Essentium®, Inc., a leading innovator of industrial additive manufacturing (AM) solutions announced it is set to acquire Collider Tech, a pioneer of Programmable Tooling, which combines the speed of Digital Light Processing 3D printing and the material strength of injection moulding (IM). The addition of Collider’s DLP 3D printing technology to the Essentium portfolio will drive new growth paths while enabling manufacturers to speed time to production of parts and innovation.
With a single machine, the collider DLP 3D printing technology unlocks a wide range of high-performance thermosetting polymers and composites such as polyurethanes, silicones, epoxies, polyesters, foamed resins, carbon fiber composites, as well as sintered metals and ceramics. It has the structural integrity of IM processes and produces high detail aesthetic surfaces, allowing manufacturers to speed up the design process and obtain parts in a matter of hours rather than weeks.
“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. In addition, this represents Essentium’s first entrance into photopolymer AM technologies and will expand product offerings in several areas—especially when combined with our unique material science capabilities.”
– Jeffrey Lumetta, Chief Technology Officer, Essentium
Many manufacturers face late-stage product development challenges as they strive to respond quickly to market changes. Creating injection mouldings or specific tooling for the production of low-quantity parts is an expensive and time-consuming process. Instead of a permanent, hard tooling mould, Collider’s DLP 3D printing technology creates a thin photopolymer shell that is then injected with a variety of materials and chemically cured. Following some post-processing, a production-quality part or mould is obtained.
By leveraging its expertise in material science and 3D printing machines, Essentium hopes to push the technology to new heights. This provides enormous speed, economic, and innovation benefits to manufacturers in the consumer, medical, transportation, wearables, aerospace, and industrial sectors.
“Bringing Collider DLP 3D printing technology 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.”
– Graham Bredemeyer, Collider’s former CEO
Graham Bredemeyer, former CEO of Collider, will join the Essentium team as the Director of the Photopolymer Group.
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