We’ve all heard crazy ideas for inventions in our time. After all, it’s the ideal of the American entrepreneurial spirit: get a great idea, design and patent it, manufacture and sell it to millions, and then retire on your private island. Most of us have hatched a few of these crazy plans, as we sit around already counting our millions while privately wondering if our idea would even work if it was put together. Now that motion from Point A — your idea — to Point B — holding your idea in your hands — just got easier with Virgina’s AM Patent Drawings and Graphics’ addition of 3D printing to their line of services.
AM Patents Drawings and Graphics has local, national, and international clients — all who can benefit from the additional service of 3D printing, used to create design prototypes easily and affordably. The company already offers high-quality patents illustrations for the US Patent Office — including design, PCT, technical, trademark, tradedress, and utility drawing services. They also offer trial graphics and litigation support services — such as 3D and flash animations, charts and timelines, demonstrative graphics, and PowerPoint presentations — and a range of web design and maintenance services too.
Company owner Alfonso Martinez hails the addition of 3D printing to their services, stating “This is a great added service as it allows our clients to easily print prototypes of their inventions in a cost effective way.”
This is cost-effective because AM Patents and Graphics becomes a one stop shopping site for all inventors’ needs, from initial design to prototype. Instead of buying your own 3D printer to see that prototype firsthand, AM Patent Drawings and Graphics uses a Connector XL desktop 3D printer, which has a proven track record of manufacturing functional mechanical components. The printer has a 12 x 12 x 7.9″ build size and uses dissolvable, filaments for support structures. The XL Connector uses Simplify 3D software, has a 350 mm/s travel speed and a 200 mm/s print speed, and offers PLA 1.75 mm multi-colored printing filament. AM Patent Drawings and Graphics can now create 3D printed prototypes for their customers, based on any CAD design sent in.
Bringing patent illustration services and 3D printing together provides a cost-effective and convenient way for amateur inventors to experiment, and for more seasoned inventors, engineers, manufacturers, and other professionals to focus more on their ideas and less on the sometimes cumbersome, costly, or inconvenient process of realizing them. AM Patents and Graphics promises to grow its operations as its services expand to meet the growing demand for 3D printing technology in all sectors.
Let’s hear your thoughts on this interesting use of 3D printing within the patent world. Discuss in the 3D Printing Patent Prototypes forum thread on 3DPB.com.
