Our first meeting

Today I had my first meeting with an Australian businesses owner.

This is someone who knows all about 3D printing and has been doing it for a long time. Because of this, I was nervous about whether I would be able to help. As I put together my presentation, I kept thinking "they probably already know that".

That turned out to be true for many points, but it never turned out to be a negative thing. By showing them I was aware of something that they also knew, I could demonstrate that my knowledge was sufficient to have a productive discussion.

Luckily, a few of the recommendations I made were useful techniques and materials they had not considered. For instance, that you could use a dedicated support material for just the interface between the support and the part. This drastically reduces the print time of a 2 material print by minimising the number of material switches required, saving lots of time and waste material.

Another fortunate thing is that my client knows plenty of things which I don't. In particular, I learned how REPQ certification can be used in Queensland to certify that your parts are safe and appropriate for use. They also had great insight into the difficulties of offering customised products. This is because many customers don't know how to measure things effectively - a problem I hope to solve in an upcoming guide.

Overall, I'm happy that the meeting was a great success. Because of the depth of our discussion, we ran out of time and will be meeting again soon.

Thanks for reading,

Simon