Picsima One prototype machine.
Fripp Design Limited has announced it is looking to sell its 3D printing silicone intellectual property with the owner wanting to pursue other ambitions.
The patented technology was developed with the assistance of Wellcome Foundation and the University of Sheffield and facilitates the 3D printing of off-the-shelf two-part curing silicones.
Fripp has spent years developing the technology with the support of two private investors and an Innovate UK grant awarded in October 2017. It originally operated as a product design company, but upon receiving the Innovate UK grant decided instead to focus its resources on developing and commercialising its silicone 3D printing technology, branded Picsima. But as of today, Fripp is preparing to step aside and allow for another company to drive the technology forward and ultimately bring it to market.
“I have reached a time in my life where I have other things I want to achieve, which are personal ambitions rather than professional,” commented Steve Roberts, the owner of Fripp Design Limited. “It’s time to hand the baton for 3D printing two-part curing silicones to someone else.”
Fripp first announced its work on two-part curing 3D printing technology back in 2013, with the company’s engineering team happening on the process while ‘messing around with silicones trying to find a way to make silicone prosthetics.’ The team worked out a way to use one of the two constituent parts for making silicone rubber and control how the curing takes place by injecting one part into the other under computer control.
Significantly, Fripp’s process uses industry-standard silicone materials, which are routinely harnessed in the manufacture of medical implants, food production moulds and industry seals and gaskets, and is patented in the UK, US and Germany.
“The patent is important because it goes beyond silicone,” explained Roberts. “It covers any method where two parts are brought together to cure and, as important, it covers the idea of using a bath of material which supports the curing thus eliminating the need for support materials if you need to 3D print an overhang, for example.”
Roberts says he is interested in talking to anyone who may be interested in buying or licensing the intellectual property, with polymer-based 3D printing companies or manufacturers of silicone wishing to expand into a new market among cited as those most likely to be suitable proprietors of the technology.
