#3DStartup: Handddle Structures and Industrializes the Uses of 3D Printing

Handddle is a French startup that has developed a software solution and a 100% configurable manufacturing microfactory, allowing additive manufacturing users to structure and industrialize 3D printing processes and functions. Based in Bordeaux, the startup supports professionals in the development of in-house 3D printing, seeking to automate the manufacturing steps and offer maximum repeatability. Its SmartFarm microfactory has a volumetric capacity of 70.63 cubic feet (2 m3) and a floor space of 10.8 square feet (1 m2), allowing you to centralize your machine park as well as your post-processing solutions. It also ensures that your materials are stored in the best conditions (humidity control, good temperature management, etc.). We met Thomas Bourgoin, one of the three founders of Handddle, to learn more about this solution and the startup’s future projects!

3DN: Can you introduce yourself and your connection to 3D printing?

Thomas Bourgoin

Hello, my name is Thomas Bourgoin, I have a technical background in mechanical engineering. Very early on, I became interested in new manufacturing methods and additive manufacturing led me to collaborate with various market players, such as Prodways or BCN3D. It is with these collaborations and with my passion for the subject of 3D, that I developed a certain expertise, which today allows us to innovate on this continuously developing market.

3DN: How did you get the idea to create Handddle?

Handddle is the result of a strong observation: many small uses have been born or are beginning to be born in recent years, but too few of them are scaled up, and we remain on a very “gadget” use of 3D in companies. Additionally, we saw that it is quite simple to acquire a 3D machine, but that it is much more complicated to integrate it into one’s processes like any other tool used on a daily basis. There are several reasons for this. First, the fact of finding oneself with a manufacturing machine on one side and raw material on the other, scattered, without organization and without any framework. The second, a direct consequence of the first, is not having the tools to make AM an established production tool. All this made us converge on the Handddle solution, which, by proposing neither machine nor material, comes to help structure and industrialize the technology’s various uses.