Fortius Metals, Inc., Lafayette, Colorado, USA, a spinoff from Elementum 3D, has raised funding to accelerate its large-format additive manufacturing technology. Fortius closed a $2 million seed financing round with AM Ventures, the Langer Group’s venture capital arm to increase their manufacturing capacity and expand the company.
Fortius Metals is a large-format Additive Manufacturing company that focuses on advanced materials to assist customers in developing solutions that were previously impossible to achieve with robotic AM. The patented technology of Fortius Metals is said to enable welding and AM wire fabrication using high-performance metal alloys to meet the stringent requirements of aerospace customers and robotic welding fabricators.
Fortius welds are said to be twice as strong as incumbent commercial welding and additive manufacturing options, enhancing its ability to meet customer needs.
Accelerating large-format Additive Manufacturing
AM Venture, a venture capital firm for the additive manufacturing sector, focuses solely on Startups centred on industrial-grade AM offerings such as hardware, software, materials, and applications. AM Ventures’ portfolio consists of seventeen companies.
“We are looking forward to supplying customers who are already requesting our proprietary 6061 aluminium welding wire that solves traditional ‘hot cracking’ problems. We are proud to be a Colorado company along with many of our space and aircraft customers.”
– Jeff Lints, CEO, Fortius Metals
AM Ventures was inspired to navigate complex Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) clearance rules for their investment in order to open the door to a long-term partnership with Fortius Metals because of Fortius Metals’ position as a potential supplier to technologically cutting-edge aerospace and defence customers.
“We strongly believe that large-scale Additive Manufacturing has massive potential, but, until we spoke to Fortius we had not seen an investment opportunity that could accelerate adoption. Jeffrey and his talented team are developing not only a way of making high strength metals readily available for large scale printing and traditional welding but also increasing their mechanical properties, an investment was just logical.”
– Philip Schultheiss, Senior Associate at AM Ventures
Fortius was founded by parent company Elementum 3D to develop nanostructured metal alloy wires for use in robotic additive manufacturing (AM), thereby opening up new markets and products. The company’s vision is to re-shore the metal manufacturing supply chain while supporting highly skilled jobs in American factories through the use of advanced materials technology.
