Essentium has signed a Letter of Intent to acquire Collider, which makes 3D printers for low volume tooling.
According to the company, Collider’s 3D printing machine makes molds for parts made of thermosetting polymers and composites including polyurethanes, silicones, epoxies, polyesters, foamed resins, carbon fiber composites, as well as sintered metals and ceramics.
Instead of a permanent, hard tooling mold, Collider’s 3D printing technology creates a thin photopolymer shell which is then injected with a variety of materials and cured through a chemical process, Essentium said.
The resultant parts have structural integrity similar to injection molding processes with detailled surfaces, it added.
‘We see significant opportunities in tooling for low volumes of parts and the ability to manufacture geometrically complex, custom parts on-demand and quickly,’ said Jeffrey Lumetta, CTO of Essentium.
Said Bredemeyer: ‘Bringing Collider into the Essentium fold has hugely exciting potential for the industry as manufacturers want a more agile future enabled by AM,’ said Collider’s former CEO, now a director at Essentium. ‘As part of Essentium we can open up 3D printing to off-the-shelf materials, fundamentally changing hardware development.’
This story uses material from Essentium, with editorial changes made by Materials Today.
