Essentium, Inc. , a leading innovator of industrial additive manufacturing (AM) solutions announced it has signed a Letter of Intent to acquire Collider, a pioneer of Programmable Tooling, which combines the speed of Digital Light Processing (DLP) 3D printing and the material strength of injection molding (IM). The addition of Collider to the Essentium portfolio will drive new growth paths while enabling manufacturers to speed time to production of parts and innovation.
Said Jeff Lumetta, Chief Technology Officer, Essentium: “Collider has a lot to bring to the table. Their innovative method of bringing together proven technologies to create high-value use cases has already proven their industry value. We see significant opportunities in tooling for low volumes of parts and the ability to manufacture geometrically complex, custom parts on-demand and quickly.”
As manufacturers look to respond quickly to market changes, many are challenged with late-stage product development. Creating injection moldings or specific tooling for low-quantity parts production is a costly and time-consuming process. Instead of a permanent, hard tooling mold, Collider’s DLP 3D printing machine, named Orchid, creates a thin, dissolvable photopolymer shell which is injected with traditional plastic casting materials and cured through a chemical process. Once the hollow shell dissolves in hot water, a production-quality part is left.
Collider 3D printing technology unlocks a vast array of high performance thermosetting polymers and composites including polyurethanes, silicones, epoxies, polyesters, foamed resins, carbon fiber composites, as well as sintered metals and ceramics, with one machine. It has structural integrity on par with IM processes and creates high detail aesthetic surfaces, enabling manufacturers to speed up the design process and obtain parts in a few hours rather than weeks.
Essentium aims to take the technology to new horizons by leveraging its expertise in material science and 3D printing machines. This unlocks enormous speed, economic, and innovation advantages for manufacturers across consumer, medical, transportation, wearables, aerospace, and industrial industries.
Collider’s former CEO, Graham Bredemeyer, will join the Essentium team as the Director of the Photopolymer Group.
Said Bredemeyer: “Bringing Collider into the Essentium fold has hugely exciting potential for the industry as manufacturers want a more agile future enabled by AM. As part of Essentium we can open up 3D printing to off-the-shelf materials, fundamentally changing hardware development. Collider’s technology fuels the next wave of AM innovation by enabling mass customization and rapid product innovation.”
Essentium
www.essentium.com
