Formnext Announces Winners of Startup-Up Challenge

Formnext announced the winners of its annual AM startup competition in advance of the November event.

Formnext is the world’s largest additive manufacturing exhibition, featuring hundreds of exhibitors and tens of thousands of visitors from around the world. It’s so large that it is now impossible to visit each of the vendors during the course of the show, simply due to the size. I know this for certain, because we’ve attempted to do that in previous shows!

Formnext has always been a friendly place for startups in the AM space. There are usually spots for smaller companies who cannot afford the much larger stands occupied by the major players in the 3D print space. In fact, most of the new and interesting startups we’ve found were at Formnext.

One of the features of Formnext is a “Start-up Challenge”, where innovative small companies in 3D printing can apply with their innovations and be evaluated by a panel of judges. Formnext announced this year’s winners this week, allowing everyone the ability to visit these companies at the show, or online.

The winners are as follows.

Photosynthetic (Netherlands)

Founded in 2019 in Amsterdam, Photosynthetic explains their objective:

“Photosynthetic is developing a 3D lithography technology that can print objects with a feature size of less than a micron and with print speeds up to 6mm3 / minute. Our technology can eliminate multiple steps in the current lithography production process, as well as reduce costs and time on prototyping.”

Their tech might replace the currently expensive micro-fabrication gear that tends to require clean rooms and other operational challenges.

Lattice Medical (France)

Lattice Medical, launched in 2017, is developing a method to reconstruct soft tissues using 3D print technology. Their approach is now patented. This is particularly important for breast cancer patients, where apparently only 14% now receive reconstructive surgery. The concept is to 3D print a structure that encourages growth of normal cells, yet dissolves over the course of a year.

Rivelin Robotics (UK)

Rivelin Robotics is a UK-based company we’ve already written about recently. They are developing a sophisticated post processing system for metal 3D printing that should greatly simplify the normally tedious process of finishing parts.

SphereCube (Italy)

SphereCube have developed a 3D printing system that’s focused on composite materials. Their technology allows production of incredibly strong parts in arbitrary geometries using materials including reinforcing fibers, including carbon fiber.

Alpha Powders (Poland)

Alpha Powders have developed a system for manufacturing high quality powder for using in polymer 3D printing processes, such as SLS. The key to quality in SLS is to have powder formed from perfect spheres and consistently the same diameter. That’s precisely what Alpha Powders has figured out with their new technology. Even better, their materials are upcycled from “post-industrial waste”.

These and many other exhibitors will be showing their capabilities at the upcoming Formnext exhibition in Frankfurt.

Via Formnext