Cases
Magics Customer Interview: iJet, Yokohama, Japan
Magics is necessary for our customers who ask us to make models by 3D printer
iJet, founded in early 2009 Yokohama Japan, produces miniature models of houses, makes web pages, and offers rapid prototyping services. iJet stands for I=Idea, J=Joy, E-Evolution, T-Technology. Materialise Japan visited their office and interviewed Mr. Kumehara about their business.
The reason iJet was founded
Mr. Kumehara started his business from DTP (desk top publishing), digital printing 25 years ago, then he worked on an Internet related business to make web pages and carry out SEO (search engine optimization). Recently he was inspired to make models, especially of miniature houses. He also has a lot of background knowledge about 3D software, which he used to found iJet.
How he gained interest in 3D modeling
Mr. Kumehara was researching 3D modeling, such as models of houses and soon detected very strong demands in the miniature houses and figures market. Then when viewing a demo of a Z Corp 3D printer he heard about Materialise’s Magics Software and has been using it ever since.
As Mr. Kumehara started to use Magics, he quickly realized that amongst many other benefits, Magics can save time when preparing data of figures using the fix wizard. He also found that Magics particularly helps to compensate for wall thickness problems, which he had difficulties with in the past. He found out that Magics can handle textures with colors for figures, and this was another reason to make the investment. Mr. Kumehara is satisfied with almost all the functions in Magics. However, he feels the need for CAD like data handling abilities to edit interior data of miniature houses. To help him with this common request from his customers, Materialise will soon introduce Mr. Kumehara to the CAD functionalities that 3-matic can bring to STL file editing.
The future of his business
iJet mainly handles business as follows:
1. Making house models using a 3D printer
2. Making figures and art using a 3D printer
3. Rapid prototyping
4. Poster, sign, panel, label making and sales
Mr. Kumehara will focus on making house models and figures using 3D printing. He is trying to expand his business in the architectural market by collaborating with a major architectural design software company. He is also active in the 3D CG (computer graphics) figurine market collaboration with SNS (Social Network Service). This SNS has a big community and members can order 3D figures on this site. iJet then makes their models on demand. This is not only available to SNS, but members can also order 3D models from this site.
Mr. Kumehara has a blog where he can post articles about his interests and his business in a casual form. He is very enthusiastic about improving his business in many ways.
Lastly Mr. Kumehara thinks architecture models are becoming more and more popular by using 3D printing in Japan.