THE FUTURE OF PRINTING
Imagine printing layers upon layers of thin material until a physical 3D object is created. Although 3D printing has been used in the manufacturing industry for decades, it is only in recent years that this technology has become a reality for consumers. However, the hardware is still extremely costly, and as a result, out of reach to most consumers. Pirate3DP is a company working hard to create affordable 3D printers for the public. They have recently moved into our building at 11 Kallang Place and we took the opportunity to ask Mr. Tsang You Jun, co-founder of Pirate3DP, about his company.
Q: Tell us about your company, Pirate3DP.
You Jun: Pirate3D was co-founded by four people, myself, Brendan Goh, Roger Chang and Neo Kok Beng.
We founded the company in 2012 in sunny Singapore!
Since then we have gone on to raise S$1.4 million on Kickstarter, as well as win the "Best-in-Show Award" at CE Week New York this year.
The company was created as we felt that 3D printers could be a useful tool for everyone, if and only if, the user experience was improved, and content was developed for consumers to print.
Q: Why did your company make the decision to move to our building in Kallang?
You Jun: Although the current Mapletree Industrial buildings at Kallang are slightly older, we were impressed by the efficient layout offered to tenants within the unit. This large span of open space is important to us as we would need to use it for Research & Development, Assembly Line Testing and Optimisation as well as storage of some of our 3D printer components.
Q: What are the biggest challenges of 3D printing?
You Jun: Currently, the biggest challenges to 3D printing are it's "user experience" and the versatility of the 3D printers.
Pirate3D aims to first and foremost, improve the user-experience. This will help 3D printing gain wider consumer adoption.
In future we will leverage on new technologies to make 3D printers more versatile; able to handle a wider range of materials, and at the same time, improve user-safety by ensuring that our 3D printers only use non-toxic materials.
Q: How do you ensure that your company stays current?
You Jun:Pirate3D currently has several divisions, Marketing, Production, Research & Development, and the teams work closely with each other, and updates are pushed through the chain.
Q: Which is your favorite part of the office?
You Jun:I would say the favourite part of our office is where we have all the 3D printers stacked up on shelves for testing, it is quite an amazing sight to see so many machines working together at once.
Kallang Basin 2 is well-suited for companies in the light and clean industries. The cluster is easily accessible via arterial roads and major expressways such as CTE and PIE. Kallang, Lavender and Boon Keng MRT stations are within walking distance from the development.
Click here for more details about Kallang Basin 2.