Bangalore: Stratnel Digs Deep to Provide Engineers with Streamlined Prototyping & 3D Printing Solutions

It’s one thing to consider how prevalent 3D printing has become in your own learning institution, city, state, and country, but when you think about the fact that the technology is spreading to nearly every corner of the globe—and at an accelerated pace—that’s impressive. And while we become desensitized to hearing about how 3D printing can change the world, the truth is that due to the broad list of benefits it presents, this is fact. Many enthusiasts, businesses, and manufacturers may, however, have a different perspective on exactly what ‘changing their world’ means.

Allowing for self-sustainability, incredible customization, affordability, speed in production whether making prototypes or small batches, and more, what makes the benefits further fascinating is that they do indeed mean different things to different people in different places. So while cultures differ, as do needs, 3D printing manages to fit in well everywhere—and especially for designers and engineers.

We cover many stories regarding 3D printing in India, from bioprinting liver tissue to mixing education and engineering to those dedicated to accessibility and affordability. As popularity rises, so does demand from customers and businesses who many not yet have made the leap into buying the hardware—or whatever they have purchased may not able to handle the requirements of a particular project.

With that in mind, Stratnel Technologies has put a focus on the world of engineering and how their prototyping needs can be met quickly, and with quality, in order to meet deadlines, product releases, and more. Headquartered in Bangalore, Stratnel offers consulting, tooling advice, and 3D printing bureau services to customers in India.

In preparing engineering solutions, they consider:

• The engineering engagement – identifying value in the engineering process flow
• The deep dive – ‘drilling down’ to understand the methodologies behind a project or new product
• Additive manufacturing – how it can speed up and streamline a project
• The window of opportunity – improving products to avoid obsolescence

CEO K. Padmanabhan (who prefers to be called just by his first initial) brings more than 30 years of experience to Stratnel in vendor development, product and tool design, and engineering management. K is a mechanical engineer, specializing in tool design, and, for nearly 20 years previous, served as the CEO of Interplex Electronics.

Kris Raghavan, the CMO of Stratnel, is an MBA as well as a chartered accountant who worked in Singapore for over 25 years, as a senior manager. A consultant in ‘go-to strategies,’ he also has extensive experience in process control, automation, machine vision and broadcast

“The basic strength of Stratnel is not just as a printing bureau; anybody with a $2,000 home printer can do that. We take the service a few notches higher by working with customers to verify design integrity, manufacturability and prototype management,” says Raghavan.

As K and Raghavan teamed up to found Stratnel, they explain that they sought to use their areas of expertise in the following:

• Product design
• Tool design
• Process control
• Prototyping

Seeing 3D printing as an ideal niche, they aren’t limiting themselves just to India.

“We are initially focusing on Bangalore as lot of basic research and product development in aerospace, heavy engineering and automotive gets carried about in and around this place,” says K. “However, if there are specific customer challenges that need to be solved, we can work with virtually any customer anywhere in the world. We have adequate logistics support to cater to this model as and when required.”

While Stratnel may be a new startup in the 3D printing space of India, they bring an enormous amount of experience and knowledge to the table, focusing on the technology as a way to improve manufacturing, optimize design, and offer quick turnaround times for engineers under deadlines. Discuss this new service further in the Stratnel 3D Printing forum over at 3DPB.com.