Increasing hand-held 3D technology sales in the North America market

Artec Group has announced a new major partnership with ScanSource, a value-added distribution company with more than $4 billion in sales.  Artec Group and ScanSource have signed a Master Distribution Agreement naming ScanSource as the main distributor for Artec Group in the USA.

“This partnership will enable fast, exponential sales growth in Artec 3D products and solutions thanks to ScanSource’s years of experience in the North American market, one of Artec’s priority regions,” said a company spokesperson.

In addition to the new partnership with ScanSource, Artec continues to sell its products through a wide network of official partners in more than 40 countries.

Artec’s mission is to unleash the 3D revolution and bring this technology to everyone, everywhere. For a hardware and software company, Artec has been in the public eye mixing with celebrities, recently producing 3D scans of the cast of the Big Bang Theory and the Royal family.

Read: Artec 3D Scanners Used for Big Bang Theory Cast and the Royal Family

Founded in 2007, the company is headquartered in Luxembourg, with offices in the USA and Russia, and includes a team of high-caliber specialists who have worked together for over 10 years.  Artec’s leading experts work on capturing/processing 3D surfaces for personal and professional usage, as well as biometric security and 3D face recognition.

Today, Artec has over 100 employees, 60% of which are 3D engineers.

2013 scanner sales increased by 150% in 2012, with 45% of sales are to the Asian market, with Japan as the largest market. The company has sold over 2,000 hand-held high-precision 3D scanners sold since its founding.

Artec’s 3D solutions are used in aeronautics, medicine, industry, media and design, heritage preservation, art, criminology and insurance.

3D printing marketplace Threeding has announced a partnership with the regional historical museum of Pernik, Bulgaria. Under the agreement, Threeding.com will 3D scan museum exhibits and sell the digital models on its website Threeding.com.

“This agreement will give us an opportunity to add into our portfolio of 3D printable models, unique historical artifacts from the Prehistoric times, Antiquity, Middle Ages and Early Modern Period,” said Tony Kitipov, founder of Bulgaria-based Threeding.com.

The Regional Historical Museum of Pernik will collect a royalty for each sale on Threeding.com, providing much needed revenue to the museum. Furthermore, it is expected that this cooperation will increase the popularity of the museum and the region.

Threeding Builds a Foothold in Eastern Europe

Threeding is a Bulgarian startup founded Kitipov and students of the Bulgarian National Academy of Art, Cveta-Maria Partaleva and Stan Partalev.

“We were inspired by the 3D printing industry after several visits of the United States where we saw couple of 3D printing facilities,” said Threeding.com Founder Tony Kitipov in an exclusive interview with On 3D Printing.

Threeding has modeled itself after successful online marketplaces, such us eBay, by creating a two-sided network of sellers – in this case designers – and buyers.

“We are certainly not the first one globally in this niche but we are definitely the first platform for 3D file sharing in Central and Eastern Europe,” explained Kitipov.

About The Regional History Museum of Pernik

The Regional History Museum of Pernik is located in the town of Pernik, Western Bulgaria. The region has a rich history dating back to antiquity. In different periods the town was part of the territory of the Thracians, part of the Roman Empire, the Byzantines Empire, the Bulgarian Kingdom, the Ottoman Empire and nowadays part of Bulgaria.

The museum was established in 1953 as a town museum and shortly after, it grew into Regional National Museum. Currently, the museum has a  fund of almost 55,000 objects from different periods of the history.

Matthew Terrell is a member of the Horizon research department at the University of Nottingham in the UK.

Terrell is interested in the motivations of designers, animators and users of 3D modeling communities, inspired by the work of MIT Professor Eric von Hippel on lead-user theory.

To further his research, Terrell is reaching out to the design community in an open questionnaire called Motivations in Online 3D Communities. He is offering a £50 voucher to one randomly selected participant.

We caught up with Matthew Terrell to learn more about his research and goals.

On 3D Printing: Tell us about your research. What are you looking at in the field of 3D Printing?

Matthew Terrell: I am researching the motivations for choosing different 3D communities – more specifically if the choice is based on economic, social, individual or professional motivations. The research is developed on the lead-user theory developed by Eric von Hippel at MIT, which investigates small groups of users which are almost perfectly suited to new product development, due to a combination of their knowledge, industry position and engagement in the community.

On 3D Printing: What do you hope to accomplish with this questionnaire?

Matthew Terrell: As only a few research project built on this theory have investigated the users of online communities, the aims of the study are twofold: firstly, to understand more about the behaviour of individuals, specifically the motivations of 3D modellers who operate in online communities. Secondly to gain a better understanding of the different environments individuals self-select into, based on their motivations, and the motivational systems in each environment.

On 3D Printing: What trends are you seeing in the 3D printing design and 3D modeling communities?

Matthew Terrell: Interestingly that many 3D modellers prefer to operate ‘offline’. I assumed that being online provided us all with more opportunities to diffuse our work and knowledge, however many modellers appear to work in physical environments like Hackspaces or fab labs.

If you are a 3D modeler or designer, please participate in Matthew Terrell’s online questionnaire! 

Last year, 3D printing was a hot topic at SXSW, the Austin, TX conference promoting music and technology innovation.

And we are already seeing 3D printing companies stepping up their game for this year.

3D printing marketplace Shapeways announced that they will be offering selfie scans at SXSW so you can 3D print your own mini-me.

Also, company representatives will be speaking on two panels. Read the descriptions below to learn more.

3D Printing: Fueling the Manufacturing Renaissance
Sunday, March 9
3:30 – 4:30 pm
This talk will feature the leaders of two of the world’s largest 3D Design and Printing communities in the world, Shapeways CEO, Pete Weijmarshausen (@weijmarshausen), along with Carl Bass (@carlbass), CEO of Autodesk (@Autodesk) 3D Software. Hear an exhilarating discussion on how 3D printing is disrupting traditional manufacturing, and why it might be time to quit your day job and design the product of your dreams. Pete and Carl will discuss the future of 3D Printing, how our communities are pushing the boundaries of product design and more! These two pioneers in the field will certainly have some incredible perspective on what lies ahead.

Brands Driven by Artistic Communities
Sunday, March 9
11:00 am – 12:00 pm
Sit in on a discussion with Shapeways Designer Evangelist Duann Scott, Bailey Richardson, Community at Instagram, and Josh Karpf, Global Head of Social for Spotify. They’ll share insights into how artistic communities are transforming imagery, music, and the maker movement.

This is a guest post by Abdul Rehman, whose bio is at the end of the article.

Throughout history, the simplest, most mundane things have inspired great scientific breakthroughs.

Isaac Newton saw an apple falling to the ground and put forward his theory of gravity. Albert Einstein imagined a man falling off a building and formed his theory of relativity.

Perhaps the latest bioprinting technique called “Block Cell Printing” falls into the same category as it is inspired by centuries’ old Chinese woodblock printing.

Block-Cell Printing

Developed by researchers in Houston, “block-cell printing” or “BloC printing” is a technique for making single layered patterns of living cells. It uses microfluidic physics to guide living cells into small hook-like traps. Cells flow down columns in a mold and assume definite positions according to predefined criteria. When the mold is lifted, the cells remain behind on a substrate retaining the same predefined pattern.

This technique is quite similar to the Chinese woodblock printing technique through which they printed text, images or patterns using wooden blocks and ink. Lidong Qin, the head of the research team, says: “It’s essentially the same as the ancient woodblock printing.”

So, in block cell printing, the mold is the wooden block, the cells form the ink and the substrate is the paper.

Comparison with Contemporary Techniques

Presently, bioprinting companies like Organovo, use a technique called inkjet printing. When compared to it, block cell printing:

1. Keeps More Cells Alive: One problem with the inkjet technique is that many cells (20-50%) die during the process. In contrast, in block cell printing, almost all the cells survive. Qin says: “A survival rate of 50 to 80 percent is typical as cells exit the inkjet nozzles. By comparison, we are seeing close to 100 percent of cells in BloC-Printing survive the printing process.”
2. Is More Economical: Another big advantage that block cell printing enjoys over the traditional techniques is that it is far more affordable. Each BloC mold costs around $1 to produce. In comparison, an inkjet printer costs anywhere from $10,000 to $200,000. So, research companies can cut down their costs by utilizing block cell printing.
3. Is Unable to Produce Three-Dimensional Structures Yet: Although it is revolutionary in many aspects, till now, block cell printing hasn’t been able to produce three-dimensional structures like tissues and organs. This is what the researchers are focusing on next.

Possible Uses of BloC Printing

Qin says that this technique is especially useful for two purposes:

Cancer Diagnosis and Research

The first is cancer diagnosis and research. By studying the behavior and characteristics of cells of cancer patients in the mold, such as how they move in the columns of the mold, BloC printing can be used to diagnose the stage of the cancer. This can then be used for treatment and research purposes.

Neuron Research

Another thing for which block cell printing is especially useful is neuron research. This technique can print neurons as close as 5 micrometers. So, it can be used to study their interactions with one another. Qin states: “Such work could be helpful in understanding Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative diseases.”

Old Technique, New Technology

3D bioprinting has recently become popular as it has the capability to revolutionize the drug and organ industries. It provides a ray of hope for many patients with terminal diseases. However, many concerns have been raised because of its high cost and complexity. Block cell printing has changed that concept and proven that bioprinting can be achieved economically and simply. Once it is able to form 3D tissues, perhaps this millennia-old technique will become the latest and greatest technology!

About the author: Abdul Rehman is a medical student with a keen interest in all things technology. Computers, graphic cards, mobiles, tablets, 3d printing and tissue engineering are just a few of the things he’s been following for years. A regular author at 3dprinthq.com for a year, he’s written on dozens of 3D printing topics from aviation to fashion.