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Micro Metal 3D Printing from Holo Gets Series B Round, New Materials https://ift.tt/3gCmghI Holo, which uses photopolymer slurry and stereolithography (Slurry SLA, as I am dubbing it) to make precise metal components, has announced the completion of a series B round of funding. In the series B, Holo most likely raised more than $1, but the exact number has not been disclosed. Investors included: Lam Capital, Atreides Management and Prelude Ventures, along with previous backers Tao Capital Advisors and Lightspeed Venture Partners.
We previously profiled Holo’s wish to make millions of copper parts for industry, initially in house. Now, the firm, which is an Autodesk spinout, has opened up its PureForm 3D printing service for stainless steel, in addition to copper. With the new funds, the company wants to expand its facilities and move into more materials and applications. The firm is eying jewelry, dental, medical devices as well as electronic components. They also want to double the size of the company and offer even more materials.
Together with Lithoz, Admatec, MetShape, and Incus, Holo is adding a new quiver to 3D printing’s bow. Combining the precision of SLA and digital light processing (DLP) with sintering can lead to new business cases and new parts that are possible with 3D printing. With a focus on volume, Holo really has quite the value proposition. We must not forget that companies such as 3D Micro Print have been doing this kind of thing for a decade or more using other 3D printing technology. With similar sizes and volumes, what Holo is doing is not really new, exactly. But, given the investment by other industries in LCD, DLP, and other light sources, Slurry SLA processes can piggyback on these technological developments to increase their capabilities. SLA machines typically work well and Admatec, Lithoz similar firms have shown that production is viable with the technology. What is unique about Holo’s offering is that it is producing a high-volume solution that is more scaled to manufacturing and more production-line based than current solutions in Slurry SLA. Potentially, the firm could sell this line to services and end users, as well. This could really open up this technology for much larger volumes. Typically, so far, there have been a number of known, but not well publicized micro-scale 3D printing components selling in production runs of thousands and tens of thousands. This has been ongoing for many years now. With new attention and significant investment, Slurry SLA could very well be the technology that makes the micro-scale much more accessible.
Above, the company showcases copper micro inductor arrays, as well as jewelry pieces, that could very well be very interesting markets for Holo. The steel dental abutment is a potentially huge market, as well, with the right pricing and approvals. Holo could enable manufacturing in many areas with one and the same basic technology set up and many different materials. This could make for an exciting business case from the viewpoint of an investor in a potentially expanding market for myriad new applications and parts. I still think that Holo’s initial focus on copper was very exciting. This is a difficult and costly technology to do in many other processes, such as powder bed fusion. But, with an expanding materials portfolio, the company could yet find not one but many winning applications in high-volume metal printing. Printing via 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing https://3dprint.com August 26, 2021 at 08:06AM
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