The UPS Store Expands 3D Printing Across the U.S.A.

Following the successful launch of 3D print in six markets across the country, The UPS Store is expanding 3D printing services to meet the growing demands of its small business customers to nearly 100 additional locations nationwide.

As the first nationwide retailer to offer 3D printing services in-store, in collaboration with Stratasys, The UPS Store continues to evolve its services to better meet the needs of small business owners.

Over the past year, the six locations saw demand for 3D print continuing to increase across a broad spectrum of customers. This upward trend is in line with the 3D print industry, which also experienced rapid growth. In fact, the 3D print service provider sector increased by 21 percent last year, according to The Wohlers Report 2014.

During the 2013 pilot program, the 3D print services were used by small businesses, startups, inventors, artists and a wide range of professionals to transform their ideas into reality. From inventors who patented innovative product designs to entrepreneurs who prototyped an idea and successfully delivered a retail-ready product to market, there were many success stories. Watch the 3D print video above to meet a few of them.

“We are committed to offering small business owners, entrepreneurs and consumers high-tech solutions in order to assist with all of their business needs,” said Michelle Van Slyke, vice president of marketing and sales at The UPS Store. “We launched the pilot to evaluate if there was demand for 3D print and we’re excited to be announcing an expansion, giving even more small business owners access to high-quality, professional 3D printing. We look forward to being a part of the future of the 3D printing industry.”

The UPS Store kicked off this expansion by designating Sept. 22-26 as its first annual 3D Print Week - #3DPrintWeek. Now small business owners and consumers across the country will have access to top-notch 3D printing at a much higher quality than an at-home 3D printer could provide – conveniently located at participating The UPS Store centers across the country.

The Stratasys uPrint SE Plus, selected by The UPS Store, is a professional grade 3D printer designed to accurately and reliably produce complex engineering parts, prototypes, and one of a kind objects. The heated build chamber and soluble supports allow entrepreneurs, engineers, home inventors and makers to produce parts true to their designs.

“There are significant differences between home 3D printers and professional 3D printers,” said Daniel Remba, small business technology leader at The UPS Store. “Many of the challenging and time consuming steps used to prepare a simpler printer are fully automated on the uPrint SE Plus, leading to added precision and reliability, higher print quality and a success rate that is unmatched by a home printer.”

A full list of The UPS Store locations offering 3D printing can be found here.

Is Now the Time to Try Direct Digital Manufacturing?
There are many products that are not suited for direct digital manufacturing for reasons such as having high production volumes or tough mechanical property requirements. But direct digital manufacturing (DDM) can help to reduce costs and time-to-market by producing tooling such as jigs, fixtures, gauges and assembly tools.

The following are excerpts from a white paper by Stratasys CEO Scott Crump entitled “Is Now the Time to Try Direct Digital Manufacturing?” which goes into further detail on this subject.

When first introduced to DDM, the application most people envision is the production of finished goods. The word manufacturing conjures images of high-volume production of consumer products. People often jump to the definition ”the making of goods on a large scale,” even though manufacturing also means “the making or producing of anything.” DDM is suited for low-volume manufacturing – not mass production. But before you think, “We can’t use it because we do mass-production,” keep in mind every manufacturer has low-volume needs in the production of manufacturing tools, such as jigs, fixtures, gages and hand tools.

Producing manufacturing tools presents the ideal opportunity to try DDM. These tools are deployed to make manufacturing and assembly fast, efficient, repeatable and cost effective. In this manufacturing context, DDM becomes a low-risk, high-return alternative to standard practices. Because the tools are used by the company, not the customer, and the time and cost to produce them is small, an unsuccessful attempt has little consequence. But when successful, DDM has a major impact on productivity, quality and the cost of producing parts. Performing DDM of manufacturing tools is currently more popular than DDM for end-use parts. That’s partly because it’s such a low-risk opportunity, and partly because every manufacturer has a need for such tools.

Click here to download the complete white paper.

Related: 3D Printing Central to Nike’s Continued Growth According to CEO Parker