Last year we wrote an article about Projekty 3D – a company that produced 3D prototype packages and prototype injection moulds used in the sector of packages.

 

 After two years of running business in this sphere the company has decided to switch to a different type of activity. “3D printing is cheap and you cannot make much profit on it,” says Bartosz Skiba, co-owner of Projekty 3D. Druk24.szczecin.pl has also decided to quit this line of business - For 18 months 3D printing was included in its offer beside digital printing and photocopying services, but there was not much interest in it;  lack of the additional service of 3D design based on which the print ought to be made proved to be the main drawback.

 

Today an average inhabitant of Szczecin who wants to use 3D printing services will go to Bardins – a company operating in Technopark Pomerania, at ul. Cyfrowa.  How much does the service cost? “If a small object is to be made with the use of the cheapest technology available, the printing process will last an hour and cost approx. PLN 30,” indicates Jakub Wabiński, a 3D specialist in Bardins. The printing costs are fixed and calculated per unit. In addition, a three-dimensional design is required, but the customer may have it prepared at Bardins.

 

However, individual customers are fairly rare.

 

“As far as 3D printing and serial production are concerned, the time required for the process to take place poses the main problem. It takes at least several hours to print an object that is a dozen or so centimetres large,” indicates Elżbieta Burzyńska of Bardins.

 

Technopark is also equipped with a 3D printer and scanner, but the services are only available to Technopark companies. However, among Technopark residents there is Bibus Menos, a company focused on 3D solutions for the industry, which accepts individual customers.

 

Printing for corporate customers and institutions only 

 

The majority of orders received by Bardins are placed by corporate customers.  Among them there is a large and well-known company manufacturing hearing aids and a producer of eyeglass frames that orders arms. Bardins, a company belonging to Piotr Burzyński, has used the 3D printing process to create fragments that are to supplement bones.

 

“Our 3D printer is already used in the West Pomeranian Oncology Center in Szczecin. The Medical Physics Department was the first institution in Poland to implement 3D printing by developing its own method of data conversion from computer tomographic equipment,” explains Elżbieta Burzyńska.

 

Bardins fills orders placed by the representatives of the automotive, advertising and model-making sectors.  “We receive commissions to print parts of machine castings or certain machine components,” explains Piotr Burzyński.  The 3D printing technology is also used when restoring historical monuments, parts of old altars or when copying sacred figures -  Bardins cooperates in this scope with the National Museum in Szczecin.

 

Makeshape, a producer of store furnishings, has been delivering 3D printing services to the sector of commerce for a year now. Prototypes of various connectors, hangers, racks and stands are, among other things, prepared with the use of this technology, but the production itself is performed traditionally.

 

Print it yourself, dear customer

 

Piotr Burzyński admits that at present his company is primarily focused on assistance and implementation of 3D printing technologies at its customers’ locations, and not on the 3D printing as such. Bardins experts choose the machines, software and materials that suit the needs of their customers, and print prototype models or short batches (up to 100 items) of final elements. They also train users and provide maintenance services. Sometimes the company’s cooperation with the customers is only limited to optimising 3D printing projects to fit the requirements of the printer.

 

Bardins sells Zortrax 3D printers (a Polish brand). It also sells rendering engines (for 3D visualizations) and three-dimensional design software. A good-quality, user-friendly printer costs circa PLN 8500. Beginning from 01 April 2016 the company’s offer will also include Photocentric printers used in the sector of jewellery. Piotr Burzyński expects that – considering their attractive price (PLN 2700) – such printers will be very popular, especially since today a printer of a comparable quality which serves the same purpose costs about PLN 20 thousand.

  

Bibus Menos from Gdańsk, a company that has its branch in Technopark Pomerania, sells large industrial 3D printers.   Such machines may be a meter wide (width translates into the maximum dimension of the printed object) and their costs may range from EUR 10 thousand to 1.4 million. Bibus Menos has provided machines of that kind to a number of plastics and automotive companies in the area of Szczecin. “Professional 3D printing systems are replacing traditional manufacturing methods, and they enable serial production of average-sized and large elements," explains Piotr Mikulski, head of 3D Printer department, Bibus Menos.

 

“From the perspective of 3D print, this year is sure to be very exciting. Our offer will include new materials to be used in stomatology and a new printer model for large elements.  We are also in the process of negotiations with other companies that are interested in 3D print,” he adds.

 

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