The worldwide availability of material, the direct reuse of shredded material and high cost-effectiveness: The advantages of AIM3D‘s 3D printers prevail where components need to be rapidly available and short setup times are important. In order to effectively leverage the advantages of their multi-material technology in the growing market, AIM3D has successfully completed another funding round based around their existing investors. The HZG Group, the High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF) and other early-stage investors are thus further supporting the startup based in Rostock, shortly before the launch of the series production of the ExAM 510 industrial printer.
The AIM3D technology makes commercially available injection molding granulate usable as a raw material for additive manufacturing. Instead of relying on filament, customers are able to continue using the established and broadly available raw material as a granulate after switching technologies. In addition to the cost reduction due to material savings, the use of the AIM3D machines comes with the freedom of additive manufacturing without the need for any molds. If required, metal and ceramic components can also be produced using the company’s own CEM (Composite Extrusion Modeling) process.
Clemens Lieberwirth, co-founder and CTO of AIM3D, says: “With the ExAM 510, we are now on the home stretch. The feedback from our beta customers will be considered in the final series production later this year. With the support from our existing investors, we can, at the same time, take the sales pipeline to the next level and expand our own machine park to rapidly demonstrate our technological capabilities based on specific customer needs.”
Dr. Florian Bechmann, CTO of the HZG Group, says: “With respect to the combination of size and chamber temperature, AIM3D is launching an unrivaled 3D printer. In addition to the established applications using plastics, there lies great market potential in the processing of high-performance polymers.”
Gregor Haidl, Senior Investment Manager at HTGF: “We are pleased to further support AIM3D as a pioneer in the field of granulate 3D printing. The team’s innovation is impressive and it is fascinating to see how the boundaries between injection molding and 3D printing continue to blur.”
Innovation outlook: a new basic patent
In addition to the stronger focus on sales, AIM3D, as a spin-off of the University of Rostock, will also remain active in the field of research and development.
The team of engineers filed another basic patent last year. With the voxelfill process, material can be injected into volume chambers, filling the so-called voxels and thereby creating a kind of “brick bond” in the component and offsetting the fracture line. This significantly increases productivity. A funded project will start in the middle of the year, in which the team will develop and test the innovation on industrial applications.
In the future, the 3D printers of the existing product portfolio will also be equipped with new, intuitive operating software. Lieberwirth says: “Existing AIM3D customers will also benefit from a software relaunch, as the systems on the machines can be updated. The use of our machines should not require any firm prior knowledge of 3D printing and should therefore be open to all employees in our customers’ production.”
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