The Quill

Ever wondered how Santa manages to manufacture his creative and well crafted season gifts in such a hurry ?

Well wonder no more, for Rapid Manufactory is giving us a glimpse on how Santa’s Little Helpers do their magic this Christmas with an interesting local competition bearing the same title.

Based in the midst of the heritage rich Mar Mikhael district of Beirut city, Rapid Manufactory was established a few years back to provide affordable and accessible 3D printing solutions for everyone. So whether you are an architect creating scale models or someone simply looking to create custom parts and unique gifts, using the latest technologies in 3d printing this is now possible. I personally met the minds behind this cool place a while back myself.

So what is this competition where you get to put on the shoes of one of Santa’s Little Helpers for Christmas and how does it tie in with 3d Printing i hear you ask?

Well to answer that, today i sit down with Guillaume Credoz, the founder and creative mind behind Rapid Manufactory to ask him about his latest Santa’s Little Helpers art competition.

Q-First thank you for taking a moment to sit down with me to ask you about Santa’s Little Helpers event. I love the idea behind this competition for Christmas, so can you tell our readers in your own words what it is about ?

Simply put, its a competition where individuals and companies can submit their designs and top voted ones will get 3D printed for free for Christmas. It’s a good occasion for the public to try out professional 3D printing for free. A gift is always better when designed by the one who offers it. As an answer to consumerism and cheap quality polluting goods coming from all around the world, you can now design yourself what you really want and produce it locally!

Q-Who can submit?

Anyone, same for voting, as it is on on Facebook. We’ve set some basic rules and provided a lot of advice on 3D printing design guidelines on our website. (references links attached at the bottom of page)

Q-Personally i worked with a 3d printer before, a MakerBot model to be exact, but i see here you have a couple of 3d printers one of them pretty huge honestly, what can you tell us about that ?

Yes our main printer is SLS, or Selective Laser Sintering, where a laser hardens a very fine poly-amide powder. Contrary to FDM 3D printers like MakerBot it doesn’t require supports, therefore the freedom of creation is very high. It is also of a far better resolution and its surface quality is at a completely other level. This makes designing far easier and accessible. We 3D print parts which are almost as good as molded, without the cost of a mold. We can 3D print relatively large volumes such as in18x22x32cm and in great quantities.

Q-How is the feedback you’re getting so far on the idea ?

People are seeing it as a refreshing appeal for creativity to make something different.
For some it’s the opportunity to showcase their design talents as well.

Q-In closing, sitting here in the workshop where it all happens surrounded by 3D printed accessories and people buzzing around working on 3d modelling apps and even old school sculpting, i can’t help but ask, have you ever worked for Santa ?!

Christmas is always a very busy time for creativity and manufacturing so we are contributing our own part in the event this season.

If more people get involved it can subtlety change the meaning of the event to take it back closer to its root where we are the makers and not just the consumers.
Here at our workshop we design and manufacture toys like QalamSila for example.

I must say that when we work on it it’s actually a fun and enjoyable process.

At those times, we feel we have a pretty cool job here like Santa!

Santa’s Little Helper Competition facebook page.

https://www.facebook.com/santalittlehelper2014

Rapid Manufactory facebook page.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/RapidManufactory/438399209567587

Freshly Baked Today website.

https://freshlybakedtoday.com/web/home