3D Programs shopping for into highly developed FFF 3D printing with Kumovis and Titan Robotics acquisitions
US 3D printer producer 3D Programs has introduced two acquisitions, by means of which it stands to appreciably greatly enhance its extrusion additive production abilities.
In shopping for clinical-quality 3D printing professional Kumovis, 3D Programs thinks it will now be equipped “expand its addressable market” inside personalised health care. With its Titan Robotics acquisition, in the meantime, the company has also purchased into pellet extrusion for the initially time, in a shift that could allow for it to far better fulfill the requirements of buyer, automotive, aerospace, protection and provider bureau clientele.
“As the major additive production methods husband or wife throughout industrial and health care marketplaces, 3D Programs is fully commited to assembly the widest doable selection of our customers’ AM manufacturing requirements,” claimed Dr. Jeffrey Graves, President and CEO of 3D Programs. “With the addition of Titan Robotics’ one of a kind extrusion technological innovation, we will be equipped to deal with our customers’ require for substantial make volumes, excellent functionality and enhanced efficiency at a appreciably lessen value.”
Relocating even further into industrial FFF
3D Systems’ Titan Robotics acquisition is major, in that the shift sees it invest in a major developer of hybrid configuration programs, which can be established up for equally pellet and filament extrusion, with a flagship Atlas HS 3D printer that also has subtractive ending abilities designed doable by its spindle toolhead, earning it a ‘hybrid’ in much more than a single perception of the term.
Collectively, the firm’s modular Atlas devices supply suppliers with the versatility to obtain the greatest doable FFF structure to fulfill their software. The configurable set up of the programs also will allow them to be continuously upgraded by consumers, as a suggests of introducing new supplies and product or service iterations, in addition to assembly distinct value and functionality targets.
A different advantage of adopting immediate pellet-fed systems is that executing so opens up a broader selection of supplies, with hundreds of formulations ranging from small durometer (delicate) to really-crammed resins on the market place. Titan Robotics alone has poured a substantial total of R&D into creating its individual supplies as very well, doing the job with the likes of Braskem to start a new polypropylene resin two a long time in the past.
Many thanks to the scalability of its Atlas programs, which attribute make volumes up to 50” x 50” x 72” in measurement, the business has lengthy-hailed their substantial-structure sand-casting, as very well as their tooling, jig, and fixture manufacturing opportunity, and by means of buying the technological innovation powering them, 3D Programs thinks it will now be equipped to develop its achieve into new marketplaces all-around the globe.
“Through the ground breaking modular method of their printers, we imagine the adoption fee of industrial 3D printing will proceed to speed up,” describes Graves. “By combining the engineering and programs skills of Titan Robotics with the world-wide achieve of 3D Systems’ gross sales, provider and programs groups, we are very well-positioned to aid our consumers throughout the complete selection of our marketplaces.”
For his element, Titan Robotics’ CEO Rahul Kasat suggests that equally he and the relaxation of the firm’s management are “thrilled to turn into element of a globe-course organization” like 3D Programs, and they are “excited by the synergies” concerning the two companies’ systems, which could permit them to “expand the adoption of industrial 3D printing” into new locations.
In 3D Systems’ scenario, the offer, which is established to be wrapped up in April 2022, is also major as it could induce a struggle for market place management with Stratasys. When the company has frequently targeted on SLA, it has now taken yet another stage to fortify its FFF providing, in a area ordinarily occupied by FDM-inventor Stratasys, which in change, purchased around RPS very last 12 months, letting it to far better deal with the SLA market place.
3D Systems’ Kumovis acquisition
By way of its acquisition of Kumovis, on the other hand, 3D Programs has purchased the inventor of the medically-oriented ‘fused layer manufacturing’ (FLM) technological innovation. At the moment built-in into Kumovis’ R1 3D printer, this extrusion approach is proficiently created to permit the precision deposition of significant-functionality polymers like PEEK, into medical components this kind of as surgical devices and human implants.
Provided the polymer’s thermal and ionizing radiation resistance, lightweightness and bone-like homes, 3D Programs sees increasing its PEEK processing abilities as a way of developing on its clinical providing. By way of shopping for Kumovis, the company as a result anticipates becoming equipped to deal with even further place-of-treatment programs, such as craniomaxillofacial modeling, spinal cage and trauma plate 3D printing.
Furthermore, 3D Programs has founded Food and drug administration-registered, ISO 13485-qualified services in Littleton, Colorado, and Leuven, Belgium, which have created around two million implants and devices to day. At the time the offer is concluded in April, the business intends to set up Kumovis programs, equally at these services, and other place of treatment vendors, to permit the much more fast manufacturing of client-distinct equipment.
“The addition of the Kumovis workforce – their skills and technological innovation – will be really synergistic to our clinical organization design,” provides Graves. “Our established means to supply regulatory-authorized, implantable 3D printed clinical equipment, personalised to strengthen client results, to surgeons all-around the globe by means of our fantastic channel companions, will support make sure that the Kumovis PEEK-primarily based choices can be introduced to market place rapidly and proficiently.”
3D Systems’ realignment continues
Each 3D Systems’ hottest buys align flawlessly with the ‘strategic refocus’ it introduced in August 2020. Unveiled clean off the again of a twenty% profits drop in H1 2020, the business revised technique has due to the fact viewed it focus on its main health care and industrial verticals, and divest any locations of its organization that really don’t align with this prepare.
At first, this restructuring was predominantly targeted on divestiture-led streamlining, with Cimatron becoming marketed for $sixty five million and its on-desire manufacturing arm purchased for $eighty two million by Trilantic North The us, ahead of becoming renamed QuickParts.
Even so, as 3D Systems’ economical circumstance commenced to strengthen in late-2020, it started off to take into consideration reinvesting in firms that progress its clinical and industrial targets. By May possibly 2021, the company experienced introduced the obtain of Allevi and Additive Is effective, and it went on to invest in Oqton for $a hundred and eighty million and obtain Volumetric Biotechnologies in a offer that could sooner or later value it up to $four hundred million.
What is apparent, is that with its latest acquisitions, 3D Programs seems to be relocating even further into the FFF area just as Stratasys has diversified its portfolio into SLA, by using moves that could see them turn into much more immediate rivals in the a long time to arrive.
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Showcased picture reveals the twin extruder program utilised in Titan’s Atlas-H 3D printers. Image by using Titan Robotics.
