Oct 26, 2017 | By David
We reported last year on the work of 3D printer manufacturer UNIZ, which had just launched a Kickstarter campaign for its 3D printer: the SLASH. Hot on the heels of this successful campaign, the company secured funding from some private investors to expand its operations. Now, UNIZ has announced the results of another round of investment that has just come to a close. The company raised around 45 million RMB ($6.78M) in total, primarily from Beijing DeLian Express Investment Management Co., Ltd, and Chen CongWu, the founder of Chinese navigation service AutoNavi.
The SLASH SLA 3D printer is the flagship product of UNIZ, which was established in California back in March 2014. Its patented liquid-cooled LCD light-curing technology contributed to the crowdfunding campaign raising around 4 million RMB. The desktop machine has regularly been evaluated as one of the fastest products of its kind with a 1000 ml per hour printing rate.
A range of different industries have made use of UNIZ’s products for various applications. Results of the high-speed UNIZ 3D printing process include car shells for the automotive sector, oral orthodontic toothbrushes in the dental industry, preoperative simulation and orthopedic models for surgical use, lost wax casting and prototyping in the jewelry industry, and precision instruments for aerospace.
The SLASH and the upcoming SLASH OL machines are aimed at the consumer 3D printing market and are accompanied by an online model cloud platform. As for the professional market, there are a number of different UNIZ solutions available, often with modified technology suited to a specific application. The SLASH D&J is designed for the world of jewellery design, for example, while the SLASH MED is optimized for medical products. The SLASH Pro and SLASH + models also provide improved desktop performance for professional needs.
The company also says its technology can be used for Industrial-scale manufacturing. The ZSLTV 3D printer range is intended for industrial production purpose, with the ZSLTV Mini to be released sometime next month. Future products in the ZSLTV line could have build sizes in excess of 2.6 x 1.4 x 6 m.
According to UNIZ chairman Li Houmin, "Fast, accurate and low-cost manufacturing of any object has been the dream of all designers since ancient times, and we are determined to provide the most advanced and fastest solution for this dream.’’ Houmin has 3 master’s degrees and a doctorate from the U.S, and the rest of his team is similarly well-qualified. This has helped the firm advance so quickly from a relatively small start-up to the position it now occupies in the global 3D printing market. The company has offices in Rotterdam, Beijing, Guangxi, and Shenzhen, and it has established strong working relationships with America’s largest dental laboratory Glidewell Labs and military giant Northrup Grumman, amongst others.
Regarding his company’s continued financial backing of UNIZ, DeLian Capital senior investment director Xiao Ran said: "We are very optimistic about the unique strengths and advantages of UNIZ in the core technology, with (its) intelligent manufacturing, industrial 4.0… Relying on UNIZ’s rich product line, the future will promote the development of more industries.
Posted in 3D Printer Company
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Just so people are aware, UniZ collected over half a million dollars via Kickstarter for the Slash 3D printer, but now seems to be trying to pull a fast one by giving the backers a flawed version of the product that doesn't live up to the claims that were advertised. In a classic "bait and switch" move, UniZ is trying to bilk the backers out of even more, by selling an expensive upgrade kit to bring the machine's capabilities and reliability more into line with what was promised. Quite possibly a breach of the Kickstarter terms, UniZ is apparently offering for sale the upgraded "Slash+" before even fulfilling its obligation to backers. For more information, view the thousands of comments and complaints on the product's Kickstarter page (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/644653534/slash-the-next-level-of-affordable-professional-3d/comments), then ask yourself why 3ders.org would be bragging-up UniZ in this article, without mentioning any of the controversy....
John wrote at 10/31/2017 5:15:18 PM:
I'm curious to see whether the U.S. government investigation into UniZ will reveal it to be the con that many of its Kickstarter backers are alleging.
John wrote at 10/31/2017 4:47:17 PM:
I'm curious to see whether the U.S. government investigation into UniZ will reveal it to be the con that many of its Kickstarter backers are alleging.
J.Smith wrote at 10/29/2017 9:50:37 PM:
How "successful" is a Kickstarter campaign that's consistently missed it's production goals, told the backers they can pay double to get upgrades they helped develop OR accept a crippled and non-functional product, and still hasn't managed to deliver to a majority of their backers? If the only metric for success is "they sure did collect a lot of money and alienate a lot of people doing it," then I guess that's dead on.
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