Pantheon Design ready to print your own ticket to 3D prominence

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Veteran Film and Television Prop Master dean eilertson he liked working with pantheon design so much invested in the company.

Vancouver-based hardware development, manufacturing and development company 3d printing company worked notably with Eilertson on the Ryan Reynolds netflix movie The Adam Project.

“I was blown away by what I was seeing,” Eilertson said during a phone interview. “They were all young boys. They all had engineering backgrounds. They were super smart and very enthusiastic and easy to get along with.”

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To the folks at Pantheon Design, the move from building a prototype MVP (minimum viable project) for a tech start-up to designing a space rifle that Reynolds’ character Adam could use to fight bad guys made a lot of sense.

“We realized that building these prototypes for technology companies is more or less props. So, we reached out to some people in the film industry,” Pantheon co-founder and CEO Bob Cao said at the company’s East Vancouver workspace.

“Creativity and innovation are at the heart of great content. In Vancouver, we are fortunate to work with some of the most talented creative partners in the world, who help us bring stories like The Adam Project to life,” said Michael Bartol, director of production management for Netflix.

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As company directors Cao, Logan Nimmo and Alex Wiecke (the fourth director is Casey Wong) sat at a large workbench to discuss space weapons and hoverboards, the conversation turned to what was the best thing to do. did for The Adam Project concert. The unanimous answer? Part of the time travel machine that Mark Ruffalo’s scientist character designed.

“For me, I was doing most of the design in the time core that they took off the wall,” Logan said of the prop, which involved 400 3D-printed parts. “From an engineering point of view, it’s not very often that someone asks you to do this crazy futuristic-looking thing. It was fun.”

Pantheon Design has built everything from electric motorcycle prototypes to a turbine/computer fan in conjunction with Alberta Health, Vancouver Coastal and Health Canada. The latter emerged from the pandemic and in six months went from the first prototype to clinical testing and Health Canada certification.

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“What he (Eilertson) really saw, when we explained the story of the fan and the other consulting work that we did, was that with the 3D printers that we made we were able to turn projects around quickly, so we were very well prepared for the film. industry,” said Nimmo, Pantheon’s chief mechanical design officer and chief operating officer. “We were able to turn projects around in a matter of days.”

There is the problem. Seeing the need for fast and useful printers, Pantheon Design did what it does best and designed its own printer and ink. And it was that innovation that turned Pantheon from supplier to investment in Eilertson’s eyes.

“With digital TVs and 8K, you can’t fake things anymore,” Eilertson said while describing the benefits that the specificity of 3D printing enables.

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And, in film, you need to be agile and be able to create and repair items in hours, not days.

Pantheon offered that.

“Now, finally, Pantheon has taken 3D printing to a level where we can actually use it,” said Eilertson, who has nearly four decades of film and television production experience, including work on the television series Shogun. “Once they explained to me what they were doing and the initiative they were taking to do it, I couldn’t be more understanding. I think it’s amazing and it’s going to revolutionize the way things are done.

“I knew I wanted to be involved in this. She wanted to be a part of helping them.”

Creating its own printing technology that is at least five times faster than current 3D printer offerings was the classic situation where necessity is the mother of invention, as this company, started by Cao and Alex Wiecke building motorcycles in a garage in Kelowna in 2018, was growing out of today’s technology.

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“At one point, we had 26 3D printers and they all sucked,” Cao said. “They took a long time and broke all the time. They just weren’t designed to be repaired. They were designed as consumer electronics, like your iPhone. It breaks and you throw it away. We wanted something that was built like a real machine tool. Something designed to be repaired and used for a decade or so. So we started building our own 3D printers, actually, right before The Adam Project started in late 2019/early 2020.

“Our business is to develop technology and create products that 3D printers don’t fix,” Cao added.

With work for Disney, Netflix, HBO and others under his belt, Pantheon will continue to have a hand in the world of cinema. But right now, the company’s focus is on raising money and raising the profile of the new printer program.

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Currently 10 Pantheon Design printers are in the world and have orders for more than 100 more. They are preparing to move to a larger facility to begin expanding manufacturing.

“To be honest, going forward, we’ve had a bit of a pivot. We are still doing some filming work, but our goal is to bring our 3D printing technology to market,” said Cao.

“We just sent the US Department of Defense their first unit,” Cao said of the US$10,000 printers. “We have Ford, Honda, Volkswagen and GM doing an evaluation of our product. We will send you demo units in the next two months. We have several large OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) manufacturing in the automotive and aerospace space looking for hundreds of units from us.”

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Pantheon also hopes its product will be something the world of film and television production invests in.

“Instead of actually doing the work, we want to provide the technology and processes for other people to adopt in the film industry. So instead of getting our hands dirty, we are going to provide the knowledge and technology for other people to do what we have been doing,” Cao said.

Changing the world of manufacturing is a big job, and right now, it’s a tough job that has a team of seven working non-stop. But long hours are just fine with this group of Millennial entrepreneurs, as they’re having fun creating something that’s not only cool, but about to be hot.

“I’ve hated every job I’ve ever had except this one,” Wiecke said. “I love these people.”

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