Adaptive3D, a Texas-based supplier of additive manufacturing polymers, has announced the closing of a Series A funding round co-led by DSM Venturing, the investment arm of Royal DSM, and Applied Ventures, LLC, the VC arm of materials engineering company Applied Materials. The investment will enable Adaptive3D to keep delivering 3D printable photoresin materials to market for applications in various industries.
The Series A funding round also saw investments from materials and adhesives company Chemence and participation from existing investors Mary McDermott Cook and the late Margaret McDermott, the daughter and wife, respectively, of Texas Instruments co-founder Eugene McDermott.
“Adaptive3D seeks to challenge the cost, throughput and performance in markets today dominated by traditional injection molding, blow molding and other thermoplastic processing techniques,” said Walter Voit, Adaptive3D founder and CEO. “By delivering lightweight, sustainable, micro-latticed structures with superior thermal, chemical, optical and mechanical properties, Adaptive3D seeks to drastically increase the utilization of plastics and rubbers in end applications using additive manufacturing.”
Adaptive3D offers 3D printable photoresins marketed for the production of complex plastic and rubber parts. The company says that one of its materials, ToughRubber 30.450, is the “world’s highest strain photopolymer” for 3D printing. The company also provides services in custom material development and design consulting.
Going forward, Royal DSM and Applied Materials will provide the Texan company with the foundation for an AM ecosystem, which, in turn, will enable Adaptive3D to deliver its material solutions to customers in the consumer, healthcare, industrial, transportation and oil and gas industries.
“At DSM we believe that the age of additive manufacturing for industrial applications is, in fact, the age of materials,” commented Hugo Da Silva, VP of Additive Manufacturing at DSM. “Adaptive3D’s engineered photoresins enable new design paradigms in end applications. Working together with Applied Materials allows us to think globally about big problems at scale and offer big ecosystem solutions.”
“There are only a handful of chemical companies around the world with the global supply chain, distribution channels and application expertise to drive change in how the world manufactures plastics,” Voit added. “And we are thrilled to have Royal DSM, one of them, ranked as one of the world’s most sustainable companies, partnering with Adaptive to further develop its engineered materials. In a similar vein, there are only a handful of companies in the world with the materials expertise, equipment manufacturing capabilities at scale and creative internal culture to enable a paradigm change in additive manufacturing. Applied Materials is at the top of that list.”
Today, Adaptive3D is attending the SPIE Photonics West Conference and Exhibition in San Fransisco, where Voit will present a paper on the high-throughput additive manufacturing of flexible, oxygen insensitive photoresins using digital micromirror devices.
