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Shape your imagination: Singapore warms up to 3D printing

SINGAPORE — That toothbrush sitting on your bathroom cabinet. The houndstooth wrap dress that you have been eyeing for months. Mini-me replicas of yourself and your partner as a wedding-cake topper on your special day. All these could soon be only a mouse-click away, 3D-printed from your own mini factory at home.

SINGAPORE — That toothbrush sitting on your bathroom cabinet. The houndstooth wrap dress that you have been eyeing for months. Mini-me replicas of yourself and your partner as a wedding-cake topper on your special day. All these could soon be only a mouse-click away, 3D-printed from your own mini factory at home.

Once the domain of industrial applications, the technology has progressed at a rapid clip globally and in Singapore, making widespread adoption at consumer level — perhaps the industry’s holy grail — as well as reasonably priced 3D printers for the mass market within reach.

Simply put, 3D printing functions much like conventional 2D printing. But instead of printing a flat image, a 3D printer extrudes material through a nozzle, layer by layer, to create a physical object.

Over the past year, demand for 3D printing services has shot up in Singapore, industry practitioners told TODAY. Previously available mostly as a business-to-business service or in factories, 3D printing shops are starting to sprout up at a wider retail level, with more to open in the next year.

And as 3D printing becomes more commonplace, so customers are also becoming increasingly diverse. Besides individual consumers, architects and hobbyists, an increasing number of schools, medical institutions, government agencies and small and medium enterprises are also buying 3D printers or services.

Ngee Ann Secondary School bought such a printer in August last year for about S$2,900, as did New Town Secondary School for about S$7,000 in December, Channel NewsAsia reported earlier this year. One supplier estimated that there were probably about 20 schools in Singapore that own 3D printers, the report said.

Earlier last year, Singapore’s 3D printing industry made the headlines after local start-up Pirate3D raised US$1.4 million (S$1.75 million) on crowdfunding platform Kickstarter for its mass-market Buccaneer 3D printer. It has since shipped its first batch of printers, worth US$347 each, to its Kickstarter backers.

A BURGEONING BUSINESS

This year, established electronics chain Challenger will add another layer to the adoption of the technology here: It plans to start selling 3D printers at its retail stores by the end of June, it told TODAY.

“We expect more interest in 3D printers geared towards the end-consumer market to come,” said its head of marketing, Ms Loo Pei Fen. She did not reveal how much the printers would retail for.

For two weeks earlier this month, Blacksmith Group — a one-year-old start-up incubated by NTU Ventures — sold its 3D printers for S$1,100 each at a travel and hobbies fair. The company said the public response was overwhelming and sales were brisk.

Capitalising on the growing interest, several companies have also begun offering 3D printing workshops — to customers as young as six years old.

Others, such as Simplifi3d — which had set up shop in Bras Basah Complex last September — offer services that cover almost all corners of the industry, including retail 3D printing services, workshops for consumers as well as business consultancy.

Simplifi3d co-founder Bob Ng said the centre’s retail concept and accessibility have attracted many walk-in customers and spread awareness of 3D printing — something the founders had in mind when they set up the business.

“We had asked the printer sellers if they were willing to help us promote the knowledge to educate the public, but they said no. This is why we opened this centre, so that even the public, from a six-year-old to a grandmother, can be aware of what 3D printing is. It should be available to everyone,” said Mr Ng, who had started the company with three engineers.

NOT JUST FOR HOBBYISTS

Educational institutions, increasingly primary and secondary schools, form the biggest customer base, said Mr Ng, who has also facilitated requests from residents’ committees to bring 3D printing to the heartlands by holding events at community centres.

Its clientele also includes Land Transport Authority engineers, who approached the centre to make moulds of in-vehicle units, said the centre.

Demand for services at Simplifi3d has increased 50 per cent month-on-month since the start of this year, Mr Ng said, with walk-in customers often making figurines for cosplay events, models for school projects or even jewellery. Prices start at S$20 per hour, with the printing process ranging from about half an hour for a small figurine to 12 hours for a cityscape model.

Sales have also increased — by about 60 per cent in the past year — at local start-up 3D Matters, which was co-founded by aerospace engineer Mark Lim and long-time friend Hayden Tay. “When we started in 2012, it was not so well-received. Now, consumers are more aware and we are starting to accept more jobs from hospitals, engineering companies and architects, too,” said Mr Lim.

With this increasing demand, more companies are starting to see the value of offering 3D printing services in retail stores at high-traffic locations.

Mr Edmund Tan, who had set up The 3D Ministry late last year, is currently looking for a space in a central location to open a retail shop by the first quarter of next year.

“I’m doing this because it is not so common yet, and we see the potential of consumers walking in to buy 3D printing services,” he said. Such a retail model is common in other countries such as China, which he observed has already seen roaring success.

Meanwhile, one of the world’s largest 3D printing companies, Stratasys, is also planning to set up a demonstration centre here to showcase the technology to both walk-in business customers and individual consumers.

“The scene is getting really busy. Companies are getting more dependent on 3D printing in designing their products, but they still need to understand if this technology is suitable for their products,” said Dr Choo Jian Huei, who works with students on 3D printing projects at the Faculty of Engineering at the National University of Singapore.

In addition to the consumer aspect, an increasing source of future business will be from the medical industry.

3D Matters is developing a unit called 3D Medical Matters, which is currently in talks with a healthcare institution here to print objects and moulds from CT and MRI scans. “It is easier to explain to the patient using a 3D visual representation, for instance, of an injury or a tumour along the spine,” said Mr Lim of 3D Matters.

Simplifi3d, too, is seeing more interest from medical institutions, which place orders for moulds of bone scaffolds and upper body parts.

Among other factors, industry players attributed the increase in interest over the past two years to the Productivity and Innovation Credit scheme, which has allowed companies to offset costs from the purchase of 3D printers. Last year, Singapore also announced plans to set aside S$500 million over the next five years to support a “future of manufacturing” programme, which includes 3D printing.

“(3D printing) has lowered costs for many companies. Creating a mould or scaffold from 3D printing, for instance, can reduce costs by as much as 70 per cent,” said Mr Ng of Simplifi3d. “A lot of people are buying 3D printers now, but they should learn how to use them properly, or the fear is that these machines may become white elephants.”

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