To List,
What Steve is saying is very accurate. Until a vast library of buildable file exists, or a simplified method of creating buildable files is available, the penetration of RP into the home can not be expected to begin.
Perhaps our desires of RP becoming a household work is a little premature. I believe that the expansion of use of RP in the professional arenas has much greater potential of acceptance and will provide a much faster infusion into the home. When the applications of RP in Sales/Marketing as well as Mfg analysis have become a standard tool (or at least an understood option) the expanded demand and use could be the engine to create a market for low cost mass produced equipment.
Ask 10 people you don't know what they think of RP and you might be surprised with the responses. (I'm not referring to the sick looks either)
Another opinion.
Carl Dekker
----- Original Message -----
From: Steven Pollack
To: Bill Richards
Cc: RP-ML
Sent: Thursday, October 28, 1999 8:56 PM
Subject: Re: On what RP vendors need to do...
Yeah, buy my jewelry! You guys make me a millionaire by purchasing my jewelry and I will sing the praises of RP so loud and so strong that no jeweler would think about not owning RP.
Alright, now that I am awake, check out my gallery at: http://www.xyzacademy.com/Gallery.htm
Since I started my school for RP jewelry making about two weeks ago, I joined Polygon, a private network for jewelers. I have already been contacted by 11 jewelers possibly interested in learning CAD through my program. I am telling you, the RP revolution in the jewelry industry and many others will only begin when CAD becomes more accessible.
Steven Pollack
Bill Richards wrote:
I might be a little behind in responding to this, but I wanted to give this some thought.People keep talking about the future of RP will be a rapid prototyping machine in every home, as ubiquitous as the ink jet printer is today. That will never happen. It isn't so much the cost of the machines, the fact that some RP materials are so exotic they require specialized handling, the fact that the machines require expensive and time consuming upkeep to maintain them, etc. It's simply that it isn't practical.Think of another machine we find in the office that seems no business can do without: the copier. Aside from those of us who have a business at home, I'll bet that no one has a copier in their house. It isn't like there is no demand for this -- look at all the copier service bureaus like Kinkos, CopyExpress, Mailboxes Etc. and such. A lot of public libraries have copiers that one can use for free or at least a nickel or two. Everyone has to make a copy of some document every now and then! But almost no one keeps a Xerox copier in their home.Until the day comes when we have technology that gives us a device such as the replicators we see in Star Trek: all you do is tell the computer what you want, be it a new shirt or a full dinner, and seconds later there it is -- we will never see RP machines in the private home. I would urge RP vendors to steer clear of this route for now.BUT...!That being said, there is a market there! Mainly: hobbyists, model builders, inventors, and as people are finally waking up to the fact, ARTISTS! Which, when you think about it, artists tend to cover the first three there, anyway. There are always tinkers who will want to have something like a prototyper around, so they can make the custom items that invariably they will need, or invent. But considering the cost, right now, of a prototyping machine, it is pretty likely that these people will still go to a service bureau to get the prototype made.Until the price on a "fabber" gets below $5,000, and the raw materials it needs are cheap and easy to get and not toxic or difficult to clean/dispose of, rapid prototyping will never get into the private home.The ripest targets for marketing RP are the art and jewelry industries! Michael Rees, Steve Pollack, and now our newest voice from this sector, Bathsheba, are very good examples. Steve is really the first jeweler I have known to actually take the plunge into using rapid prototyping as an integral part of his business plan.Jewelry is a highly competitive industry. Profit margins are tight, and international competition is fierce. They don't want to risk meager profits on a technology that might not pan out for them. A lot of jewelry companies are looking at rapid prototyping, and there are some who are dabbling in it. But the vast majority are taking a wait and see position. They want to see someone else successfully use rapid prototyping before they take the risk themselves.So if you want to sell your machines to the jewelry industry, you want to help those that are the early adopters succeed at what they are trying to do. Where there is success, business will follow! Offer easier financial assistance. Training and technical support are a must. On the average, an artist won't be as technically minded as an engineer usually is. PROMOTE those that are using your machine! Buy some of Steve's jewelry and show your potential clients what someone is already doing using rapid prototyping. Grab Michael and Bathsheba and pay them to be guest speakers at trade shows to show off what they are doing! You've got to say to the jewelers and artists, "Look what these guys are doing with rapid prototyping technology. You can too!"Start promoting the software that best suits the application! Pro-E (few can afford it!), Solid Works, and others are fantastic for engineering applications. But for artwork, the organic forms that artists create and humans find esthetically pleasing, you will need programs such as form.Z and Rhino.Terry Wohlers says that our industry is in the chasm. I agree. But there are untapped markets we can tap into to carry us through this, we just have to make it easier for these markets to use rapid prototyping. You might realize a smaller profit in these markets -- but it is still a profit!Good luck to all! Bill Richards, Rapid Prototyping Tech.
Fielding Manufacturing "From Art... To Parts... ...To Parts!"
780 Wellington Ave.
Cranston, RI 02910
T: (401) 461-0400 x221
F: (401) 941-2222
For more information about the rp-ml, see http://ltk.hut.fi/rp-ml/
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : Tue Jun 05 2001 - 22:53:13 EEST