XJet lands two medical users of NanoParticle Jetting technology and announces AM centre of excellence

AB Universal and Syqe Medical become the third and fourth disclosed customers of XJet.

by

“I just got some of the best quotations from a very important person. He says he has spent two days here and that’s by far the most innovative, most interesting and most promising product he has seen,” Dror Danai, XJet’s Chief Businsess Officer, bursts back onto the company’s stand at RAPID + TCT 2018, gesturing back to the Carmel 1400, unable to keep to himself the latest testimonial he’s received from a show attendee.

He does so just as his colleague, Avi Cohen, the Vice President, Healthcare & Education, finishes discussing XJet’s latest customers: AB Universal and Syqe Medical. It has been six months since XJet made the commercial launch of the Carmel systems and its NanoParticle Jetting technology, though to the team behind the technology that had at least one, but surely many more, RAPID + TCT visitors pulsating, it feels like yesterday – they’ve been that busy.

In November, Danai concluded our interview by saying their only successes so far had been in the lab, and now they were heading into the ‘real world’. Yet, half a year on, the company was still talking about moving out of the lab, only now, by CEO, Hanan Gothait’s approximations at least, it has achieved “an established market position.”

That is, in large part, down to the expertise of the men at the helm of XJet. Cohen describes the additive manufacturing space as a ‘big market in a small village’, and he, Danai and Gothait have been dwellers of this parish for two decades. They were active in the growth of Objet, a manufacturer of PolyJet 3D printers founded in 1998, which after 14 years in operation would merge with Stratasys to become one of the industry’s powerhouses. Gothait, co-founder of Objet, decided in 2005 he would set up another company, XJet, the goal to bring to market a volume manufacturing platform, an ambition a level above the prototyping solutions Objet was developing. It would take over a decade’s worth of research and development, and more than that, Gothait required some of his old friends to help make the transition from the lab to industry. Before the Carmel machines were commercialised back in November, Danai and Cohen were just two of those who had been asked back by Gothait, joining a team where many were growing a start-up for their second, or even third, time. Not many, though, will have had as much promise as XJet. “Now, we are in a different story,” Danai pronounced last autumn.

XJet touched down in Fort Worth, Texas, as the company entered its second leg of a United States tour, which saw them take in all that AMUG Conference had to offer, exhibit the Carmel machine in the U.S. for the first time at RAPID + TCT, and then followed an appearance at Ceramics Expo in Cleveland, Ohio. The company also threw an Open House with Youngstown Business Incubator (YBI), the company’s first North American customer, who recently had the Carmel 1400 installed. But while at RAPID, attention turned to its latest named clients.

AB Universal is a Russian service provider, catering for players in the aerospace, automotive and medical sectors, and has highlighted 3D printed ceramics as a key component for future growth. The company has long been a user, and long been a champion, of additive manufacturing technology, both plastics and metals, within its homeland. And thus, has a relationship with Cohen.

“That was my sale, I can tell you everything,” he says gleefully, noting the company was also one of his first customers at Objet. “Their strength is in the medical arena. They are a member of the Russian Medical Additive Manufacturing Association. They do presentations and lectures about AM in the medical world, and medical was their first target to attack [when moving to purchase an XJet Carmel machine]. They do a lot of metal, have a lot of machines, but ceramics they did not. And ceramic is a door opener for them.”

When serving medical companies, AB Universal typically provides medical devices and implants. The company wants to leverage 3D printed ceramics capabilities so its clients can benefit from implants and devices which boast greater temperature and chemical resistance, as well as excellent wear characteristics. Immediately, it gives AB Universal more options, but Cohen suggests it’s in the nature of the firm to explore and push the boundaries of what is possible with the technology it takes hold of. It’s a different process to, say, an aerospace company, which is perhaps why we’re hearing of customers in the medical market sooner than we are in the aerospace one, and why Cohen has had such a hectic few months.

×

1 of 2

XJet drill bit 1.jpg

Ceramic 3D printed drill bit showcased on XJet's stand at RAPID + TCT 2018.

×

2 of 2

XJet drill bit 2.jpg

Ceramic 3D printed drill bit showcased on XJet's stand at RAPID + TCT 2018.

Syqe Medical, based in Israel, is further affirmation that the medical industry is one for XJet to chase. The company is not just a champion of 3D printing, pretty much every part it designs these days, per Cohen, is required to be 3D printable: “Syqe’s factory is about 3D printing. There are no limits. ‘Don’t think about traditional manufacturing. You cannot do this, it must be that.’ They print everything, the jigs, the tools, you go there and see a bike that hangs on a 3D printed hook. Their product, a big part of it, is 3D printed.”

That flagship product is a pocket-sized, selective-dose medicinal plants inhaler, which contains within it a load of ceramic mechanisms. These parts need to be extremely precise and heat resistant, but the company also wants more creative freedom and to reduce timescales in their production. The company has turned to XJet’s NanoParticle Jetting technology, deeming it ‘the only technology that could meet the requirements’ in an XJet press release. “That is why they were excited to take a production machine like this and produce heat elements,” Cohen says. “Medical cannabis inhalers. The beautiful thing you can do here is heat resistance.”

So far, the only other named XJet customers are YBI and Oerlikon, both announced around formnext last year, and both leveraging the technology for part production. At RAPID + TCT 2018, however, the company revealed it had installed three machines last month, has attracted customers in Switzerland and Italy, and is set to double production of the Carmel systems this year. The company, of course, also reported dozens of sales from Frankfurt at the tail end of last year. Now, XJet is ready to start talking to channel partners, and expects to establish a global channel within the next few months. It also hired its 100th employee in recent weeks and in August will move to a larger HQ in Israel.

One of the most significant developments to emerge from this wave of activity is the company’s first Additive Manufacturing Center (of Excellence, Cohen underscores). The 20,000 square-foot facility is located in Israel and will be led by Liat Laufer, XJet AM Center Manager. Here, XJet will communicate with its customer base, supporting their needs and developing ideas. It will use the base as a training and demo centre too, and as the company expands to have a global reach, will look to duplicate the facility in key regions.

XJet has had its busiest six months yet, but it couldn’t have gone better. It has brought to market a quite unique process of depositing metal or ceramic materials in liquid form, and building the part up fine layer by fine layer. It has also been quick to take orders and commence shipping and installation. And, in doing so, has gained a lot of traction across the additive manufacturing industry, not to mention a range of vertical markets – Cohen is overseeing relations with healthcare and education customers, while Haim Levi is doing the same for manufacturing & defence. Jewellery is another market the company has its eye on in the future, as is electronics. While Danai didn’t disclose the identity of that jubilant testimonial-giver, his inability to keep it to himself suggests it was quite the validation. Frank Cooper, the Manager of the Centre for Digital Design and Manufacturing, School of Jewellery in the UK, is another who is enthused by the technology. He told TCT earlier this year: “I can’t help but admire the possibility and potential of the XJet system and could watch their promotional video for hours and think ‘what if?’”

What XJet has in its favour is a new way of thinking in the 3D printing of ceramics and the 3D printing of metals. The two customers announced in Fort Worth will both be taking advantage of those ceramics capabilities, while a jeweller like Frank Cooper would be more interested in the way it can print metals. It opens XJet up to a vast amount of potential suitors who just need to make the decision between whether metals suit their requirements best, or whether ceramics do, the process remains virtually the same.

“This metal market was dealing with powders and lasers for the past 20 years,” Cohen assesses. “Don’t misunderstand me, it is great, it is reliable, but we reached the limit. This is it. Nothing new here for years and years. Okay, put two lasers in, put four lasers in, but it is the same thing. Until somebody came and changed the rules. This is different now. Everything you learnt but a little different. It’s pre-process and post process. Everything is new. And that’s why the market is excited.”

“In addition, ceramics additive manufacturing will enable a whole new range of applications,” Haim Levi, VP Manufacturing and Defence, wrote recently. “Uses that were not possible before, such as conformal cooling channels in mould inserts, personalised implants, and other medical supporting devices, as well as creating complex geometries that will reduce part weight while optimising strength.”

On the company’s website, XJet amplifies that, per various market researchers, AM revenues will exceed $26B by 2022, Cermaic AM is projected to grow by 25% annually through 2022, and Metal AM could expand at a rate of up to 37% annually through 2026. The market is big, which gives XJet room to manoeuvre, the village is small, which means the company can lean on already fruitful relationships, and that combination means the sky is the limit.