Seneca College - RED 2016 - 28

Leveraging skills,
dedication and a Seneca
education to build small
businesses

A 3D road map for the future
of industrial design

Fedon Orfanidis and Stephen Chan
Co-founders,
Pinnacle DDM Ltd.

FEDON ORFANIDIS loves motor bikes. He races them, fixes
them and owns many, including one that's carbon electric. This love came honestly. His dad is a mechanic,
and Fedon would push a broom around his shop, while
learning about repairs and fabrication.
His fascination with machines and industrial design
led him to Seneca's Jane Campus and the Mechanical
Engineering Technologist/Industrial Design program.
Not surprisingly, Fedon uses cars to explain the kind
of work he and his business partner, Stephen Chan
(also a Jane Campus grad), do through their new venture, Pinnacle DDM Ltd.

"Let's say you have an old car with a broken water
pump that they don't make anymore," says Fedon.
"Even if it's in several pieces, we can create a 3D scan
of that, digitally stitch it together, and have somebody
make a brand new one."
Fedon and Stephen use what they call "the Cadillac"
of portable 3D scanners to identify hundreds of thousands of points on an object and map them into solid
3D models and engineering drawings.
Mounted on a flexible, extendable arm, this scanner
gives their customers an extremely accurate representation of the desired item for manufacturing purposes.
The scanning possibilities are endless-everything from
finger prints to chairs to a 1938 Duesenberg race car.
"It all depends on how accurately you can make
that part," says Fedon. "If you need something and you
can't accurately say what it is, you won't get it. It's like
screaming without a voice."
Like with any new technology, there is a learning
curve, and customers need to be educated on its benefits. Fedon and Stephen-whose background is in 3D
robotics scanning and chemical engineering-are
finding that a lot of their time is spent "selling" their
service and its benefits.
"We aren't like a baker," says Stephen. "We aren't
selling a loaf of bread. Everybody knows what a loaf of
bread is. We are selling you on a technology that you
didn't know existed. We have to tell you what it is and
show you how it can help your company."

If you need
something and
you can't say
what it is, it's like
screaming
without a voice.

PHOTO: JOANNE RATAJCZAK

Fedon Orfanidis (right)
and Stephen Chan founded
Pinnacle DDM Ltd. to
provide clients with 3D
models and engineering
drawings for countless
product designs.

28 RED

2016

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Seneca College - RED 2016