Ultimaker, an NPM portfolio company and global market leader in desktop 3D printers, has entered into an alliance with nine large international engineering material manufacturers. The aim of the collaboration is to enable clients worldwide to use all the main engineering materials on Ultimaker printers. This means they will always be able to achieve optimum print results in use cases relating to prototyping, concept modelling, tooling, production and spare parts.
Tommes Heinemans, Global Marketing Director at Ultimaker, says that not only the hardware (the printer itself) and the material (the ‘filament’ in industry terms) determine the quality of a 3D-printed object. He explains that the settings of the Ultimaker Cura software that enable the determination of the correct print profile for each material is also decisive in attaining the desired print result. ‘Each material has its own ideal settings relating to, for example, processing temperature, printing speed, the speed at which the printed object cools down and so on,’ says Heinemans.
‘Working in alliance with leading material manufacturers means clients are no longer limited in their choice of materials. Cura software from Ultimaker automatically determines the ideal print settings based on this choice.’ This opens up a huge market for Ultimaker.
New print materials
Ultimaker has now entered into alliances with DSM, BASF, DuPont, Owens Corning, Mitsubishi, Henkel, Kuraray, Solvay and Clariant. While Ultimaker already had alliances with a number of suppliers of standard filaments, Heinemans explains that the collaboration with these large companies opens up a vast market for other materials. ‘For example: automobile manufacturers use plastics reinforced with glass fibre or carbon fibres for parts. They want to be able to print prototypes in exactly the same material that they will use in the production process. Our software and printers make this possible.’
When it comes to 3D printers, the more different materials that can be used, the more attractive they are to large industrial clients. Heinemans says this is why Ultimaker opted from day one for an open system and open filament philosophy. ‘Our clients must be free in their choice of material. Some of our competitors provide printers that are only compatible with materials that have been approved by the printer suppliers, but we know that companies increasingly want to be able to choose their preferred material.’
Heinemans expects Ultimaker to enter into alliances with even more manufacturers in the future. ‘This is very attractive to manufacturers because everyone benefits when the 3D printer with the largest market share is fully compatible with their materials. This is because the end client ultimately determines the choice of materials and wants to be able to use the chosen material on an Ultimaker printer.’
Also read: NPM Capital invests in Ultimaker
