News and Insights of 3D Printing and Manufacturing
Italian 3D printer manufacturer Roboze is undeniably on the rise. In December, the company reported the securing of a €3M investment and its expectations to see growth of up to 500% in 2019. Today, the company is signalling its commitment to this growth by announcing its entry into the Japanese 3D printing market through a collaboration with K.K. IRISU, a Tokyo-based industrial equipment supplier.
French AM company AddUp and ESI Group, a virtual prototyping software firm, are deepening their existing partnership with the joint development of a new ergonomic simulation module for metal 3D printing. The program, called Distortion Simulation AddOn, will be released in spring 2019 and will offer a range of enhanced functionalities for AddUp Manager users.
TRIDITIVE, a Spain-based 3D printing company and services provider for final parts, announced a strategic collaboration with Elnik Systems, a manufacturer of first and second stage metal injection molding (MIM) equipment. The agreement will provide TRIDITIVE with metallurgical assistance as well as turnkey production services in the SCALADD Consortium.
Evonik has acquired Structured Polymers Inc., a US-based technology startup for 3D printing materials headquartered in Austin, Texas. A corresponding agreement and plan of merger were executed and the transaction has been closed recently. The acquisition will provide Evonik access to a new patented technology that will allow the company to expand its portfolio of specialty polymer powders in the additive manufacturing market.
Optomec, a leader in industrial metal additive manufacturing solutions, has announced a partnership with Phillips Federal, the largest supplier of manufacturing equipment to the U.S. government. The partnership will enable Phillips Federal to resell Optomec Laser Engineering Net Shaping (LENS) systems to government agencies.
Copper3D Inc. a Chilean/US based company that developed and commercialized a range of antibacterial filaments for 3D printing has signed a distribution agreement for the European market with UK-based 3D GBIRE, which, incidentally, says a lot about the current status of the “Brexit” process.
Dutch 3D printing service provider Oceanz has announced the acquisition of Heijcon 3D Solutions, another Netherlands-based AM service bureau. With the acquisition, Ede-based Oceanz aims to strengthen its position in the professional additive manufacturing market.
FIT AG has closed Boston Ceramics and is moving its Boston-based 3D printing production capability to their Lupburg facility in Germany. Boston Ceramics was founded by Andrew Jeffrey. After FIT’s acquisition in 2017, Jeffrey had remained as president.
Standards organization ASTM International has announced a partnership with three UK-based organizations—the Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC), Innovate UK and the British Standards Institution (BSI). Through the collaboration, the partners will aim to fast track the establishment of technical standards to drive the additive manufacturing industry.
California-based metal AM company Velo3D has announced a partnership with Praxair Surface Technologies, Inc. (PST), a producer of premium specialty alloy-based powders for the aerospace and other industrial markets. Through the agreement, Velo3D will establish process parameters for new alloys with Praxair’s TruForm powders and will qualify the company as a supplier of metal powder for its AM solutions.