Tag Archives: 3D Systems
Profiling the Five Heavyweights Driving the 3D Printing Industry
The Financial Times published a feature profiling the five industry heavyweights in 3D printing.
Abe Reichental, CEO of 3D Systems
Mr Reichental regards 3D printing as a “disruptive technology” with the power to revitalise the global manufacturing industry. In the past three years he has spent about $230m on acquisitions to make 3D Systems the fastest expanding large 3D printing equipment producer.
Hans Langer, CEO of EOS
The sparkling-eyed German physicist has turned EOS into one of Europe’s most promising high-tech mid-sized businesses and one of the world’s biggest makers of 3D printing hardware.
Wilfried Vancraen, Managing Director of Materialise
He has expanded his Leuven, Belgium-based company’s range of services to make parts using 3D printing for a large group of customers in fields from interior design to the medical equipment industry. Materialise also makes its own range of personalised jewellery using the technology.
Scott Crump, CEO of Stratasys
He has built up Stratasys into one of the world’s biggest makers of 3D printing systems and is keen to stress the links between 3D printing and other forms of “digital manufacturing” in which computer codes are used to instruct factory machinery to make objects, often on a customised basis, relatively cheaply and to high precision.
Sir David McMurty, Chairman and CEO of Renishaw
Sir David regards 3D printing as a “unique business opportunity” with “plenty of scope for development” and became interested in the technology prior to Renishaw’s acquisition last year of MTT Technologies, a small Staffordshire-maker of 3D printing machines.
Read the full executive bios in the feature at FT.com.
UP! 3D Printer from China: Viable Competitor to US 3D Printer Makers
Forest Higgs, a self-proclaimed “technocratic anarchist”, has written a detailed review of the UP! 3D printer, a compact desktop 3D printer from China.
Forest explains how he first was introduced to the UP! 3D printer.
Some months ago, a long term technology friend of mine acquired an UP! While Peggy has been a inspired developer of educational technology for years, she did not, to the best of my knowledge, have any prior knowledge of the ins and outs of 3D printing on personal printers. In spite of that, Peggy whipped her UP! printer out of the box and did a brilliant print first time out. That really caught my attention. I’d been working on the Reprap project for years and still, when I bought a Rapman, a greatly enhanced Darwin-derivative, several years ago it had taken me the better part of a month to get used to the quirks of printing on it to the point that I could get reliably good prints.
Later he walks through specific features and functionality, with detailed photos and comparisons to other printers in the market.
Out of the box, one thing that immediately struck me was the tiny size of the UP! The 140x140x135mm print volume reminded me a lot of the old Makerbot Cupcake. It took me about half an hour to get out of the box and set up, ready for operation. While the manuals indicated that I might have to level the print surface, this was not necessary. Calibrating the printhead height took about ten minutes. When I ordered the UP, I was very worried about print adhesion to the print surface. Delta Micro offered three solutions; perforated printed circuit board, painted glass and Kaplon tape covered glass. I had had so much drama with prints peeling off of the print table with the Rapman over the years that I ordered all three options.
Forest concludes: the UP! is a meaningful competitor from China.
Finally, it appears that Delta Micro is going for the throat of the manufacturers of Repraps in the US and elsewhere. They are now offering a slightly smaller printer, the UP! Mini! with a 120x120x120 enclosed print volume which uses standard 1.75 mm filament for less than $1,000. The UP! Mini appears to be a serious challenge to both the Reprap variations and to the 3D Systems Cube system. It strikes me that unless the quality and ease of use of UP! competitors makes a rather quick quantum leap they could easily find themselves to be a historical footnote in the history of 3D printing rather than a new paradigm of virally diffused technology.
Read the full review by Forest Higgs, who says on his blog, “If I wasn’t supposed to take it apart, it wouldn’t have screws in it.”
UP! 3D printer photo by donjd2 used under Creative Commons license.
3D Systems to Raise $100 Million in Common Stock for Acquisitions
3D printer manufacturer 3D Systems (NYSE:DDD) announced that it will raise $100 million by selling common stock.
[The company] intends to use the net proceeds from the offering to finance future acquisitions of other entities or their assets and for working capital and general corporate purposes.
The market did not respond well to this announcement, and shares dropped 6% in after hours trading. Their market capitalization this morning is $1.57 billion.
3D Systems has recently been on an acquisition bender:
- Bespoke Innovations in May for 3D printed personalized prosthetics
- FreshFiber in May 2012 for 3D printed electronics accessories
- My Robot Nation in April 2012 for creative solutions to support 3D printing community Cubify for kids and adults
- Paramount Industries in April 2012 to advance aerospace and medical device 3D printing
3D Systems also posted a healthy Q1 with record revenue and printer units sold. We reported how 3D printing stocks are hot, up 180% over 6 months and beating out the stock market indices.
Based on this announcement, it appears that more consolidation is on the roadmap for the 3D printing industry, and that 3D Systems is looking to take an early lead as juggernaut in the market.
3D Printing is a Game Changer: Feature Published by The Atlantic
American iconic magazine The Atlantic invited Hugh Evans, vice president at T. Rowe Price Associates to publish an article about a technology or trend changing the markets. His topic: 3D Printing is a Game Changer.
From my vantage point, 3D printing is right up there as one of the most exciting innovations I’ve seen in the 20 years I’ve been around here. I think it’s going to change the way goods are manufactured across many industries.
Evans starts with the back story on 3D printing, how the technology evolved from producing wax-like prototypes to durable goods.
The revolution took place when companies like 3D Systems started designing radically new materials. They came up with nanocomposites, different blends of plastics, and different blends of powdered metals. They were then able to create a part that, if you held it in your hand, you’d think it was steel. You can throw it down on the ground against cement, and it looks and acts just like steel.
Later Evans mentions various industries that are embracing 3D printing.
These new materials allow this 3D printing to be adopted by aerospace, automotive. Jaguar is using the technology for rapid product development. So is the Bell Helicopter division of Textron.
It’s pretty intuitive to apply this technology to the automotive and aerospace industries, and jewelry has always been a big market. But one of the most exciting areas is actually dental fabrication.
One company I’m excited about is using 3D printing to make prostheses. It’s a venture-backed company in San Francisco called Bespoke Innovations. There are a large number of amputees in America and around the world–I believe something like two million people have some sort of prosthetic limb or device.
Finally, Evans talks about falling 3D printer prices, enabling consumer adoption.
Six years ago the cheapest machine out there was $30,000, but most were $100,000. Today you can get a capable 3D printer for around $1,299, which launched at the Consumer Electronics Show this year.
That’s why 3D printing is so interesting. It’s not just tied up in the engineering world anymore. It’s impacting a large number of industries, and becoming more relevant to consumers. I’m seeing that even high schools now have 3D printers. I just ran into a high school teacher the other day who teaches software classes, and he was telling me, “Oh, I just bought my first 3D printer.”
It’s exciting to see this technology begin to reach its full potential. A few years ago it was a little ahead of its time, but not anymore. It’s here today.
Read the full article at The Atlantic.
Deck of cards photo by aftab used under Creative Commons license.
Top 10 Countdown: Most Popular 3D Printing Stories in May 2012
Here are the top 10 most popular stories On 3D Printing brought you in May 2012.
10. 3D Systems acquired FreshFiber for 3D printed electronics accessories.
9. We wrote an editorial analyzing the space of 3D printing creators and consumers.
8. We reviewed SketchUp, Tinkercad, and 123D modeling software.
7. The fashion runway was 3D printed in Belgium.
6. The Motley Fool weighed in on public 3D printing manufacturers.
5. We featured companies exhibiting at Maker Faire Bay Area 2012.
4. Why Google sold SketchUp and what it means for 3D printing.
3. A 3D printing vending machine surfaced at Virginia Tech.
2. This New House: constructing and printing WikiHouse.
1. We featured Brad Feld as a premiere venture capitalist looking at 3D printing investments.
Thanks for reading in May!
