Tag Archives: Stratasys
Stratasys and HP Part Ways on 3D Printer Manufacturing
Stratasys and HP have discontiued a manufacturing and distribution agreement for 3D printers. This either means that HP is preparing its own line of 3D printers, or is opting out of the 3D printing market entirely. Stratasys does not see this as a hit to their financial projections, but the market reacted by initially lowering their share price.
From the Stratasys press release:
Stratasys, Inc., a leading manufacturer of 3D printers and production systems for prototyping and manufacturing applications, today announced that Stratasys and HP have agreed to discontinue their manufacturing and distribution agreement for 3D printers, effective at the end of 2012. Stratasys does not expect the termination of its agreement with HP to have a material impact on its financial results for the current year and intends to work closely with HP to ensure a smooth transition for customers.
“Stratasys has enjoyed a productive relationship with HP, and moving forward, we will continue working towards our goal of achieving broader 3D printer usage worldwide,” said Scott Crump, chief executive officer and chairman of Stratasys. “As the market for 3D printing technology grows, Stratasys is focused on further developing our independent channel distribution initiatives to expand our distribution reach even further. Our recently-announced merger with Objet will help grow customer awareness of the many opportunities to deploy 3D printing and rapid prototyping techniques and will allow us to implement an even broader distribution channel with a more extensive geographic reach.”
Under the terms of the definitive agreement signed in January 2010, Stratasys developed and manufactured for HP an exclusive line of 3D printers based on Stratasys’ patented Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM(R)) technology. Later that year, HP began a phased rollout of the 3D printers in the mechanical design (MCAD) market in select European countries.
HP CEO Meg Whitman photo by TechShowNetwork used under Creative Commons license.
3D Printing Industry Will Reach $3 Billion by 2018 – Report
How big is 3D printing going to be? Huge, according to Global Industry Analysts (GIA). $3 billion by 2018 to be precise. This is lower than the figure reported by Forbes in March: $3.1 billion by 2016 and $5.2 billion by 2020. But nevertheless, this shows incredible growth for a revolutionary industry.
GIA, a leading publisher of off-the-shelf market research, has published a comprehensive global report on the 3D printing market.
The global market for 3D Printing is projected to reach US$2.99 billion by the year 2018, driven by the advent of newer technologies, approaches, and applications. Expanding use of the technology in manufacturing final products, declining cost of printers, and increasing use of 3D printing technology in newer areas bodes well for market growth.
Hailed as a transformative manufacturing technology, 3D printing involves fabrication of physical objects by depositing a material using a nozzle, print head, or any another printer technology. Though initially used for prototyping of products, 3D printing has evolved and is currently capable of customized short-run manufacturing of industrial products, dental implants, and medical devices. 3D printing is finding use in a diverse range of applications across varied markets. Though used initially for rapid prototyping purposes, technological advancements are increasingly facilitating the use of 3D printers for manufacturing final products. The technology has now reached a stage where digital models can be replicated to produce physical components or prototypes, which would be similar to those of mass produced products. The declining cost of printers has led a wide range of industries ranging from aerospace and automotive to footwear and jewelry to adopt 3D printing technology for manufacturing desired objects. 3D printing technology is thus offering individuals as well as companies with the ability to design as well as manufacture objects at relatively lower costs.
In the coming years, 3D printing technology would evolve to enable printing of metals including precious metals such as silver and gold. Further, low cost techniques are expected to be developed for enabling 3D printing of widely available materials such as paper and plastic. Another area of growth is the medical sector wherein 3D printing technology could be used for developing replacement parts. Potential also exists for companies to penetrate into educational and medical device sectors.
As stated by the new market research report on 3D Printing, the United States represents the single largest market for 3D Printing. Several companies in developed nations do not actually manufacture products in entirety in their home ground anymore, and have moved manufacturing activity to low-cost destinations, primarily in developing economies. However, the potential for local manufacturing on demand end-products with the aid of 3D printing is significantly enhanced, as it eliminates the need for physical shipping from far-off regions. As 3D technology matures, mass production within developed nations could be cheaper than manufacturing and shipping products from overseas markets. In certain specialized areas where speed and time to market are critical, technologies such as 3D printing will cause manufacturing activity to move back to developed nations from the developing world.
The market for 3D Printing Products is projected to grow manifold in the near future with 3D printer systems becoming more affordable and easy to use. In the short run, the demand for simple and low cost desktop 3D printers with the ability to rapidly produce concept models for prototypes is expected to witness strong growth. Technological advancements would facilitate development of 3D Printers that are less bulky, easy to fabricate and capable of serving almost unlimited number of purposes. An increasing number of freelance professional designers and hobbyists are using 3D printers for creating new designs and producing physical models, which is partly attributed to the high cost of alternate technologies.
3D Printing is a nascent industry well poised for robust growth driven by rising user adoption. The industry is highly competitive, with competition primarily stemming from new product development, process know-how, pricing, and the ability to provide comprehensive solutions to meet customers’ needs. Major players profiled in the report include 3D Systems Corporation, Bits from Bytes, envisionTEC GmbH, EOS GmbH, Hewlett-Packard Development Company L.P, MakerBot® Industries LLC, Objet Ltd., Stratasys Inc., among others.
Read more on their press release, or buy the report.
3 billion photo by nagillum used under Creative Commons license
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.
Stratasys CEO Named Top 20 Most Influential People in Rapid Technology
Scott Crump is the CEO of Stratasys and the inventor of Fused Deposition Modeling. He now has another title: industry influencer.
Scott Crump, chief executive officer and chairman of Stratasys has been voted one of the top 20 most influential people in the rapid technologies industry by TCT Magazine. Scott Crump is the inventor of the Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) method of 3D printing, the most widely used additive manufacturing process.
TCT Magazine is published by Rapid New Communication Group in the UK and is read by design and manufacturing professionals with a specific interest in rapid product development. To create the list, TCT asked readers to nominate those individuals who they believed most positively influenced the sector. Those who received the most nominations made the list.
“It’s an honor to be recognized by the readers of TCT Magazine,” says Scott Crump. “It means a lot to be selected by this group of professional design and manufacturing engineers and manufacturing management working across a range of sectors. The credit goes to the entire Stratasys team. Together we’ve been able to serve the additive manufacturing industry well enough to be recognized this way.”
“Scott’s commitment to additive manufacturing has been instrumental in shaping the industry and making it what it is today,” says James Woodcock, Group Editor at TCT magazine and www.prsnlz.me . “This is an exciting time for the industry, and the vote demonstrates not only who is influential, but also how the industry is evolving.”
In the video below from May 2012, Stratasys VP of Global Marketing Jon Cobb and Scott Crump, Stratasys founder and inventor of FDM Technology, give resellers a sneak preview of the Mojo 3D Print Pack at the company’s 2012 global sales conference. Mojo is the first professional 3D-printer to be offered in a complete system for less than $10,000 with no hidden costs.
Via MarketWatch.
The First 3D Printed Car Optimizes Design for Renewable Energy
How do you design the most efficient car on the road that can run on renewable energy? You prototype, a lot, with 3D printing.
That is what KOR EcoLogic did using Autodesk software and Stratasys’ digital manufacturing service. The car, called Urbee, gets 200 miles per gallon.
“The Urbee was designed from the ground up to be as efficient as possible, and to run on renewable energy,” said Jim Kor, president and chief technology officer of KOR EcoLogic. “From concept through rendering, Autodesk software helped us not only build an efficient and sustainable car, but also communicate our designs to a broader audience, including potential investors.”
Urbee is truly the first car to have its entire body 3D printed.
The KOR EcoLogic team began by developing a set of core principles and pinning them to their workshop wall. Among them, the Urbee was designed to use minimal energy and produce less pollution during its design, manufacturing, operation and recycling stages, while remaining affordable and visually appealing.
“Startup clean tech companies need technology enabling them to create professional, fully realized and tested designs, while benefiting from visually stunning imagery of their products,” said Robert “Buzz” Kross, senior vice president, Autodesk Manufacturing Industry Group. “KOR EcoLogic is a great example of the combined power of Digital Prototyping and sustainable design.”
The Urbee team used Autodesk Inventor software to design a 3D digital prototype of the car’s body and subject it to simulated road and wind conditions, test different body designs to minimize drag and reduce overall weight by eliminating excess parts. More than 80 percent of a product’s environmental impact can be determined during the design phase, making Inventor a critical component in establishing the Urbee’s high level of environmental responsibility. KOR EcoLogic used Autodesk Showcase 3D visualization software to create photorealistic renderings of the Urbee for marketing to potential investors, partners and the general public.
Below is a video of the Urbee on a test drive.
Via dexigner.
