investments Archives - Perfect 3D Printing Filament

Azul 3D Raises $12.5 Million for Large, Fast HARP 3D Printing Technology

Azul 3D, known for its ongoing development of high area rapid printing (HARP) technology, is certainly not lacking in financial resources—or faith from investors. Having just raised another $12.5 million in seed financing, the Skokie, IL startup will expand its printing technology further, along with developing a line of commercial 3D printers. This latest round of funding follows recent financing of over $8 million in May, along with a previous $5.4 million for development and release of their HARP printers.

Investors for this round of funding included:

Louis A. Simpson, former CIO for Geico, former manager of Berkshire Hathaway and founder of SQ Advisors
Wally Loewen Baum, former chairperson of 3D Systems
Joe Allison, former CEO of Stratasys Direct Manufacturing
Hugh Evans, former senior vice president of corporate development for 3D Systems

“Investors recognize the paradigm shifting and disruptive nature of Azul’s proprietary HARP 3D printing technology,” said Chad Mirkin, Azul 3D cofounder and chair. “HARP’s throughput allows Azul to substantially lower the upfront and sustained costs in the manufacturing of goods, spanning many sectors. The company intends to secure major partnerships validating this point in the very near future.”

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues on in the US and worldwide, Azul 3D has been involved in 3D printing medical face shields. Currently, the company can produce 1,000 parts every 12 hours per HARP printer. The PPE is being used by hospitals, prisons and first responders. The Azul 3D team is expecting to make twice as many shields once their new printers are launched within the next 18 months.

Azul 3D emerged from a research group at Northwestern University upon developing the proprietary HARP technology, a futuristic technique offering powerful on-demand manufacturing capable of printing a part or prototype the size of a human—in just two hours. HARP printers are 13 feet tall, with a 2.5 square footprint bed, and are capable of producing half a yard of material.

3D printing is controlled thermally with a mobile liquid interface allowing for continuous and rapid print process.

A) A hard, machinable polyurethane acrylate part (print rate, 120 μm/s; optical resolution, 100 μm) with a hole drilled against the print direction. Traditional noncontinuous layer-by-layer printing techniques typically delaminate and fracture when drilled in this orientation. (B) A post-treated silicon carbide ceramic printed lattice (print rate of green polymer precursor, 120 μm/s; optical resolution, 100 μm) stands up to a propane torch (~2000°C). (C and D) A printed butadiene rubber structure (print rate, 30 μm/s; optical resolution, 100 μm) in a relaxed state (C) and under tension (D). (E) Polybutadiene rubber (print rate, 30 μm/s; optical resolution, 100 μm) returns to expanded lattice after compression. (F) A ~1.2-m hard polyurethane acrylate lattice printed in less than 3 hours (vertical print rate, 120 μm/s; optical resolution, 250 μm). Scale bars, 1 cm. (Image: ‘Rapid, large-volume, thermally controlled 3D printing using a mobile liquid interface’)

“One of the reasons we’re doing so well is because our technology offers a solution to unexpected surges in demand and supply-chain bottlenecks that occur during global crises, such as in the current pandemic,” said David Walker, Azul 3D cofounder and chief technology officer. “With the ability to manufacture nearly anything quickly and on demand, we can meet these unexpected needs as they arise to quickly fill gaps in the supply chain.

“That’s the big difference between HARP and traditional manufacturing as well as many other forms of 3D printing, which either don’t have the throughput or material properties to meet the required specifications. We don’t have to change a whole assembly line or machine new molds. The concerns that accompany a stressed supply chain simply vanish.”

The first series of beta HARP 3D printers will be shipping early next year, meant to be used in a variety of different applications and supply chains.

Find out more about the unique HARP process here, as well as at Azul 3D.

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3D Printing Webinar and Virtual Event Roundup, June 28, 2020

This week is packed full with 3D printing webinars and virtual events, with four taking place Tuesday, and two each on Wednesday and Thursday. We’ll tell you all about them below!

Digital Manufacturing Investor Day

First up, software provider Dyndrite will be hosting its first ever Digital Manufacturing Investor Day on Tuesday, June 30th, featuring both pre-recorded and live content. Investors and venture capital companies have been invited to hear lightning presentations by hardware and software startups from all around the world, and several industry investment firms will also give panel presentations. The advisors for the inaugural Digital Manufacturing Investor Day are Gradient Ventures, HP Tech Ventures, and The House Fund.

“This virtual event is an initiative to help link startups in the digital manufacturing space to investors in the industry. As supply chains have been recently disrupted and workforces have to remain distanced, so new digital manufacturing technology becomes even more critical as manufacturers figure out how to tackle these challenges.”

Additive Manufacturing for Aircraft Interiors

Also on June 30th, a webinar about 3D printed aerospace applications will take place from 9-10 am EDT. “Additive Manufacturing for Aircraft Interiors – doing the trick for the In-Service Market” will discuss the use of polymer 3D printed parts for future aircraft cabins, how the technology can save money and time, possible new business opportunities for Maintenance Repair and Overhaul Providers (MROs), and what issues still remain, such as certification, investments, and availability of the right raw materials. Stephan Keil, Director Industrialisation for AM Global, will moderate the discussion between panelists Markus Glasser, Senior Vice President EMEA, EOS; Vinu Vijayan, Global Business Development Manager – Aerospace, EOS; Frederic Becel, Design Manager, CVE, Innovation Leader Aircraft Modification Division, Air France; and Karl Bock, Principal Design Engineer, Aircraft Modification Team, P21J Design Organisation, Lufthansa Technik.

“A wide spreading of AM manufacturing also has the potential to significantly change the supply chain setup of the Aero industry, impacting small and large suppliers, as distributed manufacturing moves closer to becoming a reality. Furthermore, new business models for spare parts and part design data may emerge, along with new services, which brings a need to tackle challenges around IP and regulation.”

nScrypt’s Cutting Edge of Digital Manufacturing Webinar

nScrypt is also holding a webinar on the 30th, titled “Pushing the Envelope of Digital Manufacturing.” The first part of the Cutting Edge Digital Manufacturing webinar series will take place at 1 pm ET on the 30th, and the second part will occur at the same time on July 7th. Panelists Mark Mirotznik, PhD, University of Delaware; Jing Wang, PhD, University of South Florida and Oregon State University; Devin MacKenzie, PhD, University of Washington, and Raymond C. Rumpf, PhD, University of Texas at El Paso, will discuss the future of direct digital manufacturing, covering topics like metamaterial use, permeating electronics in structures for control, sensing, and smart features, and going from a CAD file to a final, multimaterial electronic product in one build.

“JOIN YET ANOTHER DISTINGUISHED PANEL for part ONE of an in-depth discussion on the future of direct digital manufacturing by some of the premiere additive manufacturing universities in the country. The projects these universities are working on are solving problems with traditional antennas and printed circuit boards (PCBs).

ACCIONA’s Concrete 3D Printing Webinar

The last June 30th webinar will be held by ACCIONA, called “Let’s Talk Concrete 3D Printing.” It will take a multidisciplinary approach when discussing the technology’s use in the value chain, “where Innovation, Academia, Design, Manufacturing and Industry join together for a broad analysis of the technology.

Speakers will be Alaa K. Ashmawy, PhD, P.E. Dean and Professor for the School of Engineering at the American University in Dubai; Sualp Ozel, Senior Product Manager at Autodesk; Fahmi Al Shawwa, the CEO of Immensa Additive Manufacturing; Carlos Egea, Manager 3D Printing, Skill Center at ACCIONA; and Luis Clemente, COO 3D Printing at ACCIONA. The webinar will take place at 8:30 am EST, and attendees can join here.

3D Systems Webinar Featuring VAULT

On Wednesday, July 1st, at 10:30 am EST, 3D Systems will be holding a live webinar, “Advanced Your Engineering and Equip Sales to Win Business with SLA,” featuring VAULT, which manufactures enclosures for tablets in the point-of-sale industry. The company integrated 3D Systems’ SLA technology into its process, and the 45-minute webinar will explain how SLA can be used at every stage of business. VAULT will share customer reactions to quality and service, in addition to the training and on-boarding process, and explain how companies can win new business by providing access to high-quality 3D printed parts.

“Gaining a new client is all about gaining their confidence. No matter how refined your sales pitch, nothing wins trust or business faster than immediately following through on your promises.

“Join our live web event featuring VAULT’s VP of Engineering, Quentin Forbes, to find out how in-house 3D printing with 3D Systems’ stereolithography is helping the company build its reputation and client base.”

Webinar for New Metal 3D Printing Material

Also on July 1st, metallurgist expert Aubert & Duval will join Alloyed, formerly known as OxMet Technologies, in hosting a free webinar about ABD-900AM, a new nickel superalloy for metal additive manufacturing. When tested with laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) technology, the high-strength material offered improved manufacturability, as well as high creep and oxidation resistance, compared to common AM alloys. It also features ~99.9% density and is highly crack resistant. Adeline Riou, Global Sales Manager at Aubert & Duval, and Will Dick-Cleland, Additive Manufacturing Engineer at Alloyed, will give an overview of the material’s properties, along with several interesting case studies, during the 30-minute webinar.

“Designed for use at high temperatures up to 900°C / 1650°F, ABD®-900AM has been tailored for AM by Alloyed not just for high mechanical properties, but also for excellent printability. Compared with Ni718, ABD®‑900AM provides a minimum of 30% improvement in yield stress at temperatures >800°C and a creep temperature capability improvement by up to 150 o C – similar to alloy 939 and alloy 738.”

The webinar will begin at 11 am EST, and you can register here.

Stratasys Aerospace Webinar Series Continued

Stratasys will continue its new aerospace webinar series this Thursday, July 2nd, with “Value Proposition of AM to Airlines.” During this hour-long webinar, Chuan Ching Tan, General Manager, Additive Flight Solutions (AFS), will speak about several related topics, including when and where additive manufacturing can make its business case to airlines, use cases – especially regarding aircraft interiors – by AFS to airlines, and other issues to get past in order to speed adoption of the technology.

You’ll have to wake up early if you’re in my time zone – the webinar will take place at 4 am EDT. Register here.

VO Webinar: Coming of Age for Additive Manufacturing

Recently, Viaccess-Orca (VO), a global provider of advanced data solutions and digital content protection, joined the collaborative 3MF Consortium as a Founding Member. Now, it’s presenting a free 45-minute webinar with HP and Autodesk, also active members of the 3MF Consortium, about “Additive Manufacturing’s coming of age: the essential role of data security and standards.” The webinar, also held on July 2nd, will focus on the importance of data security and standards as the closed AM ecosystem moves to a more open future. Dr. Phil Reeves, Managing Director of Reeves Insight Ltd, will facilitate the discussion between speakers Scott White, Distinguished Technologist, 3D Software and Data, HP, Inc.; Martin Weismann, Principal Software Engineer for Autodesk; and Alain Nochimowski, Executive Vice President of Innovation at VO.

Learning objectives of the webinar will include why data standards are so important for the growth and deployment of the technology in the Industry 4.0 supply chain, how 3D CAD and AM hardware vendors can embrace both interoperability and data standards to benefit customers, what the 3D printing industry can learn about analytics, traceability, and data security from more mature industries, and the consortium’s newly released Secure Content specification. At the end, there will be a Question and Answer session, facilitated by Laura Griffiths, Deputy Group Editor at TCT. The webinar will take place at 10 am EST; register here.

Will you attend any of these events and webinars, or have news to share about future ones? Let us know! Discuss this and other 3D printing topics at 3DPrintBoard.com or share your thoughts in the comments below.

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Additive Industries CEO Daan Kersten Steps Down as Firm Receives $14M Investment

One of a newer generation of metal laser powder bed fusion (PBF) manufacturers, Additive Industries is continuing to grow rapidly. The latest news is a $14 million investment from its existing shareholder, Highlands Beheer. With the funds, the company aims to expand its product portfolio, speed up its technological development strategy and shore up its working capital. This last use for the investment is meant to ensure financial resilience for the company amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Outgoing Additive Industries CEO Daan Kersten (L) with Jonas Wintermans (R). Image courtesy of Additive Industries.

Highlands has acquired the shares of the startup’s CEO and co-founder, Daan Kersten, who will leave the company by June 30, 2020. In the interim, Chief Technology Officer Mark Vaes, who has been with Additive Industries since 2013, will fill the role. Kersten said of the decision:

“This substantial investment confirms the long-term commitment of Highlands to the growth ambitions of the company and it allows Additive Industries to make yet another significant step on its mission to revolutionize the productivity for the additive manufacturing of high-quality metal parts. After eight intense years of fast growth I feel the time is right to make way and hand over the reins to new leadership.”

The firm has quickly rolled out a modular metal PBF system with a high degree of automation and throughput. By reducing the need for operator intervention, the MetalFAB1 system is able to produce parts more rapidly, with pre- and post-processing operations happening in parallel to the build job. The next step in its roadmap was the development with SMS Group of automated factories called the Scale4Series, in which parts can be printed and post-processed automatically. In the process, Additive Industries has earned a number of high profile partners and clients, including Airbus/APWORKS, Volkswagen and the Sauber F1 team.

Cutaway of the MetalFab1 from Additive Industries. Image courtesy of Additive Industries.

As Highlands is increasing its share of the 3D printing firm, it’s worthwhile to learn a bit more about the company. In fact, Highlands now says that it owns Additive Industries, in addition to a cigar machinery manufacturer, ATD Machinery, and NTS Group, which produces optomechatronic systems and mechanical modules for original equipment manufacturers. Interestingly, the CEO of NTS is also stepping down this August.

A rendering of the Scale4Series in development by Additive Industries and SMS Group. Image courtesy of Additive Industries.

Highlands is owned by the Wintermans, a Dutch family that founded and ran Royal Agio Cigars, one of the largest cigar manufacturing businesses in Europe, before selling it to Scandinavian Tobacco Group last year. The family divvied up 10 million Euros among its employees as a part of the deal. Highlands maintains its ATD business, meaning that it will continue to focus on the tech side of cigar making, but its investment in Additive Industries and its ownership of NTS Group signifies a continued shift in the family’s business operations overall, which previously had been making cigars since 1904. The sale of Royal Agio seems to suggest that the transition of Highlands from a cigar company to a tech company is near complete.

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CIA’s In-Q-Tel Invests in Markforged

Boston-based startup Markforged is growing rapidly, pulling in a whopping $82 million investment in March 2019. Now, the 3D printer manufacturer is getting some additional funds, though this time the amount won’t be disclosed because it comes from the highly secretive In-Q-Tel, Inc., the venture capital arm of the CIA.

Markforged announced that is has signed a strategic investment agreement with In-Q-Tel. The investment company, launched by the CIA in 1999, is involved with (sometimes controversial) projects across the government intelligence and security community. As we discussed in our series on In-Q-Tel, the company does not usually make public how much it invests in startups nor the specific role that it plays with those firms in which it invests.

However, our research suggested that average funds range between $500,000 to $3 million in exchange for equity in the company and an advisory role on the startup’s board. This allows In-Q-Tel to potentially guide product development and learn of any news before the public does.

Quincy Reynolds with the Metal X 3D printer at Camp Kinser in Okinawa, Japan. Image courtesy of Matthew M. Burke/Stars and Stripes.

While Markforged has seen its technology deployed across a variety of industrial sectors, its low-cost metal 3D printing and fiber reinforcement systems have had strong success in the military and weapons sectors. According to the company, the U.S. military has hundreds of Markforged machines in operation, including the “first forward-deployed metal system to support combat operations and now has expanded its support operations to three continents.”

Given the sheer size of the U.S. military, it has funds to explore a wide range of 3D printing applications. Specifically, the III Marine Expeditionary Force is using the Metal X 3D printer as part of its repair services for U.S. occupation in the Asia-Pacific region. Having already worked with the U.S. military, then, it seems natural that Markforged would accept an investment from In-Q-Tel.

In-Q-Tel’s interest in Markforged also seems natural, as the investment vehicle has already provided funds for other startups in the space, including Voxel8, Fuel3D and Arevo. In particular, Arevo develops continuous carbon fiber 3D printing technology, though of a different variety than Markforged’s. Whereas Markforged has so far only released desktop-sized systems capable of continuous fiber reinforcement 3D printing, Arevo is focused on machines capable of printing entire bicycle frames. Moreover, Arevo uses a laser-mounted robotic arm to deposit pre-impregnated fiber reinforcement, while the Markforged process is more akin to traditional desktop FDM/FFF 3D printing.

Guhring UK’s 3D-printed metal tools have been sent to customers for testing new concepts. Image courtesy of Markforged.

The news comes on the heels of other exciting stories from Markforged, that include the recent release of pure copper for Metal X and the use of Metal X for 3D printing custom cutting tools for Guhring UK. At the beginning of February, Markforged became the first and, so far, only AM company to receive the ISO/IEC 27001 security certification, international standards signifying the ability of the company to ensure privacy, confidentiality, integrity, and availability across its product line. This includes its Eiger cloud printing platform, hardware, fleet management software, and information governance policies. Surely the startup was pursuing the certification ahead of its investment by In-Q-Tel, but it likely doesn’t hurt any interest the U.S. intelligence community might have had in Markforged.

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Virtual Events Provide Unique Opportunities for Global Engagement

Techstars to host live AMA event to answer questions about their 2019 investment focus on additive manufacturing and sustainable tech.

On February 27, 2019, Techstars and Stanley Black & Decker will host a live AMA (Ask me Anything) to provide a platform for startups and industry experts to ask questions about their upcoming accelerator.

Applications are currently open for the 2019 STANLEY+Techstars Accelerator. Scheduled to start in July 2019, the accepted companies receive up to $120,000.00 in funding, access to over $1M in additional resources, access to world-class mentors including executives, founders, investors and technical experts, and life-long membership in the Techstars network.

While Techstars posts their FAQs right on their website, they understand that founders will often want to ask questions directly to program leadership. “The AMA provides an opportunity for people from around the world to ask questions directly to me, and to leadership from Stanley Black and Decker including Marty Guay, Vice President of Business Development and Peter Bates, Vice President of Packaging” – said Claudia Reuter, Managing Director of the STANLEY+Techstars Accelerator.

The stats on Techstars companies are pretty well-known. With over 1600 investments, and exits including Amazon’s recent$1B acquisition of Pillpack and the IPO of SendGrid and its subsequent $3B acquisition by Twilio, accepted companies will find themselves in good company. Looking more closely at the ten companies who recently completed the 2018 STANLEY + Techstars Program provides another view of the potential for accepted companies. Of the 10 companies, most are in the process of finalizing additional capital and expanding their businesses, and 4 of them have already received follow on investment directly from the STANLEY Ventures team.

Industry giants like Stanley Black & Decker have recognized that startups with solutions in additive manufacturing or sustainable tech have the potential to transform the industry and the world. The AMA is a chance for those looking to make an impact to learn more.

Credit: Techstars. / Techstars Logo for the STANLEY+ Techstars Accelerator