Jul 17, 2018 | By Thomas
Prodways Group announced today that it has acquired the US 3D printer company Solidscape, a subsidiary of Stratasys since May 2011.
The New Hampshire, US-based Solidscape was founded in 1994 and is a manufacturer of high-precision 3D wax printers and materials that enable users to print wax models of high quality and precision to be used in casting processes. The machines are targeted at jewelry manufacturers, service bureaus, and investment casting companies. In 2011, Stratasys purchased Solidscape for $38 million.
In today's announcement Prodways does not unveil the financial terms of the acquisition, but states it expects Solidscape to generate revenue "greater than $10 million in 2019, of which nearly 50 per cent from sales of materials and supplies".
Founded in 2013, Prodways Group, a subsidiary of Groupe Gorgé, offers its customers 3D printing systems (machines, materials and software) as well as 3D-printed parts. The company offers multi-material solutions, in particular based on its MOVINGLight, a photopolymerization process for producing prototypes or functional parts with very high resolution and at very high speeds, by polymerizing the photosensitive resins with moving DLP (Digital Light Processing) UV rays.
Prodways is the first 3D Printer manufacturer to introduce a moving DLP head, allowing the projection of the image to cure as the head moves. Moving a DLP over a large build area allows the individual images to be small, hence much more focused and more precise than if they covered the whole platform and did not move. This results in a very high active resolution of 40 microns per pixel on every part of the build platform. The largest Prodways 3D printers thus reach a record number of more than a half-billion pixels per layer, delivering incredible precision and high resolution without increasing costs or production time.
Prodways Group has now 400 employees, and develops several lines of 3D printers based on stereolithography, laser sintering and Rapid Additive Forging technologies.
Prodways says that its own MovingLight technology and Solidscape’s proprietary technologies "complement one another perfectly" and will give the new Group a comprehensive offering in the investment casting market, from mass manufacturing to high-precision manufacturing.
“The acquisition of Solidscape dovetails with Prodways Group’s overall strategy and is a unique opportunity to bolster its machine sales business and expand its portfolio of technologies, while gaining excellent geographic coverage and teams renowned for their expertise in additive manufacturing,” said Prodways Group chairman and CEO Raphaël Gorgé.
President of Stratasys Americas Rich Garrity, added: “As Stratasys moves strategically to more focus on specific vertical markets, we believe that this acquisition is beneficial for all parties and we wish Prodways the best of luck in accelerating the growth of Solidscape and maintaining its position as a market leader in its core markets.”
Posted in 3D Printer Company
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