Desktop Metal, the company committed to making metal 3D printing accessible to manufacturers and engineers, recently announced it has begun shipping its Studio System™ to customers and resellers throughout Europe. The world’s first office-friendly metal 3D printing system for functional prototyping and low volume production, has met with strong adoption in North America among leading companies, including Ford, Stanley Black and Decker, Google’s ATAP, Goodyear, Owens Corning, and John Zink Hamworthy Combustion. Building on that momentum, the Studio System is now CE certified for international compatibility and being installed at customers throughout Europe, including France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom.
“When Desktop Metal first launched, we set forth a mission to fundamentally change how the world designs and produces metal additively manufactured parts, from functional prototyping to mass manufacturing,” said Ric Fulop, CEO and co-founder of Desktop Metal. “We have been delivering on that vision throughout the U.S. and Canada, and are now ready to step onto the global stage to further accelerate our business expansion and answer the impressive demand of the European market.”
In anticipation of the international expansion, Desktop Metal has been working for more than a year with a select group of strategic customers as early stage evaluators of its technologies. These strategic partners have been a source of key user feedback on benchmark parts, materials, training and system usage. International customers of the Studio System span multiple industries, including automotive, education and defense, as well as service providers of luxury brands and consumer products. Leading companies, including BMW Group in Germany; Politecnico Di Milano, one of the largest technical universities in Europe and Additive Italia srl (Add+It) in Italy; EGIBIDE and Centro Avanzado de Fabricación (IMH) in Spain; Edalis, Soprofame and MSA in France; Weir Group and the University of Sheffield in the UK; Jade Groupe of Portugal, which specializes in metal parts production for the luxury fashion world; and BAZIGOS of Greece, a manufacturing firm specializing in high precision components, are among the first customers to benefit from the ease of use and accessibility provided by the Studio System.
Studio System for Metal Prototyping and Low Volume Production
The Studio System is designed to make metal 3D printing more accessible, enabling design and engineering teams to print metal parts faster, without the need for special facilities, dedicated operators, or expensive tooling. The three-part solution, including printer, debinder and furnace, automates metal 3D printing by tightly integrating through Desktop Metal’s cloud-based software to deliver a seamless workflow for printing complex metal parts in-house—from digital file to sintered part.
To date, Studio Systems worldwide have fabricated more than 10,000 parts, with applications ranging from functional prototyping of extruder nozzles and shock absorber pistons; to jigs & fixtures, including robotic end effectors and smartphone fixtures; to manufacturing tooling of zipper molds inserts and extrusion dies; and low volume production of gears and motor mounts. Each of these benchmark parts has shown drastic cost reduction – some by as much as 90 percent relative to machining and selective laser melting (SLM) – as well as speed in fabrication, producing parts in days instead of weeks or months.