3D printing has matured in recent years to become an industry in itself.
The local businesses are concentrated in no more than 20 startups or that makes them a market that is still very small compared to other more established ones. But despite its small size wants to stop being a ‘rarity’, and have its own entity, fight and face the challenges that there is to grow.
And also to make themselves known, because most people do not know of their existence, and to be recognized that they made their way in a competitive market with similar devices imported from the United States or China.
This sector of the industry
This industry appeared about ten years ago, at the same time that 3D printing broke into the world in a massive way. And it made its way despite the competition from imports and the difficulties of macroeconomics.
“These companies have a lot of growth potential and could export, but they need incentives such as those granted by the law on the knowledge economy that will replace the software law, whose incentives expire at the end of the year”, explained an aeronautical engineer.
About Trimaker
One of the companies in this sector is Trimarker. His story began almost 10 years ago in a house of Colegiales, when Maximiliano Bertotto invented, literally in the living room of his house, one of the first 3D printers in Latin America. Bertotto then sought other partners to move from the particular invention to the commercial development of the product.
“We produced the first printer to be marketed in retail in Latin America and in 2016 we launched the Trimaker Cosmos, which is the first 3D printer manufactured in series in Argentina”, explained Emiliano Carreira, director of the firm, which was distinguished in Russia (2014 ) and in Silicon Valley (2015) as a young and innovative company.
Today -the best Apple style with the iPhone-, Trimaker manufactures in China the 3D printers that it exports and develops in our country. And he is looking for partners with financial backs in Spain to be able to expand commercially there.
Of course, unlike Apple or even any technology startup with a proven product in the United States, Trimaker does not have access to the capital market that allows it to finance a large expansion.
Trimaker is joined by other similar companies, the main ones being Chimak, Trideo, Far-e, Vitofeli and Exo. Less signatures are followed by EVO 3D, Kuttercraft, Zur3D, CHE3D and LfeSi. In total they add about 20. “Almost all are startups with less than 10 employees; others are a division that emerged within a company and was growing”, explained the engineer.
In full swing
One of the great attractions of the 3D printing industry is its growth rate. In the same way that happened a decade ago with smartphones, 3D printers are experiencing a boom all over the world because millions of users are realizing the enormous benefits and possibilities of this modality, according to the INTI report.
What is 3D printing and what is it used for?
Many people saw for the first time a printer of this type in the third installment of Jurassic Park (year 2001), when the character of Dr. Alan Grant (played by Sam Neill) show you how it is manufactured -on the act- the resonance chamber of a velociraptor, a kind of horn that reproduces the sound of the extinct animal.
3D printing, also called additive manufacturing, produces goods by adding successive layers of material from a three-dimensional design made with CAD tools (computer-aided drawings).
The possibilities offered are enormous. For example, a person can travel to the other side of the world and, instead of taking a prototype or a product with them, they can take the file directly to a pendrive and “print” it on the spot, without having to transport it.
Also published on Medium.