Makism3D (OTCBB:MDDD) is a 3D printer manufacturing company based in Cambridge (UK) offering an innovative and technologically superior approach to building professional and consumer grade 3D printers.

The Company’s focus is on original design, engaging aesthetics, proven engineering and straightforward usability. The underlying technology supports an innovative platform that expedites manufacturing, increases printer reliability and enhances the creative feasibility of a wider variety of 3D printing applications.

3D Opportunity Overview

The specific numbers vary from one research group to the next. There is one common element to all the outlooks, however… they’re all impressive, and growth should be huge.

Take the Gartner Research outlook as an example. Gartner predicts worldwide shipments of 3D printers (3DPs) priced less than $100,000 will grow 49 percent in 2013 to reach a total of 56,507 units, according to Gartner, Inc.’s first forecast of the less than $100,000 consumer and enterprise 3D printer market. Rapid quality and performance innovations across all 3DP technologies will drive enterprise and consumer demand. Gartner said that shipments will increase further in 2014, growing 75 percent to 98,065 units, followed by a near doubling of unit shipments in 2015.

Gartner Research further estimates that in 2013 combined enterprise-user spending on 3D printers will reach $412 million, up 43 percent from spending of $288 million in 2012. Enterprise spending will total more than $325 million in 2013, while the consumer segment will reach nearly $87 million. In 2014, spending will increase 62 percent, reaching $669 million, with enterprise spending of $536 million and consumer spending of $133 million.

Wohlers Associates believes the sale of 3D printing products and services will approach the $6 billion mark on an international scale. By 2021, researchers predict the industry will reach $10.8 billion.

And, according to a new report from SmarTech Markets Publishing, the market for personal 3D printers will reach $115 million this year, growing to around $590 million by 2018. Total revenues generated by personal 3D printing — comprising printers, scanners, software and services consumed by the personal 3D printer segment — will reach $1.46 billion by 2018.

Putting it all together in specific and relative terms, the market for 3D printing products and services in 2012 grew 28.6% (CAGR) to $2.204 billion. This is up from $1.714 billion in 2011, when it grew 29.4%. The average annual growth (CAGR) of the industry over the past 25 years is an impressive 25.4%. The CAGR is 27.4% over the past three years (2010-2012).

Whatever the case, there’s no denying the historic numbers that have set the pace for the strong growth forecasts. Where it took the 3D printing industry two decades to reach $1 billion in size, and in just five additional years the industry generated its second $1 billion. This market is expected to double again to $4 billion in the next two years, and should reach $10 billion by 2020.

Company Product Overview

Any and all 3D printer customers could benefit greatly from a less complicated, user-friendly 3D printing solution offered at a non-prohibitive price with the capability to print in a wide range of materials. While the choice of 3D printing materials is typically restricted to PLA (a thermoplastic polyester derived from renewable resources such as corn starch, tapioca roots or sugarcane) for most users, Makism3D’s solution is to build a 3D printer that maximizes the range of available printing materials to include ABS plastic, Nylon(tm), polycarbonate, high impact polystyrene, polyvinyl alcohol and others.

Makism3D printers feature an exclusive gantry with a leadscrew driven X/Y axis, which reduces component count and increases accuracy and reliability. Bowden style extruders combined with a low moving mass allows Makism3D printers to operate at high production speeds while maintaining consistent precision. This reduces the weight of the moving components compared to the heavier Direct Extruder variant, and Bowden style extruders allow the company’s printers to operate at high production speeds while maintaining consistent precision.

By employing user-friendly host software on popular devices such as tablets, phones or laptops, the Company’s technology improves the user’s accessibility, interaction and experience with 3D printing. And, unlike most other 3D printer solutions, Makism3D printers utilize a visually appealing carbon-fiber outer shell to enclose componentry which assists in temperature control, a key element in 3D print consistency.

Makism3D has set out to claim an important part of the “Maker Movement” revolution through the introduction of its Wideboy, Wideboy Pro, and Wideboy Mega series of 3D printers.

The Wideboy(tm) is a large A4 format dual extruder 3D printer optimized for the reliable utilization of common PLA and PVA support material. Wideboy(tm) printers offer a minimalist yet elegant design that fits any office or professional space. They feature high quality British/German engineered components, and unlike competitor 3D printers, they come ready to use directly out-of-the-box.

The Wideboy provides many of the features of the larger printers in the Company’s product line-up, but with a planned price tag of only $1499 it delivers a cost effective precision engineered solution that is truly affordable.

The larger Wideboy Pro and Mega models offer the same high quality components but with advanced professional features such as temperature controlled enclosures, heated build platforms, and carbon filtration which enables users to safely and reliably employ a wider range of fabrication materials.

Dual all-metal extruders and a temperature stabilized build chamber permits the Wideboy family of printers to print with exotic materials such as nylon, polycarbonate and a wide range of support materials. The end result is a safer, more user-friendly 3D printer with a high level of print consistency and operational stability.

The Wideboy’s(tm) exceptional packaging encloses a cutting-edge 3D printer experience backed with a 3 year parts warranty. And, all printers come with USB and Wi-Fi connectivity, dual extruders (the Mega offers up to four extruders as an option), high-precision 2 and 5 phase stepper motors, a user-friendly interface, and 3 year parts warranty.

Target Markets

Makism3D is focused on the early targeting of three finite, unsaturated 3D printer markets… professional, educational, and home.

Professional

As advances in printers and materials reduce the cost and complexity of creating 3D printed items, the applications of 3D print technology will continue to expand in areas such as architecture, appliances, automotive, medical products and jewelry design. Consumer product designers, automotive manufacturing engineers and dental labs are all spearheading the use of 3D printing.

The use of 3D printing for the production of parts for final products continues to grow year after year, as shown in the following graph. In the past ten years it has gone from almost nothing to 28.3% of the total product and service revenues from additive manufacturing worldwide.

In 2012 more than 25% of the items emerging from 3D printers were finished parts, up from 4% in 2003.

For example, Align Technology, which makes transparent dental braces printed 17 million of them in 2012. NASA recently tested a rocket engine with a 3D-printed fuel injector that was made with just two parts instead of the standard 115. Workers in BMW factories design and print custom tools to make it easier to hold and position parts. Cockpit and cooling-duct parts for aircraft, and panels and components for specialist cars, are 3D-printed and then combined with other parts. 3D printing is as much a complement as a competitor to mass production. 4 Other applications include prosthetics, advertising and marketing, animation and PHD/research.

Makism3D believes the Company’s technology can accelerate the adoption of professional level 3D design and manufacturing worldwide by helping industry professionals innovate better, create faster, and broaden manufacturing opportunities.

Educational

The surging market for 3D printing as a vehicle for assisting teachers is evident across all levels of the education system. The recent announcement that Microsoft’s Windows 8 will natively support 3D printing is seen as an excellent sign for the emerging 3D printing economy. While hobbyists currently account for a large segment of the personal 3D printer market – creating everything from car parts to models – Microsoft’s support could signal a rapid move propelling 3D printers into mainstream educational environments.

Educational administrators across the globe are leveraging 3D printing to further strengthen educational systems and turn out designers, engineers and operations managers capable of creating and making items with additive manufacturing technologies that cannot be produced in any other way.

Educators are increasingly bringing 3D printing into the classroom in order to expose students to the cutting-edge technologies they will encounter in their professional careers.  With its appealing price tag, desktop size, three-year warranty, telephone support and simple setup, Makism3D’s Wideboy(tm) is ideally suited for the education market.

Makism3D is strategically positioned to take advantage of the low-cost (under $5,000) “personal” 3D printer market segment, which averaged over 300% growth each year from 2008 to the present. Many of these machines are being sold to engineering students and secondary and postsecondary educational institutions.

Home

The home user market appears to be following alongside the industrial market trend towards 3D printing. With office superstore Staples entering the 3D printer sales market and other large retailers poised to add 3D printers to their retail stores, Makism3D is positioned to offer the retail market segment with an appealing, out-of-the-box, user friendly 3D printer solution.

Consumer interest and enthusiasm on the subject of 3D printing has skyrocketed to truly noteworthy heights. For example, approximately 16,000 articles on 3D printing were published in 2012, compared with only 1,600 in 2011. 8 Unit sales of personal 3D printers are also expected to double this year to an estimated 70,000 units.

All Told…

In 2013, combined end-user spending on 3D printers will reach $412 million, up 43 percent from US$288 million in 2012 while the consumer segment is forecast to reach nearly $87 million. In 2014, overall spending on 3D printers and materials is predicted to increase 62 percent, reaching $669 million, with enterprise spending of $536 million and consumer spending of $133 million. That’s a significant growth opportunity, and Makism3D, unlike many of its similarly-sized peers, is poised to capture a significant piece of that market.

Outlook & Analysis

One only has to look at the caliber and stature of the companies and people talking about – and wading into – 3D printing to know that it’s not a fad.

Hewlett-Packard CEO Meg Whitman, for instance, has compared 3D printing to an acorn, saying the technology could possibly “become an oak tree, saying “We intend to play in the 3D printing market.”

Microsoft saw the writing on the wall as well, publishing its first 3D printing app as a simple-to-use took aimed at crafty moms, bright kids, and pretty much anyone but the typical maker. Specifically, Windows 8.1 not only became the first OS to support 3-D printing natively, but more recently its published its first ever 3-D printing application called 3D Builder, which is available now for free. Shanen Boettcher, general manager of Microsoft’s Startup Business Group commented “We wanted to do something that was simple–that didn’t require any design expertise, CAD experience, or animation experience… Anyone can walk up to the app and be successful in 3-D printing.”

Fast-food restaurateur McDonald’s is considering the use of in-store 3D printers to create plastic children’s toys on the fly for its famous Happy Meals. The idea is that a 3D printer could be used to create a toy that is no longer being supplied in Happy Meals, possibly allowing a child to get the last toy in a series and complete their collection.

Point being, 3D printing is here to stay, and is still miles away from reaching its peak sales and saturation.

As for what this may mean for Makism3D, it’s not only a sign that 3D printing is becoming a mainstream idea – and fuel for revenue growth – but HP’s chief Meg Whitman’s words lead one to wonder if an acquisition is in the cards for MDDD shareholders. That would certainly be a victory for the company and its investors, but even without a buyout there’s a lot to look forward to here.

As was noted above, though the outlooks vary, all of them agree the 3D printer market will be well above $1 billion by the end of next year, with the possibility that it will reach a size of $10 billion by the end of the decade. That alone makes Makism3D a “right time, right place” opportunity.

What wasn’t described already is that the 3D printing industry is still gelling, and there’s no one single dominant leader to beat. Yes, Stratasys (SSYS) and 3D Systems (DDD) are the well-known names in 3D printing right now, while Voxeljet (VJET) and Camtek (CAMT) have made big names for themselves of late. Camtek, however doesn’t even have a printer on the market yet, and it’s still not entirely clear if the world had a big need for printed circuit boards. Voxeljet is proverbially up and running, offering “on the fly” 3D printing services to companies that don’t want to purchase their own 3D printer. But, anybody with enough money to buy a collection of professional 3D printers could beat Voxeljet at its own game. As for Stratasys and 3D Systems, yes, they’re the biggest names right now, but not necessarily the best. Makism3D offers similar products at a better price, and the WideBoy product line – a series of printers that many consider to be the second (and superiors) generation after Stratasys and 3D Systems blazed the trail – has a very good shot at beating bigger competitors at their own game.

The metrics and math certainly make sense for investors too. With a market cap of only $64 million, even a small sliver of that pie would be a sizable windfall for the company.

The bottom line is, Makism3D offers a far more viable, practical product than recent newcomers to the 3D printing arena do, and at a more palatable price. The coming inaugural yea for the organization’s printer line is an opportunity made even stronger by the fact that so few investors have yet to hear of it. If Voxeljet and Camtek can garner the kind of attention they have with a less-marketable product and watch their shares rally as well as they have, imagine the upside MDDD offers as news of the company’s existence proliferates, and as their printers debut. Small cap enthusiasts should strongly consider taking on a stake in the company now, before any mania pushes the stock out of reach.

MDDD Management

Luke Ruffell | CEO & President

As Makism3D’s chief executive officer, Mr. Ruffell is responsible for leading Makism3D’s product development and technology strategy. With a background in the arts and business marketing strategy, he is currently responsible for all aspects of product development at Makism3D. He was previously a director of Geoh Networks Ltd., a company specializing in fiber network solutions, and prior to that was a director of Taper UK Ltd., a tobacco company. Mr. Ruffell studied Product Design while attending Ravensbourne University and Architecture at De Montfort University.

Matthew Lummis | CFO

Mr. Lummis studied Business and Management while attending University Campus Suffolk. Lummis worked extensively in Britain’s domestic tourism industry and has expertise in business, economics, design and marketing strategy. He currently leads the administrative, financial and risk management operations of Makism3D.

Feroz Khan | Secretary

Mr. Khan is a director of Bespoke 3D Ltd., a prototyping company,  and a director of AAKhan & Sons Ltd., a property company. Mr. Khan has been responsible for leading specific scientific research projects involving materials engineering and bio printing. He studied Product Design while attending Ravensbourne University.