Following the purchase of the Massivit 1800 Large Format 3D Printer, an article appeared in Sign + Magazine.
3Motion in Zele, Belgium, specialises in large-format printing and visual communication. Shortly after the introduction of the Massivit 3D printer, the company invested - as the first in Belgium - in its flagship product, the Massivit 1800. "We are now able to realise human-sized objects in about four hours," he says.
In less than a decade, 3Motion evolved from a small company to a medium-sized enterprise in the Belgian sign market, now with some 40 employees. The company - which specialises in large-format printing and visual communication - moved into new premises in Zele, between Antwerp and Ghent, in October. A series of innovative investments followed one another, with the recent addition of Massivit's 3D printer flagship 1800. Femke Helon, one of the three partners - alongside Wouter and Gerd Mouton - enthusiastically talks about the fruitful approach. "Our business philosophy is to provide our customers with a total offering from start to finish. This is getting a boost with the advent of the 3D printer," Helon says. "3D has been on the rise for quite some time. This did not escape us. Size and speed constraints prevented us from jumping on that bandwagon earlier. With the arrival of the Massivit 3D 1800, this changed in a profound way."
Belgian first
3Motion is the first company in Belgium to purchase the 3D printer. It offers something unique to customers, according to Helon. "Because of the Flagship, we are now able to realise human-sized objects within a time span of about four hours." The company deliberately chose the deluxe version of the printer. "This machine features two print units, versus just one in the case of its smaller brother, the Massivit 1500,"" Helon said. She is confident the investment will pay off. ""We have the ambition to be a leader in innovation in the sign market. So it is not surprising that we choose to expand our offering with a focus on 3D, given the rapid evolution of this advancing technology." She expects that working with the new 3D printer will take some getting used to for all parties. "For this technology to pay off, all sails must be pulled in terms of ingenuity and creativity. That applies to our own designers, but also to the clients and design firms involved."
Machinery
3Motion built up impressive machinery in recent years to reach more customers and offer additional capabilities. An overview of the machines, alongside the new Massivit 3D printer Flagship 1800. With the Inca Onset X2, flexible and rigid substrates up to five centimetres thick can be printed at speeds of up to 625 m²/hour in six colours. A Vutek GS3200, which prints at a width of 3.20 metres, is a purebred production machine that can be used both as a flatbed and roll-to-roll. The LED picture is completed with the Jeti Tauro H2500 LED with high performance, lower cost and reduced maintenance. Two copies of the HP Latex 570 partly fill in the company's ecological vision because of its water-based inks but also because of the high-quality appearance of this print. In terms of finishing, 3Motion has a Mistral 1650 laminator as a nice complement to the HP Latex printers and a Summa cutter for processing large volumes in a short time, without irregularities. Three cutting tables from Zünd complete the machine park: a G3 XL, a G3R XL-3200 and an S3-1600. The first has a fully automatic loading system, is designed for 24/7 operations and can handle both sheet and flexible materials of 300x200cm. The other two are suitable for sawing, cutting, milling and operate fully automatically from reel to reel.
Cardboard and packaging
Anyone visiting an exhibition stand or the 3Motion branch cannot look past the constructions of billboards, furniture, packaging and cardboard applications. Packaging is usually not fully considered part of the world of sign, but it is often undeniably related to it. 3Motion has understood this well; a significant part of production goes to this segment. The ingenuity and originality in this is striking. "We give your brand the attention it needs, custom-designed solutions are just part of the package", reads the slogan with good reason.
3Motion brings BRU to lifeoverzicht
