Next year, Lithoz expects to be ready to announce a new ceramic 3D printing system, capable of producing bigger parts with thicker walls than any of its existing systems.
I would love to say this insight was obtained through some thorough journalism, in which several sources validated the information, but it actually came from an honest answer to a merely curious question.
For Lithoz CEO Johannes Homa, honesty is not just the best policy; it may as well be the only policy. He is not in the business of hyping the company’s wares or misleading anyone on the maturity of the ceramics additive manufacturing market.
And so, when asked about the market response to the CeraFab 320 system launched two years ago – pitched then as Lithoz’ largest ever machine – Homa didn’t take the opportunity, as many other CEOs would, to paint a completely rosy picture. He knows only one way.
“It depends. On the one hand, users see this as a very interesting system because it has higher productivity, you can make bigger parts, and it’s possible to realise things which have not been possible before. This is one answer. For [those users] it has been well received. But other existing customers, they say, ‘No, we are happy with what we have. The S65 is a versatile system; we can be more flexible in our production, and we can take advantage of the better resolution.’ We have to say that whatever technology you take has a certain limitation. [Here,] it’s wall thickness. And big parts usually have thick walls. So, this machine, it still does not solve every problem.”
