US Reliant Pitches RP Time-Sharing

By DE Editors

After meeting with the Chinese ambassador to the United States, a team of executives from US Reliant (Salt Lake City, UT) will brief Chinese manufacturers on RP time-sharing, a concept pioneered by US Reliant. The company’s Tangible Express RP service allows manufacturers to acquire fractional ownership of U.S. rapid prototyping and rapid manufacturing assets. Customers reap the benefits of asset ownership without incurring the expense, overcapacity, and repair and maintenance requirements associated with full ownership. Member companies can also tap into the unused capacity of other fractional owners as needed.

Customers pay a one-time purchase price for fractional ownership of a 3D Systems SLA or SLS system and lock in a fixed cost per cubic inch for prototypes produced. Tangible Express hosts the system and builds prototypes for the customer.

US Reliant eventually plans to offer fractional ownership opportunities along the entire spectrum of low-volume manufacturing, from design to short-run production.

US Reliant CEO David McInnis makes the analogy between fractional ownership of manufacturing assets and the well-accepted fractional ownership of private planes. “For one company to own a private plane is often wasteful. And to fly commercially is increasingly slow and tortuous,” McInnis explains. “Fractional ownership entails the efficient 24/7 use of a hard asset – always available when you need it; still productive even when you don’t.”

Having China purchase fractional shares in U.S.-based prototyping and low-volume manufacturing assets would allow China to more efficiently provide these services to its U.S. based customers, while demonstrating China’s goodwill by investing in American-based assets, McInnis noted.

For China, which the concept offers the prospect of dramatically reducing the wait times and expense its global customers incur creating manufacturing molds, models and prototypes before committing to large-volume production runs. Changes that crop up after production has begun create long and costly retooling delays.