PrintFoam CTO David Walker.
Resin foam 3D printing company PrintFoam has announced former Azul 3D Chief Technology Officer David Walker as its CTO.
Walker joined the company last year and has since had a leading role in the development and evolution of PrintFoam’s technology as it targets the commercialisation and scaling up of 3D printed foam. Though joining some years after initial work commenced at MIT, resulting in a patent being filed in 2017, Walker is considered a co-founder of PrintFoam, alongside CEO Matthew Pearlson.
PrintFoam’s technology is largely still under wraps, but the process is based on stereolithography (SLA) and is said to ‘offer a range of photoresins which can vary the matrix properties of size of the foam porosity.’ The company is working to make available a series of machines whereby build volumes vary from 100 x 100 x 15 mm (Foam100) to 1200 x 2400 x 25 mm (Foam1200), all capable of printing their entire build volume in around 15 minutes, while also offering parts through a service offering. Through this service, the Foam100 and Foam300 are being used to produce the majority of parts, while the Foam1200 is being harnessed for ‘applications with sufficiently high demand.’ PrintFoam also states that the Foam1200 can be customised to an end-user’s specifications for on-site installation ‘if a use case warrants the upfront capital investment.’ With this suite of machines, PrintFoam can print a series of photoresins, high-viscosity resins, and materials filled with ceramic, metal, glass and polymer fibres.
Walker joins the firm as it prepares to ‘execute’ on the commercialisation of its foam 3D printing technology, which will also see the company close its latest funding round and further expand its team.
“Joining PrintFoam has been an incredible journey,” Walker commented. “It's refreshing to join and work with a team whose values and vision are aligned with your own. As PrintFoam is my second start-up venture, I know how important it is to have the culture of a founding team be aligned - it takes priority over everything else, because success in everything else flows from it. Team development, tech development, business development: it all starts with strong, well aligned founders.
“Having run a fast paced AM start-up, and being an active member of the RadTech and photopolymer community, I've seen a lot of great technologies over the years but so rarely are any of them new and truly surprising. When Matthew showed me some of his early prototypes, it immediately clicked for me. I had hard questions, and there were good answers at the ready. Here was a founder who had innovative solutions and had elegantly sidestepped some of the great challenges in the field with a fresh approach.”
“Adding Dr. Walker to the team has allowed PrintFoam to realise its technical potential. He is an exceptionally gifted experimentalist,” commented Pearlson. “He makes magic in the lab, and time and again developed and proven ideas with his creativity and moxie. David’s strength excels far beyond the lab bench and chemical hood. As an experienced founder, David understands what it takes to bring ideas to reality, and has provided sound counsel and advice. He is also one of the most principled and ethical scientists and entrepreneurs I have ever met. I am very fortunate to have met Dr. Walker, and feel even luckier to have him on the team as a true co-founder.”
