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Desktop Metal, Inc.
IndustryManufacturing
GenreMetal 3D printing
FoundedOctober 2015 in Cambridge, Massachusetts
FoundersRic Fulop, Jonah Myerberg, Ely Sachs, Rick Chin, Christopher Schuh, A. John Hart, Yet-Ming Chiang
HeadquartersThird Avenue,
Burlington, Massachusetts
,
United States
Key people
Ric Fulop (CEO)
Jonah Myerberg (CTO)[1]
Products3D printing systems
Number of employees
300 (2019[2][3][4])
Websitedesktopmetal.com

Desktop Metal is a technology company that designs and markets 3D printing systems.[5][6] Headquartered in Burlington, Massachusetts,[7][8] the company has raised $438 million in venture funding since its founding[9][10] from investors such as Google Ventures, BMW,[1] and Ford Motor Company.[10] Desktop Metal launched its first two products in April 2017:[11] the Studio System, a metal 3D printing system[12] catered to engineers and small production runs,[13] and the Production System,[11][14] intended for manufacturers and large-scale printing.[15] In November 2019, the company launched two new printer systems: the Shop System is designed for machine shops,[16] and its Fiber industrial-grade composites printer uses automated fiber placement.[17] Valued at $1.5 billion,[9] Desktop Metal is tied as the fastest growing "unicorn" in United States history.[18] The World Economic Forum named Desktop Metal a Technology Pioneer in 2017.[19]

History

2015-2016

Desktop Metal was founded in October 2015[20] in Cambridge, Massachusetts as a startup company focused on 3D metal printing.[21] Among the seven founders[1] were Ric Fulop[5] and Jonah Myerberg of A123 Systems, Rick Chin of SolidWorks, and Yet-Ming Chiang, Ely Sachs, Chris Schuh,[21] and A. John Hart of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).[1] Sachs was known for coining the term 3D printing years earlier.[15] At the time of its founding, the company was developing a process for metal 3D printing that would be fast and small enough for office settings.[22] Xconomy wrote that the company's intent was to create a metal 3D printer that would "churn out parts more quickly" and be "much cheaper, smaller, safer and easier to operate" than alternatives on the market.[14] To eliminate the need for trained personnel to operate the equipment, dangerous features such as lasers were not made a part of the design process.[22] By October 2015 the company had 11 employees,[21] with Ric Fulop as CEO.[22]

Initially the company raised around $14 million in startup funding,[22] with leading Series A funders including New Enterprise Associates, Kleiner Perkins, and Lux Capital.[6][21] By the spring of 2016, the company was headquartered in Lexington, Massachusetts and had developed functioning prototypes.[5][23] After former investors injected an additional $34 million into Desktop Metal in April 2016,[5][22] that summer the company raised funding from investors including GE Ventures and Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures.[23] By February 2017, the company had moved its headquarters to Burlington, Massachusetts.[7][8][24] That month the company raised $45 million in a Series C round of venture funding[7][20] led by GV[24] and including participation from BMW iVentures and Lowe's Ventures.[7][8][20] With total raised brought to $97 million,[7][8][20] the capital was used for research and development, with plans to begin selling the first product later that year[8] in a variety of industries.[7]

2017

Desktop Metal was collaborating with Ford Motor Company's research and advanced engineering and manufacturing teams by 2017, refining its system to meet manufacturing requirements.[25] Desktop Metals was also working with BMW in Munich to explore eliminating the need to warehouse parts,[7] and companies such as Milwaukee Tools[26] and Jabil Circuit Inc. A U.S. were evaluating the printers for production use.[27] The company revealed two distinct metal 3D printing systems in late April 2017: a studio model and a production model.[11] The Studio System, safe for office settings[28] is designed for rapid printing and the production of small volumes,[13] while the latter is intended for high-speed production of parts.[28] Both systems include a printer, furnace, and cloud-based software to operate the machines,[14] with the ability to print several hundred alloy types.[11] Forbes described the pricing scheme of the products as "competitive," noting the systems cost "10 times less than what's on the market."[15]

Stratasys, an investor in Desktop Metal,[6] announced in May 2017 that its resellers would stock Desktop Metal's products.[29] The World Economic Forum named Desktop Metal to its 2017 Technology Pioneers list of 30 companies in June,[19] and also that month, MIT Technology Review named Desktop Metal among its 50 Smartest Companies in the World for the year.[30] Desktop Metal raised a total of $115 million[26][31][32][33] in a Series D round of funding in July 2017,[32][34] its largest round to that point.[35][34] Funds went to R&D, its sales program, and international growth[33][34] and brought the total raised since founding to $212 million.[33][35][36] The company began shipping the Studio System in December 2017[25] as part of its "Pioneer" program. The first printer went to Google's Advanced Technology and Products Group[3] and among other early customers were the United States Navy, Built-Rite Tool & Die, and Lumenium.[37]

2018

By early 2018 the company had been granted two patents for separable support and an interface layer, with around 100 patents pending for around 200 inventions.[3] In February 2018 the company previewed Live Parts,[3] a software program for automatically generating printable designs.[38]

At CES 2018 Desktop Metal won an emerging tech award from Digital Trends.[38] In 2018 it also won a Gold[39] Edison Award.[3] In March 2018, Ford Motor Company led a $65 million investment round in Desktop Metal, with Ford's CTO joining Desktop Metal's board of directors.[40] With a $1.2 billion valuation, by May 2018 Desktop Metal had been named the fast growing "unicorn" in United States history, surpassing $1 billion after 21 months in operation.[18] Desktop Metal introduced an upgrade to its industrial scale systems at Formnext 2018, claiming the 50% printing speed increase made the model "the fastest metal printer in the world."[41] Cofounder Ric Fulop asserted that the system dropped the price per part significantly compared to other systems, in one case from $700 per kilo of parts to $50 a kilo.[2]

2019

In January 2019, Desktop Metal raised an additional $160 million in funding, resulting in a valuation at $1.5 billion.[9][42][43] By May 2019, the company employed around 300 people, mostly engineers, with the machines made through contract manufacturing. It also had a sales channel distributing in 48 countries.[2] In June 2019, the company began shipping to Europe.[44] By 2019, the company had raised $437 million from investors, and was one of only three 3D printing unicorns. In November it introduced a system for metal job shops[16] and a system using fiber placement.[17]

2020

Desktop Metal will go public through a reverse IPO, a merger with Trine Acquisition Corp. (NYSE: TRNE), a special-purpose acquisition company.

Products

Printer systems

Desktop Metal launched its first two products in April 2017:[11] the Studio System, a metal 3D printing system[12] designed for engineers and small production runs,[12][13] and the Production System,[11][14] intended for manufacturers and large-scale printing.[15] In 2019 the company introduced the Shop System, a metal binder jetting printing system designed for machine and metal job shops,[16] as well as Fiber, a continuous carbon fiber printer using automated fiber placement technology (AFP) to make parts.[17]

Studio System

Both the Studio System and Production System include two key components: a printer that produces small objects out of metal powders, and a sintering furnace to densify the objects using[26] thermal processes.[15] The systems can print a variety of materials,[45] including steels, copper,[11] aluminum,[46] and alloys such as Inconel. Powders also used in the metal injection molding market[28] are housed in replaceable cartridges[15] made by various metallurgy companies and Desktop Metal.[11] As the process doesn't utilize dangerous lasers,[45] or hazardous materials, the Studio System can be housed inside office spaces[15] with standard wall outlets.[14]

The Studio System uses a proprietary technology called Bound Metal Deposition,[12] similar to fused deposition modeling (FDM)[45] where the printer "extrudes a mixture of metal powder and polymers to build up a shape, much as some plastic printers do." When the shape is complete, it is placed in a furnace which burns away the polymers and "compacts the metal particles by sintering them together at just below their melting point."[13] At that temperature the metal is fused without melting and losing its shape.[11] The sintering causes predictable shrinking, which the system's software compensates for by making items slightly larger during the printing step.[13] Beyond the printer and furnace, the Studio System also includes a debinder to remove part of the polymer binder before sintering.[34]

Production System

The Production System uses a printing method where droplets of a binding agent are "jetted" onto a metal powder in heated layers.[14] The method is called Single Pass Jetting, used for quickly producing metal parts.[28] According to the company, the system can process 8,200 cubic centimeters per hour, which is nearly 100 times faster than laser-based systems using powder bed fusion (PBF).[47] It can produce dozens of parts simultaneously.[48] The Production System was named by Popular Science as one of the top engineering innovations of 2017, in the magazine's annual Best of What's New issue.[49]

Live Parts software

Desktop Metal developed Live Parts,[3] an AI software for users to automatically generate printable object designs.[38] The program allows users to input specifications for an object, then creates a computer model which can be printed[50] using any 3-D printing system.[3]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d Desktop Metal Leadership, Desktop Metal, retrieved January 18, 2018
  2. ^ a b c O'Connor, David (May 10, 2019). "Full throttle: Desktop Metal on automotive manufacturing's new paradigm". TCT Magazine.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g O'Connor, Daniel (May 1, 2018), "Production Ready - Desktop Metal prepares to unleash its Production System", TCT Magazine
  4. ^ Biagiotti, Mark (October 24, 2017). "Desktop Metal continues to shine in Burlington". Daily Times Chronicle. Retrieved January 19, 2018.
  5. ^ a b c d Primack, Dan (April 26, 2016). "Term Sheet — Tuesday, April 26". Fortune. Retrieved January 18, 2018.
  6. ^ a b c McCue, TJ (October 29, 2015). "Stratasys Invests In Direct 3D Metal Printing Startup". Forbes. United States. Retrieved November 25, 2017.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g Kolodny, Lora (February 6, 2017). "BMW and Lowe's among investors pouring $45 million into Desktop Metal, the 3D printer startup". TechCrunch. Retrieved November 25, 2017.
  8. ^ a b c d e Woodward, Curt (February 6, 2017). "Metal 3-D printer startup lands another $45m". The Boston Globe. Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Retrieved November 25, 2017.
  9. ^ a b c Feldman, Amy. "3-D Printing Unicorn Desktop Metal Grabs Another $160 Million As It Prepares To Ship Its Mass-Production Printers". Forbes.
  10. ^ a b Heater, Brian, "Desktop Metal gets another $65 million in a round led by Ford", TechCrunch
  11. ^ a b c d e f g h i Kolodny, Lora (April 25, 2017). "Desktop Metal reveals how its 3D printers rapidly churn out metal objects". TechCrunch. Retrieved November 25, 2017.
  12. ^ a b c d Mearian, Lucas (April 25, 2017). "Startup claims 3D printers create metal parts faster, more cheaply". ComputerWorld. Retrieved November 25, 2017.
  13. ^ a b c d e "3D printers start to build factories of the future". The Economist. July 1, 2017. Retrieved January 19, 2018.
  14. ^ a b c d e f Engel, Jeff (April 25, 2017). "Desktop Metal, Backed By $97M, Unveils Its First Metal 3D Printers". Xconomy. Retrieved January 18, 2018.
  15. ^ a b c d e f g Knapp, Alex (April 25, 2017). "This Startup Aims To Revolutionize Metal 3D Printing For Manufacturers". Forbes. United States. Retrieved November 25, 2017.
  16. ^ a b c "Desktop Metal 3D Printers Set to Disrupt Manufacturing", Nanalyze
  17. ^ a b c "3D printing continuous fiber on the desktop", Composites World
  18. ^ a b Schubarth, Cromwell (May 2, 2018), These 10 unicorns flew the fastest to billion-dollar valuations, Silicon Valley Business Journal
  19. ^ a b Dale, Brady (June 16, 2017). "The 7 Coolest Global Companies Fixing All That's Broken in This World". Observer. United States. Retrieved January 19, 2018.
  20. ^ a b c d "BRIEF-Desktop Metal says raised $97 million in equity funding since Oct 2015". Reuters. February 6, 2017. Retrieved January 19, 2018.
  21. ^ a b c d Engel, Jeff (October 27, 2015). "Stratasys, Big VCs Bet $14M on 3D Printing Startup Desktop Metal". Xconomy. Retrieved January 19, 2018.
  22. ^ a b c d e Engel, Jeff (April 27, 2016). "Desktop Metal Grabs $34M to Move Prototype 3D Printers to Market". Xconomy. Retrieved January 18, 2018.
  23. ^ a b Castellanos, Sara (July 5, 2016). "GE, Saudi Aramco help fund Lexington 3D printing startup". Boston Business Journal. Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Retrieved November 25, 2017.
  24. ^ a b J. O'Brien, Kelly (February 6, 2017). "Google, BMW invest $45M in Burlington 3D printing startup". Boston Business Journal. Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Retrieved January 19, 2018.
  25. ^ a b Chernova, Yuliya (March 19, 2018), "Ford Leads $65 Million Investment in Desktop Metal", The Wall Street Journal
  26. ^ a b c Vanian, Jonathan (July 17, 2017). "This Startup Just Got Over $100 Million to Push Metal 3D-Printing". Fortune. Retrieved November 25, 2017.
  27. ^ Mims, Christopher (May 14, 2017). "Your Shoes Will Be Printed Shortly - Innovative techniques in 3-D printing mean some previously impossible design will start showing up in consumer products". The Wall Street Journal. New York City, United States. Retrieved January 15, 2018.
  28. ^ a b c d Molitch-Hou, Michael (April 25, 2017). "Desktop Metal Reveals 100x Faster Metal 3D Printing Tech". Engineering.com. Retrieved January 19, 2018.
  29. ^ Davies, Sam (May 9, 2017). "Stratasys and Desktop Metal announce extension of strategic partnership". TCT Magazine. Retrieved January 19, 2018.
  30. ^ "50 Smartest Companies 2017". MIT Technology Review. United States. June 27, 2017. Retrieved November 25, 2017.
  31. ^ Heater, Brian (July 18, 2017). "Desktop Metal gets $115 million in funding to deliver metal 3D printing for manufacturing". TechCrunch. Retrieved January 19, 2018.
  32. ^ a b Chernova, Yuliya (July 17, 2017). "Manufacturing Startup Desktop Metal's Valuation Tops $1 Billion - Fast rise for a company that has yet to ship first product". The Wall Street Journal. New York City, United States. Retrieved November 25, 2017.
  33. ^ a b c Tsang, Amie; de la Merced, Michael (July 17, 2017). "Morning Agenda: Peltz Challenges Procter & Gamble". The New York Times. New York City, United States. Retrieved January 15, 2018.
  34. ^ a b c d Sawers, Paul (July 17, 2017). "Desktop Metal raises $115 million to make metal 3D printing more accessible". VentureBeat. Retrieved January 19, 2018.
  35. ^ a b Rosen, Andy (July 17, 2017). "Desktop Metal gets $115 million investment in 3D printing technology". The Boston Globe. Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Retrieved November 25, 2017.
  36. ^ Keene, Cindy Atoji (November 16, 2017), "12 weeks of paid parental leave applies to dads, too", The Boston Globe
  37. ^ Knapp, Alex (December 18, 2017), "Desktop Metal Begins Shipping Its Metal 3D Printers For The Office", Forbes
  38. ^ a b c Newman, Daniel (January 16, 2018), "Top 18 Tech Trends At CES 2018", Forbes
  39. ^ Desktop Metal named 2018 Gold Edison Award winner, The Fabricator, April 16, 2018
  40. ^ "Ford invests $65 million Desktop Metal's 3D-printing technology - Boston Business Journal". www.bizjournals.com. Retrieved March 20, 2018.
  41. ^ "Desktop Metal upgrades Production System for 2019 launch, claims "fastest metal printer in the world"". 3D Printing Industry. November 13, 2018.
  42. ^ Vinoski, Jin (May 20, 2019). "Ely Sachs Is The Living Embodiment of 3-D Printing". www.forbes.com.
  43. ^ "2019 3D Printing Industry Awards winners announced". 3D Printing Industry. June 11, 2019. Retrieved July 8, 2019.
  44. ^ "Desktop Metal Studio System receives CE certification, European shipments begin". Metal AM. June 20, 2019.
  45. ^ a b c Products, Desktop Metal, 2017, retrieved November 27, 2017
  46. ^ The 3D Printing Company That Could Transform Manufacturing, Bloomberg, May 14, 2018
  47. ^ Wohlers, Terry (2017), Desktop Metal: A Rising Star of Metal AM Targets Speed, Cost and High-Volume Production, Shrewsbury, United Kingdom: Metal AM, p. 92, retrieved January 19, 2018
  48. ^ Bray, Hiawatha (October 22, 2017), "Thinking outside the mold, with 3-D printers that make objects of steel", The Boston Globe
  49. ^ Griggs, Mary Beth (October 17, 2017). "This year's 11 most important innovations in engineering". Popular Science. Retrieved November 25, 2017.
  50. ^ "10 Breakthrough Technologies", MIT Technology Review, 2018
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