GDay Mel. Welcome to 3ders. I liked what you said that this "technology that will soon be accessible and practical to everyone – both in professional and personal domains." It is our absolute passion to help as many people use this technology and to make to most of it. Raise the passion is what we say every day.
I have a company on Melbourne that has a long (20 year+) reputation of producing things no one else wanted to help with. Mostly machinery, medical imaging equipment and radioactive protection equipment. I'm 47 now with 30 years of finding engineering solutions. From the age of 6-8, I used to play with lego. I imagined a machine that could put the bricks together and make things. That was my very first realisation of additive manufacturing. That thought or dream never left my mind.
When i discovered you could buy cheap 3d printers, I had to have one. After i got my first one, I fell in love. But there was one thing that was not pleasing to me. its size. We looked at the design of the one we had and thought we could do a better job. After all, that is what we do.
We decided if we where going to do it lets make the biggest one in the world and them make even bigger ones with even more features. To us it was a natural progression to build a machine that could produce things from images. Like the phase contrast imaging micro focus x-ray machine for a Melbourne university a couple of years ago.
This year my company will take in some work experience students from the local high school. We are keen to help work out how 3d printing can help each individual student. Apart from that we are looking at being a part of a fab-lab in our area. I have contacts in university's around Melbourne as well as some government funded organisations that may be able to help.
Our Sabertooth printer is designed to be a better choice than the big Fortus900 by Stratasys. Our printer will print in more materials and is in some cases around a tenth of the cost. I have a small but talented team. If we could help Grace or your self in any way please let us know.
You would be most welcome to use our company for your case study and you would be even more welcome to see our printer and workshop when you are in Melbourne.
No, we do not have a web site apart for our fb page.
I have some good contacts re government assistance. We may be one, should find out this week. Finger crossed.
Thanks for the kind words about our printer.
Cheers
Jason
Yes, We are taking orders for the Sabertooth and its bigger brother (code named Mammoth) that has a 1 meter cubed capacity.
It really is amazing how many people from all over the globe want to know more about it. There was even a story on Serbian news last week that was reported to me by a guy in Macedonia.