Collider
Essentium has signed a Letter of Intent to acquire Collider, whose Programmable Tooling offering combines Digital Light Processing 3D printing and injection moulding technologies.
The acquisition, Essentium believes, will ‘drive new growth paths’ for the company, with Collider’s Orchid DLP 3D printing system complementing its flagship High Speed Extrusion portfolio.
Collider’s Programmable Tooling technology has been designed to reduce the costs and time involved in product development by enabling the 3D printing of thin, dissolvable photopolymer shells which are injected with traditional plastic casting materials and cured through a chemical process. With this technology, users are able to utilise a range of high performance thermosetting polymers, such as polyurethanes, silicones, epoxies, polyesters, as well as carbon fibre composites, ceramics and sintered metals. It is said to exhibit similar structural integrity to injection moulding processes and allows for the creation of high detail aesthetic surfaces. This, Collider says, means the design process is significantly shortened, with users able to obtain parts in hours rather than weeks.
Harnessing its own expertise in materials science and 3D printing technology, Essentium is aiming to take the technology ‘to new horizons’ via this acquisition. With Collider’s former CEO Graham Bredemeyer joining Essentium as the Director of the Photopolymer Group, Essentium is hoping to exploit a range of opportunities across the consumer, medical, transportation, wearables and aerospace industries.
“Collider has a lot to bring to the table,” Essentium Chief Technology Officer Jeff Lumetta said. “Their innovative method of bringing together proven technologies to create high-value use cases has already proven their industry value. We see significant opportunities in tooling for low volumes of parts and the ability to manufacture geometrically complex, custom parts on-demand and quickly. In addition, this represents Essentium’s first entrance into photopolymer AM technologies and will expand product offerings in several areas—especially when combined with our unique material science capabilities.”
“Bringing Collider into the Essentium fold has hugely exciting potential for the industry as manufacturers want a more agile future enabled by AM,” Bredemeyer. “As part ofEssentium we can open up 3D printing to off-the-shelf materials, fundamentally changing hardware development. Collider’s technology fuels the next wave of AM innovation by enabling mass customisation and rapid product innovation.”
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