I’m looking at a new service for distributed 3D print services, EX3D Prints.
Distributed print service? Haven’t we heard of that before? We have indeed — there have been multiple attempts at building such a service. The idea is pretty straightforward:
- Lots of desktop 3D printers exist worldwide.
- They are typically idle.
- If they were printing something, value could be created.
- A service could route print requests to them.
If that sounds familiar, it should. This was exactly the plan for 3DHubs, which launched back in 2013. But let’s look at what happened to them a bit later.
EX3D Prints operates with three actors: print buyers, 3D printer operators, and 3D model designers. Buyers purchase prints, operators run jobs, and designers provide content.
Buyers are the source of cash in this system. Operators receive some unspecified portion of the fee, while designers receive 10% of the proceeds when one of their designs is printed and purchased.
At first, this may sound like a reasonable business, but there are plenty of complications to deal with. One is print quality. Because the printing is done by a network of individual makers, the print quality can vary considerably.
How can a buyer know which operator will produce their item? Is there a rating system by which a buyer can choose one with a higher reputation? Quality is a highly complicated matter. One process stated by EX3D Prints is damaged parts. They ask buyers to contact them by email and include images of the damaged parts from several angles. The case will be manually reviewed, and a refund may be offered. That could be a challenging process if “damage” shifts into “print quality”, and I’m not sure how any of that scales up.
Most of the similar attempts at a desktop-level 3D print network failed for various reasons. 3DHubs had a very similar setup and grew to a considerable size. However, they eventually ran into the fact that increasing numbers of people simply use their own 3D printers. There was less and less need to offer a 3D print service for casual consumers.
To counteract that situation, 3DHubs shifted into industrial parts, where profits were higher — but quality standards went way up. That caused them to shift from desktop 3D printers to industrial 3D printing operations, and the whole business fundamentally changed. Eventually, they were purchased by Proto Labs, where the same industrial network exists.
That’s the situation facing EX3D Prints: decreasing need and margins due to the proliferation of inexpensive 3D printers. They may succeed on a smaller scale, but it is unlikely they will be able to scale up to a significant size for the same reasons that stopped 3DHubs.
Via EX3D Prints
