3D printing is an exciting industry that is rapidly advancing in popularity and affordability. The main aspect of 3D printing, which makes it exciting is its versatility. 3D printing is now being utilized in almost every industrial vertical: Architecture, Medical, Manufacturing, Packaging, Jewelry, Dental, Automobile, Space Tech, and so on.
Though the adoption on a larger scale is still in process but, understanding the advantages of the technology over conventional methods is attracting companies to invest and improvise their productivity. The main challenge irrespective of the industry is that adopting 3D printing on a larger scale will still need time to match the industry-specific processes in a streamlined manner.
One such company that provides end-to-end rapid production solutions is Melt Rapid LLP. The company tries to cater to the complete solution from prototyping to manufacturing under one roof, which has led the company to be the leading service provider in the same across Eastern India.
Melt is founded single handily by Ishan Bajpai, Founder and CEO of the company, who is a mechanical engineer having experience in product design and development, who has successfully converted his passion into his work and is working towards bridging the product development gap effectively.
In the interview below, Ishan talks about the challenges and journey of Melt Rapid.
Kindly brief us about your company and its journey so far.
Melt is a rapid production service providing to start-ups, which is bridging the gap between prototyping and production, with an initial focus of utilizing advanced 3D Printing technology to design and develop prototypes. We are now providing prototyping as well as production solutions, also covering industrial manufacturing methods such as sheet metal fabrication, injection moulding etc. Started in the eastern region of the country i.e., Kolkata, West Bengal and expanded into Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, Patna, and Bihar. Currently, we are providing services across PAN India.
Talking about the journey, I would say that it has just begun and like any other start-up it was never easy, developing a strong vision to land in a competitive market was itself challenging. It is because of those few people who show their support in your journey be it your friends, flatmates, family, or any other person who has trusted or have shown faith in your vision either financially, morally, or psychologically. It was the reason that we have come this far, though still, we have a lot more to go.
Already I have been failed a few times in my earlier projects because of lack of funding, time, and support. I was looking for something that could just sync with my passion, and it was then when it struck my mind that it is not the final goal that I am aiming for but the process where I can implement my ways, thoughts, emotions and develop something out of it. For the first few months, I was working on my own, managing both my office as well as my work at the same time, it was hard but not impossible.
I started operating from my P.G. room, where I had managed to convince my flatmates to install a small machine in the kitchen. It was difficult for me to manage both the 8 hours of job and then again 8-9 hours of work for my startup. I had many sleepless weeks, where I used to complete my sleep in the office during lunch hours. For the startups, I used to conduct meetings in café and restaurants and used to take orders based on my design and development skills. Those days of struggle made us improvise our lead time from weeks to few days as of now.
Brief us about the featuring person and the motivation behind choosing this particular industry?
I have always been passionate about upcoming and trending technologies, which can add something to national development. Additive manufacturing just synced with my thought process as it was something new that came up and had a very huge market ranging from Automobile, Aerospace, and Industrial to Medical and Healthcare.
The basic requirement in this technology was a visualization of products and their production process and being a designer that is what I have been doing for the past four to five years. This inspired me a lot and hence I just kept learning more about it. After gaining much knowledge from the internet, I made up my mind to just start by focusing on a small market area and then slowly expanding to the greater ones. As I was much confident by then knowing what my skills are and what is required in this very market.
Brief us about the services and products that the company offers.
We showcase ourselves as a Product Design and Development service bureau, where we are utilizing 3D Printing as a prime method to provide the solutions. We are focused on the services side (Design, Prototyping, Reverse engineering and so) and some part in setting up rapid prototyping labs (3D Printers, Filaments and more) in industries and institutes in order to promote and increase the awareness of the technology.
What are the unique propositions that the company offers giving it an edge over competitors?
Our approach has always been customer-oriented where we keep the complete process from handling the client, guiding them throughout the process of the order, packaging, delivery and to after-sales support simple and convenient. Special attention to any damage deliveries, which might happen due to courier mishandling was to tend to replace the order with a new one, no question asked.
3D printing is utilised by various industries. Are there any specific sectors that the company focuses on? Please share.
As said, we are a service bureau where we are not specific to any industry although as per current time we are being approached more by industries in Manufacturing, Bio-Medical, Electronics, Engineering, and Dental sectors.
Our flexible business model has allowed us to work with companies in the vast industrial segment like Gifts, Miniatures and Sculpting, Jigs and Fixtures, etc., which allow the clients to explore our strong technical knowledge and utilize it in their favor.
What has been the effect of the pandemic on the company and how do you plan to or have already countered the same?
Pandemic was a major hit across the globe breaking the supply chain across all the industrial sectors leading to the shutting down of various businesses. Instead of breaking down, my company took this as an opportunity to find a product meeting the demand during that time and eventually, we came up with a highly demanding product – Face Shield.
My company along with the national 3D printing community developed few designs of the face shield and using the 3D printing technology we were able to quickly bring them to market, which could have only been possible via this technology. Considering the circumstances, it was not a downtime for us in fact we supported a lot of hospitals and front-line workers in our region.
According to you what is that one recent development in 3D printing that could possibly be the next big trend?
Two advancements in 3D printing that could possibly mould the way manufacturing or development will be done in the coming future are in the areas of metal and construction. Considering the current progress in the mentioned fields there would be a time where 3D printing houses and metal fabrication will be a common thing across the nation, reducing time to market and improving product functionality and material properties.
Brief us about the company’s future perspectives.
With our stream of work in the product development domain, our future plan holds growth and expansion in the same also to add more similar solutions to broaden our portfolio. Considering trends in this sector we have been observing exponential growth across the past two years and expecting the same in the coming time as well. Having said that we are also working towards including as many industries as possible to increase the reach and awareness of the technology.
