3D Printing is increasingly being used by businesses. And it is not just being used for prototyping. The ability to iterate on products and create complex geometries are both enticing to create parts at production scales. And with technologies such as our Production 3D printing Farm, large scales are feasible. But during the design and prototyping stage sampling, verfication, and design can increase up-front costs to create a 3D printed product. That is why we created the Mason 3D printer for businesses

The Mason is a 3D printer derived from the production 3D printers used in our large scale 3D printing farm. Because of that, any part made on the Mason will be identical to the parts coming out of the Slant 3D Printing Factory. This means sampling is no longer necessary. Clients only need to make a prototype on the Mason that is up to Spec, and then thousands more can immediately be produced with identical settings and characteristics on the Slant 3D farm. Prototype to production with no steps in between.

There only leaves the problem of getting those settings right on your prototype. Design for production 3D printing is an entire discipline, and very few truly understand how to optimize a part for large volumes. And while the machines may be identical from prototype to production, materials could vary if the client is using a spool of filament off of Amazon. 

So to standardize the workflow completely. We created OnSite. Onsite is program that connects a Mason 3D printer directly into Slant 3D. An Onsite Subscription provides stardaized materials and access to profession file preparations and optimization. So every variable is eliminated in the prototype stage. Mason+Onsite gives you completely final production-ready prototypes. Not to mention machine insurance, discounted setup, zero sampling costs, and low cost high quality filament.

With the Mason 3D printer combined with an Onsite subscription we have made is possible for businesses to create, and quickly scale 3D printed products as easily as a software company might make an app.

Republished from Forbes. Original Sculteo Report

3D Printing has creating an incredible opportunity for designers to bring physical products to life. Websites such as Amazon, and Etsy, and businesses of all sizes have seen an influx of true 3D products that are as good, if not better than, traditional manufacturing processes.

But there has been a problem. Most of these products are made by very small concerns and have little ability to scale. This is because the cost to create and scale a 3D printer farm that can meet large scale demand is as great, or greater, than the cost to build traditional tooling.

At Slant 3D we have been working to eliminate the barriers to bringing physical products to market. We started by building one of the largest and highest volume producing factories of 3D printed parts in the world. With this next step, we are making it easier to access and utilize that 3D printing factory.

Here is the Mason and the Onsite Program, a pipeline from prototype to production of 3D printed parts

Many clients that come to Slant 3D have a product that they have been printing with traditional FDM Machines. But since they are using some consumer machine  the parts they make might not be the same as the pieces produced by Slant 3D. So a few cycles of sampling and verification have to occur. Which can slow down a product launch and add expense. If they had access to a printer that gave the same results as those used in our 3D printing factory then it would eliminate that setup process.

At Slant 3D we have spent several years developing new 3D Printer technology. Working to create industrial machines that are able to be deployed by the thousands to produce 100,000's of parts for clients as an alternative to injection molding. We have become very good at making 3D Printers.

The Mason 3D printer is a prosumer machine derived from our industrial printers. With it, users are able to make prototypes at their business with a workhorse machine, and when they are ready to scale up production of those parts all they have to do is send the final design and print settings to Slant 3D and they will translate directly into the production process. Eliminating sampling, and redesigns. The Mason now makes it as easy to create a product and scale it as making an app.

When you create an app you test it on your phone. If it works there it works on most similar phones. Now, when you create a product you can build it on the Mason. If it turns out right there then it can be produced by the Thousands immediately by Slant 3D.

The Mason is now available for preorders now for $750. Shipments will begin in early June of 2019. To get more details on the specs of the Mason visit its main Page.

The 3D Printing industry suffers from a huge lack of reliability. Colors and quality of filament change. Machines and the companies that make them disappear and go out of date. We want to eliminate all of those problems.

With Onsite we provide insurance for your Mason 3D Printer. If it breaks down then we will replace it within 2 days to ensure that you are never held up in your work. We also provide a 20% discount on all of our premium filament. This is the same filament that Slant 3D uses in production. So any part made with that filament on the Mason 3D printer will be identical to the parts produced by Slant 3D. Creating a perfect pipeline from prototype to production of 3D printed products.

And if you are a business or Designer that has a high demand for 3D printing, the Onsite program with discounted filament will easily pay for the printer in under a year. And you have the added value of the manufacturing backend of the Slant 3D Factory. 

Another problem that many businesses run into is simply the operation of 3D printers. Preparing a CAD file for printing is a skill unto itself. With the Onsite Business Subscription companies immediately gain access to 3D printing expertise.

To implement Onsite Business the Mason 3D printer of the business will be upgraded with cloud connectivity. Then whenever a Design needs to be printed it will be uploaded to Slant 3D and one of our experts will slice it and print it at the client's desired machine. It is like having 3D printer experts in house.

Learn More about Onsite

We are very excited about the Mason and Onsite. The are going to fundamentally change the product development process. It will no longer be a set of disjointed suppliers and experts. We have created a clear and easy path to go from prototype to production without interruption. It is now possible to create a physical product and scale it as easily as it is to create a scale digital product.

Toys are one of the largest markets for final plastic products in the world. Valued at nearly 89 Billion dollars per year, toys are also lucrative. The trouble is that toys are risky and subject to little more than the whim of the consumer. Literally one weeks consumers will be buying the latest fidget spinner, and then the next week stocking up on branded Avengers Endgame action figures.

The toy industry is dominated by the Likes of Lego, Hasbro, and Mattel. Organizations that can afford the cost of design, tooling, and marketing of literally hundreds of SKU's of toys from 1 month to the next. With 10's of thousands of dollars for each variations, the cost to create a toy is very high. And when the toy is made there is really no guaratee of its success. They are subject to the 50-70% failure rate of any business.

So how does a small company, startup, or lone inventor break into the toy industry, when the the cost of entry and risk is so high?

The problem is in the tooling. That high upfront cost to get started. And the high cost to change if a product is not successful. Molding and traditional tooling are what makes the cost-risk relationship so bad. But there is a process that does not have that high initial tooling fee but will allow you to grow should your toy take off. Additive Manufacturing or Production 3D printing.

Additive manufacturing is when a part is literally grown from a feed of plastic. Traditional manufacturing carves of stamps a shape. 3D printing just makes it appear. Additive is also a digital process. Meaning that, to use it, all you need is a 3D model of your product and it can be created.

Another benefit of the Digital nature of 3D printing is that if a product needs to be changed, updated, or completely replaced, all it takes is an e-mail with the updated 3D design. With no new tooling or molding costs a physical part can be tweaked while it is being made.

Production 3D printing has also reached a scale where if you gain success and are selling thousands, 10's of thousands or more, it can keep up and maintain pricing comparable to injection molding. If a part costs $0.25 for 10,000 units with injection molding after the mold costs, it is likely that production additive can have a similar cost profile without the molding costs.

Additive manufacturing also eliminates the need to create 10,000 pieces. This might be more expensive per part that making large quantities, but it allows a business to experiment and test a market, and not be stuck with the high cost of having to ship and store thousands of pieces. Companies like Slant 3D also often have fulfillment systems, so you create a product and upload it to our system and then when a customer makes an order, the part is printed and shipped right from one of our facilities. (You can learn more about 3D printed product fulfillment here.)

Toys are a risky business. But they can be very lucrative when they are successful. But startups and inventors need a resource that allows them to experiment with production quantities and scale easily without high up-front costs. Traditional manufacturing does not meet those needs. Production Additive manufacturing does allow for this. It lets toy designers make 10 toys and test them, make 1000 toys and sell them, and then make 100,000 and get rich. Just imagine what you could create if the cost to make a toy was not so high