Mention the name Shining 3D, and most people’s minds will probably go immediately to the EinScan line of 3D scanners – that has been, after all, the Chinese company’s major focus and most talked-about product over the last few years. Shining 3D is much more than the EinScan, however; in fact, they’ve been a prolific fixture in 3D printing and scanning for more than a decade. Shining 3D’s star doesn’t appear to be fading anytime soon, as they’ve been expanding like crazy lately. They recently became the first Chinese 3D company to move into the Japanese market, and now they’ve redone their Hangzhou, China headquarters, making them bigger and better to accommodate their growing business.
The new facility, which will hold its official opening ceremony tomorrow, May 25, has a gigantic 25,000-square meter floor with areas dedicated to research and development, manufacturing, sales, service, education, customer experience and interaction. It’s now the largest 3D printing innovation center in China, and it also holds the distinction of being the first company in the newly launched Zhejiang 3D Industrial Zone.
The new headquarters mark more than just a new home for the growing company. In addition to their physical expansion, Shining 3D is also rolling out a host of new services and features dubbed “the Shining 3D printing ecosystem.” Let’s take a look at a few of the features:
- Internet + is what Shining 3D calls their online development strategy. The company is introducing two 3D cloud platforms: 3DKer, which already features several downloadable models and invites users to upload their own; and 3dzao, a 3D printing service bureau. 3DKer, which looks sort of like a Chinese Pinshape, also plans to offer online 3D printing classes and competitions.
- 3D Scanning and 3D Printing Equipment: encompasses the whole of Shining 3D’s scanner and printer products, which, with over 230 R&D professionals employed at the new headquarters, should only continue to grow and improve.
- Materials: the company will also be offering PLA filament, SLA resins, biomaterials and more
- Services: While Shining 3D already has 10 3D printing centers established across China, the company states that they plan to build 50 to 100 offline 3D printing centers in the next three to five years. Along with the establishment of 3dzao, Shining 3D describes this venture as an “offline and online 3D printing network” that will offer services to industries such as auto, aerospace, medical, mechanical, molding, appliances, smart technology and more.
With all of these developments coming at once, it’s clear that Shining 3D plans to take over the Chinese 3D printing and scanning industry, and likely go beyond the Chinese market as well.
Shining 3D CEO Li Tao shows off the new Exhibition Room
“In the terms of global 3D printing industry, the scattered structure hasn’t been changed yet actually,” said Luo Jun, secretary general of China’s 3D Printing Technology Industry Alliance. “So who will become the real 3D printing giant in the future? It’s prospective.”
It looks, to me, like Shining 3D has pretty good potential of becoming a 3D printing giant – even more so than they already are. Discuss their expansion and plans further in the Shining 3D Printing Ecosystem forum over at 3DPB.com.
