In the midst of the pandemic, Pantheon Design, a maker of industrial 3D printers from Vancouver, BC, suddenly found itself getting orders from factories in the Midwest, the center of heavy industries. The reason? These manufacturers were having a hard time getting parts out of China as COVID-19 restrictions in the country squeezed global supply chains.<\/p>\n
One of Pantheon Design\u2019s e-mobility customers waited 18 months before its injection molds, which are used for producing parts, arrived from China. If your electric vehicle or home appliance order is taking longer to arrive, chances are port closures and lockdowns in the factory of the world are messing up your supplier\u2019s production timeline.<\/p>\n
For a long time, 3D printers were too expensive, slow, and short-lived to be economically viable for manufacturers, observes Bob Cao, co-founder and CEO of Pantheon Design, as he speaks to as one of the Disrupt Startup Battlefield 200 companies. Many of the 3D printing startups that secure big VC checks are run by smart people who have never been in a real factory, which is hot and smelly, says the entrepreneur. \u201cSo their machines break down all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey make the product for prototyping, but they try to sell the idea for manufacturing,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n
Cao\u2019s founder story follows a familiar pattern seen among engineers: five years ago, he and his co-founders bought a bunch of 3D printers to build products for industrial customers, but the third-party devices weren\u2019t meeting their expectations, so they set out to build their own.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/gp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/pantheon-parts.jpg\")
<\/p>\nParts created by Pantheon\u2019s 3d printer.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The result is the HS3 3D printer, which is a sleek-looking cube measuring 300mm on each side and weighing 46.7 kilograms, featuring black anodized aluminum, which has been treated to achieve a durable finish. The device is able to print carbon fiber parts that are as sturdy as metal and 5-10 times faster than other options on the market thanks to the startup\u2019s patented methods, according to Cao. Moreover, it\u2019s able to do it at a competitive cost even in comparison to Chinese suppliers.<\/p>\n
The startup has sold 40 HS3 units \u2014 all assembled in-house in Vancouver with parts manufactured in Canada \u2014 since starting shipping the machine nine months ago. Each printer costs $15,000, but the bigger chunk of the company\u2019s revenues comes from selling filaments. Also called the \u201cink\u201d for 3D printers, filaments range from $50-150 a kilo, which brings a nice 90% profit margin, and most of the company\u2019s customers spend about $500-800 a month on them.<\/p>\n
Pantheon Design has raised $800,000 in funding from a mix of investors in Canada and the U.S., including the Boston-based accelerator Techstars. The company is also buoyed by revenues it generated from its previous business of printing products and prototypes for clients, and two of its proudest moments include printing entire concept motorcycles for Honda and all the sci-fi props in the Netflix film The Adam Project.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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