Henkel Joins Origin’s Open Material Network to Enable New Chemistries for Additive Mass Production

Origin, an open additive mass production platform that integrates modular hardware, extensible software, and new materials, announced today that leading specialty materials company, Henkel, has joined Origin’s Open Material Network and is already actively developing materials for Origin’s open platform.

Together the two companies will focus on additive mass production for the medical, automotive, and other industrial sectors. Within a short time, Origin has worked closely with Henkel to validate several materials with market-leading biocompatibility appropriate for medical devices.

Origin works with a network of material partners including BASF, and over the last year have been developing a wide range of commercial-grade materials for its production system, resulting in some of the highest performance and most resilient polymers in additive manufacturing, at prices and print speeds that enable high volume production.

Origin’s programmable photopolymerization technology (P3) enables many of Henkel chemistries with industry-leading properties, as well as simple post-processing and handling. Origin is pursuing various applications like the medical-grade silicone sample part shown, which has a combination of flexibility, mechanical strength, and biocompatibility. Notably, Henkel’s parent silicone resins have tested to Henkel’s protocols based upon ISO-10993 biocompatibility standards. The potential applications range from medical devices and surgery tools to pre-surgical models, hearing aids, face masks, and other devices.

“We’re excited about Origin’s open approach and the potential for its platform to accelerate the introduction of new materials that surpass anything available on the market today,” said Philipp Loosen, Head of 3D Printing at Henkel.

“We are eager to give customers even more material options in a diverse range of portfolio materials that can take advantage of our (P3) process such as silicones, epoxies, and polyurethanes,” said Chris Prucha, founder and CEO of Origin. “We believe our open network approach with Henkel and other strategic partners will fundamentally reshape manufacturing and global supply chains and we look forward to unveiling world-class and industry-defining projects in development with Henkel in the coming months.”