CLONE 3D AND FUJI XEROX, SHARING A TRUE PASSION FOR 3D PRINT It was love at first sight for Hayden Bennett when he saw his first 3D printer. A successful marine business owner for twenty years, it was as much his fascination with 3D technology as his vision for how he could use it in his business, that made him buy the printer on the spot. After learning CAD, he started creating custom parts for his own business. And within three months he had to buy another 3D device just to keep up with the demand he’d generated. Hayden required little encouragement to sell his marine business within the year, and turn his personal passion for 3D technology into a successful venture. He opened the doors to his 3D print bureau, Clone 3D, in 2014. Which, 15,000 items later, shows no signs of slowing down. Building a 3D business His first two commercial devices were fused deposition modeling (FDM) printers for extruding thermoplastics. Using these, Hayden produced low and medium resolution prototypes, and end-use parts. Unsurprisingly, his first customers came from the marine industry. Clone 3D was a viable business three months from start up. His first printer paid for itself in nine months, and the other was more than paying for itself by that point. Client demand for better quality output pushed Hayden to make the jump to investing in a 3D Systems ProJet 2500 Plus from Fuji Xerox. 26 February 2018 The ProJet 2500 Plus The 3D Systems ProJet MJP 2500 Series is designed to combine professional-grade 3D printing capabilities with easy part processing, an affordable price, and an office-friendly footprint. It has a generous plate size of 295 x 211 x 142 mm, so Hayden can gang up more parts per print run, and the device delivers high resolution models, prototypes and injection moulded quality parts on-demand. The MultiJet Printing (MJP) process behind the ProJet 2500 Plus prints rigid parts with ABS-like plastics and elastomeric parts for real functionality and performance. The precise plastic parts are ideal for functional prototyping and rapid tooling, along with many other applications. The importance of picking the perfect 3D printer “I knew there was a market there for high-end prints, and it was difficult to get into that market using low-end printers,” explains Hayden. “I spent six months and probably $30,000 testing four different brand devices from four different companies, and deemed them all to be next to useless. I needed something that would print anything, in any orientation, any complexity, and have it accurate. The cheaper printers just weren’t capable of it. I finally decided to go to Fuji Xerox and lease a 3D Systems ProJet. “Fuji Xerox were just simple to deal with. They were very genuine and could really guide me in the direction that I wanted to go. I looked at several options but decided on the ProJet 2500 Plus. It had a price point that would get me entry into the high-end ‘blue chip’ market, and could deliver the accuracy and detail that was expected. Fuji Xerox’s leasing option made it an affordable business proposition, and if I needed to trade up in the future, it wouldn’t be a problem.” An investment in growth The ProJet 2500 Plus was a big commitment for Hayden’s busy but fledgling company. “When it turned up at the end of 2016 it was ‘oh my God, I don’t even have any work for it’, and that was a little scary,” says Hayden. However, generating work turned out to be remarkably easy. “I updated my website to show that I had the technology, and sent select clients some printed prototypes from the ProJet. Once the clients saw what I could produce they were just blown away, and I just started getting orders ROAD TO
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