Rapid Prototyping Equipment Financing
The Rapidly Developing Shape of Things To Come
When you acquire a Rapid Prototyping system, you get a lot more than some machinery and software. You also get membership in a vibrant technological culture. This can be exciting, because RP keeps moving ahead. It can also be unsettling, because RP doesn't let you stand still.
Understanding some of the trends in RP can be helpful:
- when you acquire RP equipment,
- when you dispose of RP equipment, or
- when you make plans that are in part based on expectations that your equipment will resemble the equipment used by others, so you can more easily buy or sell RP capacity.
For most RP users, it's important to remain in the mainstream. Even for users who don't worry very much about what others are doing, understanding where RP technology is headed can be important. Generally speaking, it's easier to get support, particularly independent support, for the most widely used RP systems. Similarly, there are more suppliers of consumables for the types of systems with the largest installed bases.
But today's mainstream may not be tomorrow's, so simply going with an established platform is no guarantee that you will be properly positioned in a year or two. Your system may be the most accurate and effective one for a particular job today. It will be just as good two years from now. But, if at that future date a different system can do the same job for a much lower price, your RP shop will be at a competitive disadvantage.
We think about these issues all the time, because we invest in RP systems on behalf of our lessees. We can only finance the systems our clients want to use; we don't have a choice in the equipment we finance. We must take trends into account when we calculate a lease rate. This is because our lease rate depends in part on the value we reckon that system sustains throughout each leasing transaction.
Almost half of all lease transactions involve an early termination, an upgrade, or some other kind of restructuring, such as an extension or renewal.
As we see it, the best way to understand what seems to be unfolding in the RP world is by examining the related trends in RP platform technology and RP materials science.
2055 Reading Road, Suite 240
Cincinnati, Ohio 45202
Phone: (513) 333 0221
Fax: (513) 333 0887