Re: 99 SME Conference

From: James P. Harrison (harrjp@juno.com)
Date: Thu Apr 22 1999 - 22:03:47 EEST


Hey Karl,

I am responding to your questions about the "State of the Industry".

I have been involved with RP for 11 years and Terry has not solicited
my opinion once, but then again what do I know? I am sure that if
he called I would tell him we're the best and very busy, which would
not help him much. I am curious of were he gets this information
and how reliable are his sources?

We currently do not have plans to buy any larger capacity
equipment soon, but our business is expanding. We have doubled
our office space this year. This industry is still young and growing,
that is my opinion.

Take care,
Jim

James P. Harrison Director Of Operations
3Dimensional Engineering www.3de.net; harrjp@juno.com
2991 N. Powerline Rd. Pompano Beach, FL. 33069
954-972-9906 (phone) 954-972-8903 (fax)

On Thu, 22 Apr 1999 12:27:37 -0400 "Karl Denton"
<karldenton@ameritech.net> writes:
>Ok kids it's time that I comment on what I saw at this years
>exhibition, I
>did not attend the conference although I purchased the proceedings...
>
>I know that these comments will stir the pot so-to-speak so I am
>prepared
>for the worst!
>
>
>First things first... As I did not attend the conference this year I
>missed
>Terry Wohlers talk on the "State of the Industry" and the following is
>based
>on reading his executive summary the complete report was not at the
>show so
>I'll be as brief as the summary was:
>
>In the summary section Terry states "The rapid prototyping industry is
>questioning the future of its technology" could all of you out there
>please
>send me a note on weather or not your opinion was ever solicited on
>this
>topic! Could you service bureaus please send me a note on weather or
>not
>you have been expanding your business both with and with out new or
>used RP
>machines!
>
>I am curious where this information comes from and some might say that
>this
>public forum is not the place to question these things but for years
>Terry
>has predicted a very substantial amount of growth year after year and
>now he
>is predicting essentially the end of an industry! The growth that
>was
>spoken to in previous years never happened and I now question what was
>used
>to base those statements on.
>
>I am getting a bit frustrated with this apparent lack of a reality
>check
>that we have in this industry and think its time to be vocal about it.
> I
>inquired about purchasing a copy of Terry's report and he stated that
>it is
>at the printer and gave me a mail-in order form for it. He is asking
>$345
>from those that live in the US and $395 from those that live else
>where for
>this kind of money I want to know more on how this information was
>collected
>and who he collected it from! Every single person that I speak to in
>the RP
>industry (both in-house user and service bureaus) tell me the exact
>opposite
>of what Terry and his reports say!
>
>Now if you're calm enough here are my comments on the rest of the
>show...
>
>All the major RP equipment manufacturers were there minus Aaeroflex.
>There
>was major activity at all of the manufacturers booths. And the crowd
>seemed
>to be a bit heavier then last year (although SME will have actual
>numbers).
>3D Systems had their 7000 running but it had trouble due to heavy
>trucks
>driving on the roadway under the show area. Nice machine! I'm not
>sure
>it's $750,000 nice but it was nice. The new Actua was also there and
>having seen some of the parts that came off the machine I'm not that
>impressed. Sanders was showing off a new larger machine that had
>about a 12
>inch build volume and when I asked if they were able to increase the
>speed
>they said only via software. I've got to tell you that they were
>vocal
>about the fact the machine was as accurate as CNC and that was it's
>selling
>point. They had a SL user accuracy part that they had built on the
>machine
>and it looked very impressive although I wonder how long it took to
>build?
>The other manufacturers were there as well and I did not see any thing
>all
>that new and impressive to write about.
>
>There were several, no that's wrong, there were a lot of service
>bureaus
>there! More then I've seen at any other of the RP shows.
>
>There were several companies there that I had not seen at prior shows.
>There was a company there showing off small (table top) injection mold
>machines (I have yet to go through the stack of literature so the name
>will
>come latter). Several PU mixing machines. And the usual PU vendors
>and
>silicone rubber vendors. One thing that did catch my eye was a
>pour-able
>REN board from Ciba. They had a tool there that was very impressive.
>
>Notables in the industry that were NOT at the show: Aaeroflex, Solid
>Concepts, Compression and of course Plynetics/Express
>
>Having not attended the conference this year I can not speak to that
>side of
>things and that said the show was somewhat disappointing for an old
>timer in
>this industry. It was great to see old friends and that made the trip
>worth
>while. I'm not sure where this industry is going and think that for
>those
>that were new at the RP show this was an exciting event for them and
>that
>may help to energize other in this industry.
>
>All that said let the flaming begin....
>
>
>
>Karl R. Denton
>Advanced Technology Consultants LLC
>4778 Greenview Ct.
>Commerce Twp., MI 48382
>Email: karldenton@ameritech.net
>Phone: 248-363-1478
>Cell: 248-789-6410
>Pager: 248-523-3318
>Fax: 248-363-7488
>
>Helping you excel through the use of Advanced Technologies
>____________________________________________________________
>
>
>For more information about the rp-ml, see http://ltk.hut.fi/rp-ml/
>

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