A new local manufacturing business is starting out fairly small — but not because its product isn’t in high demand.

In fact, inDimension3, a Kalispell company that engineers, designs, assembles and tests professional consumer-based three-dimensional printers, plans to ramp up production quickly — from about 23 printers this month to 40 the next, with plans for at least 110 each month after that.

Since founders Jeff Christiana and Detlef Schleper started making 3-D printers as a “hobby” a few years ago, they have sold more than 200 units working out of an 800-square foot facility. Those printers were purchased by furniture makers, architects, universities, NASA, movie special-effects studios and more.

“We’ve always had a backlog,” said Christiana, the company’s president and chief operations officer. “We did what we could, but we couldn’t supply the demand that was out there.”

An injection of needed capital recently came from Julip Run, an investment group in Philadelphia, which approached Christiana and Schleper with the offer of financial backing after purchasing one of their printers.

The group’s investment allowed inDimension3 to moved into a new 14,000-square-foot headquarters on U.S. 93 South. Christiana and Schleper were able to quit their full-time jobs in information technology at Kalispell Regional Medical Center and give their full attention to the business.

InDimension3 printers use a fused filament fabrication method, an additive manufacturing technology. The plastic is melted in a chamber and put down one layer at a time, sometimes as thin as 50 microns. The layers are added up one at a time, creating the 3-D object.

The company’s standard printers cost less than $5,000 and have the capability of printing much larger projects than most other 3-D models. The company also engineers, manufactures and sells its own exotic plastics.

Within the next few weeks Christiana said the company will have 10 exotic plastics, some of which can only be extruded by inDimension3 printers. The company also has access to tens of thousands of different types of plastics in all colors.

The business currently has one employee working on assembly and has hired three more to start on May 21.

“We hope to hire many more and hope it will boom,” Christiana said. “We’re hoping to get this place completely filled with people. We want to have a fun environment where everyone has a good time.”

Currently the business is very much a family enterprise, with Jeff’s wife, Laura, acting as director of operations, purchasing and human resources. Jeff’s parents, Dave and Fran Christiana, work in inventory and some assembly work, with friend Heath Root currently working as the electrical assembler.

Schleper is the vice president and head of research and development.

InDimension3 began in 2009, when Christiana and Schleper started watching videos of 3-D printers in action. Schleper said they were inspired to do more research after hearing that Jay Leno spent $200,000 on a 3-D printer to reproduce parts for his antique cars.

“We thought it would be fun to build 3-D printers for the lower-end consumer,” said Christiana, who also has an electronics background.

They purchased a reasonably priced printer and were unimpressed with the quality of the unit.

Through their own research, they came up with their own printer technologies and put the information on the Internet.

Operating at the time under the Futurist 3-D label, their work on perfecting 3-D printing was discovered and they began receiving requests from people eager to buy printers from them.

Customers for 3-D printers are often those who need to create design prototypes.

“If you have an idea and want to see what it will look like, this is far less expensive than a machine shop to print it in plastic,” Schleper said. “By the time you have half a dozen prototypes done, you’ve paid for the printer.”

Three-dimensional printing really took off around 2009, and Christiana sees the future of the 3-D printer having parallels to the growth of the personal computer.

“They used to have these giant mainframes that no one could afford, and there’s no way there would be one in a house,” he said. “It’s the same thing with 3-D printers, going from room-sized to something that will sit on a desk.”

InDimension3 produces two professional-grade 3-D models, the Glacier Steel and the Gl2acier Peak, and can also create custom printers.

Conquering shipping issues is currently one of the company’s major challenges, and Christiana and Schleper are working on a frame design to make sure all printers arrive in perfect condition.

To ship larger custom-built printers, Christiana said they will have to build them on site, break them down to ship and then have an employee reassemble the package at the customer’s facility. They expect to hire a full-time employee to carry out such installations and also work with customers who need training.

Though the printers are more likely to be sold to professional consumers, the printers don’t need to be operated by someone with great technical expertise. And the process is only going to become more simple, Schleper said.

“The goal is to make it almost as easy as clicking on print to your HP printer. We’re getting pretty darn close.”

Business reporter Heidi Gaiser may be reached at 758-4439 or by email at hgaiser@dailyinterlake.com.