14 DAY TRIAL // 3D printers are coming out pretty often now, as companies hurry to establish a foundation for the 3D printing industry, but 3D printing services are still rather few. Aphaform and Tiburon have just launched one though. Alphaform is a German, publicly traded 3D printing company that used to be part of German 3D printing leader EOS 18 until 1996.
Tiburon Unternehmensaufbau GmbH is a seed investor specialized in Internet companies.
The two have formed Artshapes, an online shop where consumers and art makers can buy 3D printed works of famous artists and designers.
The items will be made on demand, in various sizes and from whatever materials the ones making the order desire.
So while it will take some time for your order to ship, you can rest assured that you'll get exactly what you asked for.
Alphaform has around 235 employees right now, but a surprisingly low marketing capital of $23 million / €16.78 million.
In other words, its stocks are undervalued, most likely because the company's name just hasn't crossed many lips so far, despite having been spun off from EOS 18 years ago.
Anyway, Alphaform has decided to focus on the business segment most likely to provide that visibility, because, clearly, its core business of 3D printing services and bio-medical precision casting aren't enough.
Which is a bit strange because those two domains are considered the most important for the 3D printing industry at the moment, and are expected to keep that position for the next several years as well. It goes to show just how much lack of advertising and consumer awareness can do to a business.
Anyway, the Artshapes online store will offer to make things via stereolithography and selective laser sintering, and perhaps other technologies later (10 in total apparently) and over 40 different materials. You should even be able to choose the surface treatment (painting, stabilizing metal coating and the like).