3D Printing News Briefs: April 3, 2018

We’re bringing you the latest business news in today’s 3D Printing News Briefs, starting with an announcement from Stratasys about its new Vulcan Labs spinoff company. Optomec has appointed a Vice President of Business Development, and Nano Dimension is expanding its coverage of the Asia Pacific market. Adaptive Corporation has acquired the Dassault Systèmes sales and support business division of NobleTek, and Oxford Performance Materials and BCN3D are both introducing new products – OPM is launching a new synthesis process for its OXPEKK materials, while BCN3D has an updated Cura software version for its Sigma and Sigmax 3D printers.

Stratasys Announces Vulcan Labs Spinoff

Today certainly is the day for company spinoff announcements. Seemingly minutes after Stratasys spinoff Evolve Additive Solutions emerged from stealth today with its fast, new Selective Thermoplastic Electrophotographic Process (STEP), the 3D printing leader announced another spinoff in Vulcan Labs, Inc. The Texas-based company originates from Stratasys’ 2014 acquisition of Harvest Technologies and was formed specifically to advance innovation of Powder-Bed Fusion (PBF) 3D printing. Its primary aim is increasing the efficiency, repeatability, and quality of PBF systems, with an initial focus on metals. The spinoff’s solutions are being developed to include automated powder handling and calibration capabilities, closed loop melt pool quality control, and unique multi-laser scan strategies, among others.

“Vulcan’s best-in-class team has both the experience and technical know-how necessary to bring PBF into real-world production – a vision perfectly aligned and complementary to our other activities in this space, including Stratasys Direct Manufacturing and our investment in LPW. To provide Vulcan with the best path to achieve its vision, we decided to form a new and independent entity, with Stratasys as an equity stakeholder,” explained Stratasys CEO Ilan Levin. “We are delighted to continue supporting this team and look forward to collaborating with them and their partners to achieve this vision.”

Vulcan Labs will be engaging with customers and partners over the next several months to evaluate and continue developing its quality solutions.

Optomec Creates and Fills New VP Business Development Position

Jamie Hanson, Optomec VP Business Development

Global production-grade 3D printer supplier Optomec has announced that Jamie Hanson, the former COO at Methods 3D, has been appointed to its newly created VP Business Development position. Hanson, a former Airborne Ranger, has a long history of working as a commercial executive in the semiconductor equipment and machine tool markets. He spent 17 years as the Director of Eastern Regional Account Operations at Applied Materials before joining the team at Methods 3D, one of the largest US distributors of machine tools. Hanson initiated the company’s 3D printing activities, and spent a decade as both the Methods 3D COO and the Director of Corporate Development at Methods Machine Tools.

Hanson stated, “I am thrilled to be joining Optomec, particularly at this inflection point, where additive manufacturing is being adopted into production processes. Optomec technology is uniquely positioned to take advantage of this opportunity and I am excited in my role to help our customers implement this technology to make a difference in their business.”

Nano Dimension Expanding Coverage in Asia Pacific Market

Additive electronics leader Nano Dimension, based in Israel, is expanding its coverage in the Asia Pacific (APAC) market with new resellers, additional 3D printer sales, and the appointment of a regional director in Hong Kong. Tier one resellers HDC, in South Korea, and General Integration Technology (GIT), in Taiwan, will join the company’s reseller network to expand its regional coverage. The two will also purchase the company’s DragonFly 2020 Pro 3D Printer. In addition, Nano Dimension has recruited Hong Kong-based entrepreneur Gilad Reshef as a regional sales leader. In order anchor the company’s growth plan in the APAC region, Reshef will open a regional Customer Experience Center, along with leading all customer acquisition and support activities.

“Fast-growing markets like Hong Kong, China and Singapore benefit from significant state funding in ground breaking technologies like the DragonFly 2020 Pro 3D Printer. We believe that our decisive investments in local Asia Pacific coverage could result in significant revenue growth for the company,” said Reshef, the Regional Director of Nano Dimension in APAC.

Adaptive Corporation Acquires Dassault Systèmes Sales and Support Division of NobleTek

Today, Adaptive Corporation, a platinum reseller in the Dassault Systèmes Value Solutions channel, announced the acquisition of the Dassault software sales and support business division of Ohio-based NobleTek, which supports aerospace companies with engineering services focused on NC Programming, composite manufacturing and 3D design. Thanks to the acquisition, NobleTek customers with have access to, and support for, Dassault’s simulation and PLM software portfolio, in addition to a wider variety of the overall Dassault portfolio.

NobleTek President and COO Kurt Jauert said, “We’ve known about Adaptive for a long time, are impressed with their people, and have always heard good things about them. We wanted to choose an organization who we felt was the strongest partner in the Dassault channel because not only are our clients becoming their customers, we will also be their customer for our own Dassault product needs.”

Oxford Performance Materials Launching OXPEKK-LTS 

Advanced materials science and high-performance additive manufacturing (HPAM) leader Oxford Performance Materials (OPM) announced that is launching a new synthesis process for its proprietary OXPEKK thermoplastic material formulation. The OXPEKK-LTS (Low Temperature Synthesis) product line is just like it sounds – a low temperature synthesis process that provides excellent purity and stability, along with a controlled and tailorable particle morphology perfect for producing thermoplastic prepreg and coatings and 3D printing powders. OPM will selectively introduce OXPEKK-LTS to customers over the next few years, with the initial focus being specialty applications in industrial light-weighting and biomedical.