ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING
LEFT: Felix is finding opportunities from the
current flux in the AM sector RIGHT: AM can complement existing production processes
from across industry that Felix Printers has just undergone a radical reorientation of its business model, with a dedicated proposition to service the latent demand for AM from vast swathes of industry. Te firm has a reputation for developing
technology. Add to this the requirements for skills, training and the well-documented shortages of professionals in these areas, and the status quo is often viewed favourably. Tis constituency of potential AM users
are also poorly served by the entry-level AM platforms that are available at a price that they can afford, these being the machines more usually associated with the maker community, and characterised by low price, lack of reliability, poor print output, high failure rates, and time-consuming operation. It is specifically because of this gap
between supply of lower cost, reliable and accurate 3D printers and the demand
robust, reliable and accurate machines, servicing a growing client base with solutions that are far in excess of their requirements in terms of accuracy at a price that is comparable with inferior alternatives. With the drive towards the adoption of AM for industry and manufacturing applications, the company has leveraged this reputation and made a concerted move to provide industrial AM solutions, at a price that makes them accessible to many industrial customers hitherto unserviced, and with an emphasis on true workflow integration and ease-of-use.
THE RELAUNCH Back at the beginning of 2018, Felix Printers began to work on an adaptation of its business model. Although understanding that there would always be an active and significant demand from makers and education facilities for entry level cost machines, the company was aware that the future for growth existed
in providing production high quality 3D printing solutions for the manufacturing supply chain. It recognised that there is a fundamental issue with pursuing the maker and education markets alone. For makers, and indeed for many education facilities, the over-riding factor when making a purchasing decision is cost. Reliability, accuracy and robustness come a distant second to the fact that the cheapest platform is often the preferred platform. Tis means that to an extent there is a race to the bottom, and the focus is on selling as many low cost relatively inaccurate solutions as possible, with margins squeezed tighter and tighter. Leveraging the quality, accuracy, and ease-of-use of its AM platforms, the firm realised that there was an opportunity to make an intelligent move to industrial applications. It reached out to numerous industrial sectors and listened to what their real requirements were.
CUSTOMER FEEDBACK Felix Printers’ first move to an overtly industrial AM platform came with the introduction of its Pro series of 3D printers.
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