As I was marvelling at the machine, the booth attendant approached and wanted to know if I had any questions. We began talking about the machine, and I referenced an old YouTube video I had seen a couple of years ago when the machine was in early concept development, wherein this British professor at some university had created this crazy looking chocolate 3D printer…and I remembered it because of the unusual way he pronounced the word “chocolate.” She said, “Yes, I know that video…he’s my husband.” D’oh! She was very, very nice about it and I have to say their machine really was impressive.
The remainder of the day was filled with many other great speakers including several leading Chinese and western intellectuals including; Wei Liang, Wim Michiels, Bingheng Lu, Chengtao Wang, Harry Kleijnen, and finished up with a panel discussing the future of 3D printing in Asia with Dr. Eric Klemp, Brandon Zatt, Bingheng Lu and moderated by Ian Gibson. All I can say in summary, is that in light of the enthusiasm with which the Chinese are embracing 3D printing, we can expect to see a whole lot more from them in the near future, so keep an eye out for what’s next!
