3D printing is starting to make its mark in the commercial printing industry with Kwik Kopy Bondi Junction becoming the first franchise print shop in Australia to embrace the emerging technology.

Franchise owner Emmanuel Constantinou says the 30-year-old print shop trialled the technology for a few months while building a market among its existing print clients and now feels the $150,000 investment is justified.

“This is a new era of where the printing industry is going and we have decided to embrace it,” he says. “I see it as an extension of our business that will complement print.”

“I have always seen myself as a leader of new technology and an early adopter, and I think there is strong market potential in this geographic area.”

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Constantinou says his three biggest 3D printing markets so far are promotional products, architectural models, and medical applications such as teaching aids and anatomical models doctors can use to plan surgeries and treatments.

Early clients include Caltex, Fitness First, nearby private hospitals like St Vincent’s, and two local councils.

3D printing is economical only for very short runs but because it is just as easy to print a complex design as a simple one, Constantinou says the mass customisation potential is limitless.

“Every day we discover new things we can do with it, it is bringing imagination to life,” he says.

Constantinou is particularly buoyant on the architecture market as local councils are increasingly demanding 3D models for building approval instead of just drawn plans.

A 3D printer can produce colour versions of these models faster and cheaper than the painstaking foam board or plywood models architects usually resort to.

Kwik Kopy Bondi Junction’s ProJet 660Pro 3D printer has an A3-size, 20cm deep print area that takes 10-12 hours to finish, but can print as many different objects, even inside each other, as will fit. Smaller jobs may only take a few hours.

Constantinou says once he is given a 3D computer model of the job the price is determined only by the amount and type of substrate used – ranging from resin and plastic to titanium.

Kwik Kopy Bondi Junction also sports a HP Latex L25500, and Fuji Xerox 700i, J765 and D125 digital colour printers.

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