ParaMatters came to market in January 2018 with its CogniCAD software platform that boasted generative design capabilities.
The company announced CogniCAD’s launch ahead of CES 2018, but would soon steer towards more industrial markets. In October 2019, the software was used to develop a lightweight suspension upright in partnership with Poland’s Foundry Research Institute, and in January 2020 it was announced the software had been used to develop lightweight parts for electric vehicle firm Arcimoto.
These automotive parts were often a feature of trade show booths as XponentialWorks introduced several new brands to the 3D printing space. XponentialWorks is a network that invests and mentors startups, putting them on a path to ‘disrupt the manufacturing sector.’ Nexa3D is, so far, the biggest name to come from under that umbrella, followed by NXT Factory – which Nexa3D would acquire in 2021 – and ParaMatters.
Yet, when ParaMatters was in a position to be acquired, it was Carbon that made the move.
Why did Carbon acquire ParaMatters?
In delivering its Digital Light Synthesis technology to market, alongside its Design Engine software capabilities and polymer materials portfolio, Carbon has been focused on a ‘design-to-production’ concept. Through these endeavours, the company wants to help its customers find applications that ‘really’ take advantage of 3D printing.
The company feels it has had significant success in the consumer product world, with applications developed in partnership with the likes of adidas, Rawlings and Riddell, but there is plenty of room for its play in the industrial markets to grow further.
“We want to expand our offering that make more of our customers find more applications faster,” Hardik Kabaria, Director of Software Engineering at Carbon, told TCT. “What we have done with elastomer and lattices, we want to do with other rigid materials we have. We have done it on occasions, the parts with Ford [for example,] but we haven’t done it to the level that we have in consumer products and lattices in combination with elastomers.”
Why did it make sense for ParaMatters?
In the press release that was distributed when the acquisition was announced, ParaMatters Chairman and CEO Robert Yusin emphasised his pride in the software design tools that the ParaMatters team has created, but also noted that being part of Carbon’s ‘idea-to-production platform’ would enable its customers to ‘design and produce better products.’
Carbon has been equally impressed with ParaMatters’ technology and has also identified a shared vision and mindset.
Lightweight parts developed for Arcimoto with ParaMatters' generative design capabilities.
“They started by creating this topology optimisation tool,” Kabaria said. “I think it’s state of the art of anything that I’ve seen because of how easy it is to use. It takes a CAD assembly or STEP assembly as an input and outcomes a topology optimised parts that [can be] 10% weight, so that means 90% weight shaved off. And the file is ready to be printed, so if you drag and drop to a metal AM system or even a Carbon system, it’s ready to be printed. There is no manual labour – similar thinking that we have in lattices.
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“We truly believe that the software is state of the art and it’s built by a small but mighty team. And our engineering mindset was so similar that we realised we could go much further if we decided to combine forces.”
Was Nexa3D ever a potential home for ParaMatters?
Despite the company acquiring NXT Factory having been exposed to the same source of mentorship, Nexa3D says it never had any interest in acquiring ParaMatters. And although the two companies worked together to develop the NexaX 2.0 software announced in January 2021, there was no ongoing collaborations between the two companies when Carbon acquired the software firm.
How will ParaMatters be integrated into Carbon?
That is still to be decided. Both teams are now working together to figure out a ‘unified offering’ with both lattice and topology optimisation capabilities will make sense. But customers can get access to both already.
“We want our ecosystem, our customers, to have access right away – that means any of the engineers using Design Engine will be able to pick it up, get access to the topology optimisation capabilities, and vice versa,” Kabaria explained.
What we do know, however, is that Carbon is keen to maintain the team that developed ParaMatters’ generative design tools and, per Kabaria, are already being integrated into the Carbon software department.
“We are already working closely, and we could see us working with each other for a long time because changing manufacturing is a hard problem,” he said. “Neither of us, independently and now together, see it as an easy problem.”
Will ParaMatters software remain accessible to users of other technologies apart from Carbon?
Yes. In line with Carbon’s move to make Design Engine available to all last year, as well as ParaMatters long-held position on an open software approach, more than just Carbon users will have access to the technology.
Though Carbon is intently focused on developing hardware, software and materials products for manufacturers, the company is aware that users are more concerned with how a part performs and what it costs to make than how exactly it is made. Hence, Carbon believes it makes sense to open up and remain open, allowing the manufacturers to figure out how best to produce their parts.
ParaMatters
ParaMatters CogniCAD 2.1.
“We have created lattices that, of course, [have] some unwanted biases that have gone into making it optimised for Carbon printers and materials,” said Kabaria, “but if the same lattice structures can enable a metal application, that’s great. Carbon does not have an intention to build a metal printer, but we still have the software technology, and we want to expand the total number of applications that are produced by any AM system.
“It’s very hard for any software, let alone one developed by Carbon, to know what makes sense for which particular application. So, our goal is to create this optionality and let the engineers drive that.”
So, with that optionality, what impact does Carbon expect this acquisition to have?
Carbon believes the acquisition of ParaMatters will increase its play in such industries as automotive, aerospace and defence because it sees topology optimisation as a more mature technology than lattices, which are harnessed more for what it sees as more niche applications. The software company today counts Volkswagen, BASF, ArcelorMittal, Stanley Black & Decker, Ford and BMW among its customers and partners.
Andrew Sink, Senior Applications Engineer at Carbon, described the takeover as a ‘fantastic strategic acquisition’ because their respective offerings have been somewhat of a ‘forked path.’
“Taking what we’ve created with Design Engine and being able to add in the generative design and additional topology optimisation context, we’re able to offer a broader range of solutions to customers who are coming in and want to make best-in-class parts without necessarily having to be a generative design expert,” Sink told TCT at IMTS.
Kabaria, meanwhile, appreciates it will take some time to tell exactly how successful the acquisition is. But, he says, both sides have optimistic goals.
“What I can promise is we will find more parts and put them in production faster,” he finished. “That was a goal for both companies independently and now together.”
