MIT spin-off Speedy Liquid Print raises $7M for 3D printing

MIT spin-off Speedy Liquid Print has raised $7 million in funding for its novel liquid-based 3D printing know-how.

Boston-based Speedy Liquid Print was based as an additive manufacturing startup in 2015 as a spin-off from the Massachusetts Institute of Know-how (MIT).

Germany’s HZG Group led the funding spherical, joined by BMW i Ventures and MassMutual by MM Catalyst Fund (MMCF).

Based mostly in Lichtenfels and Coburg, Bavaria, HZG Group is a famend enterprise capital investor managing a $64.6 million tech fund with a devoted concentrate on 3D printing startups. Speedy Liquid Print has 9 folks.

To date, HZG Group has primarily been lively in Europe’s DACH area, with Speedy Liquid Print being the second U.S. funding. In response to Speedy Liquid Print, the capital will primarily be used to scale manufacturing, develop the crew of consultants behind the know-how, and construct further enterprise areas.

The identify of the corporate says all of it: Speedy Liquid Print is a brand new 3D printing course of developed at MIT’s Self-Meeting Lab in Boston.

On this revolutionary course of, a liquid object is “drawn” in three dimensions inside a gel suspension. A gantry system injects a liquid materials combination right into a container full of a particularly engineered gel, drawing the specified object into three-dimensional house through a nozzle. The gel holds the article in suspension – as if in zero gravity – whereas the article cures throughout printing.

All the printing course of takes minutes and requires no further assist constructions to be printed. The printed objects can be utilized instantly with out post-processing.

Origins

Bjørn Sparrman and Schendy Kernizan are the founders of Speedy Liquid Print. They advised me in an interview they have been working within the MIT Self-Meeting Lab on additive manufacturing, utilizing new forms of 3D printing machines from corporations similar to Formlabs. Type Labs makes use of a resin-based photo-cured course of. That’s, they took a moist resin and hit it with a laser in order that it hardened instantly. Then they did that time and again.

Steelcase approached the researchers to look at the shortcomings of 3D printing for furnishings. There have been loads of issues, like the necessity to print small blocks after which glue items collectively.

They used a method known as embedded printing the place you could have a substrate, droop supplies in a liquid, after which construct out the remainder of an object. It labored very properly with mushy objects being printed. Additionally they labored with BMW on printed objects like silicone rubber for seat cushions. They patented the work for the college after which took out a license as they spun the startup out of MIT.

Because the startup, shifted away from the Formlabs tech and as a substitute focused on silicon rubber printing.

“We ended on silicone primarily due to that, the benefit that this can be very mushy. It’s actually secure to and sturdy,” mentioned Kernizan, who’s CEO.

The founders left MIT in 2020 to do the startup full time. They agreed to an unique licensing settlement with MIT to make use of the patented know-how. And so they’re growing their very own IP too.

New 3D prospects for established supplies

Speedy Liquid Print’s know-how just isn’t restricted by the dimensions limitations that apply to most additive manufacturing processes. It permits the creation of advanced and large-scale geometries utilizing well-established supplies which were utilized in business for many years. The know-how additionally scores extremely by way of sustainability: the gel might be reused a number of occasions, and within the case of the present focus materials silicone, the print materials might be recycled on the finish of the product lifecycle.

3D printing is a sort of machining technique, and printing in liquid permits for the printing of various sorts of constructions, similar to lattice constructions or light-weight constructions, in a quicker method than might be performed with a standard layer by layer course of. This sort of manufacturing is totally different from the layer by layer method, which could be very linear.

The Speedy Liquid Print can print one thing the dimensions of an arm in lower than an hour. They print it throughout the liquid gel, wash it off, and it’s performed. It doesn’t require lots of post-processing steps like with common 3D printers.

“It’s about skipping all these further steps that allow you to produce on a large-scale,” Kernizan mentioned.

The liquid gel is reusable and in order that helps with sustainability. The gel helps the construction as it’s being printed.

Kernizan mentioned, “Within the HZG Group, we have now discovered an investor who acknowledges the complete potential of our know-how and has its personal monitor document of setting requirements with the introduction of metallic 3D printing on an industrial scale. Collectively, we’ll take RLP’s know-how to the subsequent stage. RLP will profit tremendously from the HZG Group’s engineering experience and community at its high-tech location in Bavaria.”

HZG Group was based by 3D printing pioneers Kerstin and Frank Carsten Herzog, who constructed their earlier enterprise Idea Laser from scratch and developed it into a worldwide market chief within the area of additive manufacturing.

In 2016, Common Electrical acquired a majority stake in Idea Laser. Now, the Lichtenfels area in Germany’s Bavaria is acknowledged as one of many world’s innovation hubs for 3D metallic printing, with investments of greater than $269 million in state-of-the-art 3D printing infrastructure and services from varied corporations, offering an setting for best-in-class 3D printing ventures.

Entrepreneurs Kerstin and Frank Carsten Herzog leverage their intensive technological and industrial experience, in addition to their worldwide community of educational and industrial companions, to assist this improvement. Additionally they allow HZG Group to function its personal analysis, improvement, and software heart, naddcon.

Florian Bechmann, CTO at HZG Group, mentioned in an announcement, “Speedy Liquid Print rethinks additive manufacturing past the established layer-based course of. It is sort of a new coding language into which present processes and functionalities are translated, leading to advanced elastic parts with excellent industrial properties and quick manufacturing occasions. The event of an industrial-scale manufacturing machine is likely one of the mid-term milestones that Speedy Liquid Print will work in direction of with our assist.”

The German investor has an enormous community for machine manufacturing and that’s thrilling for the startup, mentioned Sparrman.

Whereas doing the analysis, they spent lots of time staring on the gel. As a joke, they known as it “gel TV.”

The manufacturing machines received’t be cheat on the outset and can most likely price six figures.

Marcus Behrendt, Managing Director BMW i Ventures, mentioned in an announcement, “With the HZG-Fund main the Sequence A funding, we’re thrilled to have discovered an excellent accomplice famend for his or her experience in 3D printing. Teaming up with HZG and the visionary leaders at RLP, we’re certain to create a winner within the house of elastomer 3D printing. The unparalleled know-how from RLP has accrued vital curiosity, affirming its superiority. Their success in demonstrating the potential relevance of their know-how within the automotive business speaks volumes.”

Speedy Liquid Print’s printing manufacturing unit at present operates within the higher Boston space, not removed from MIT. The machines are used to print buyer orders throughout many industries, together with however not restricted to medical, automotive and client items sectors. Along with the revolutionary printing know-how, the corporate has developed a novel software program platform to regulate the print head throughout the three-dimensional gel house.

The crew has 9 folks in Charlestown, Massachussetts, part of Boston. For now, Speedy Liquid Print is doing the 3D printing for its clients. Over time, it hopes to create printers that clients can purchase and use on their very own. With this method on the outset, the corporate can incur decrease startup prices and study what the brand new know-how can do. There’s a primary buyer that’s utilizing the know-how and the startup needs to make use of the information to determine which elements of the 3D printer are actually working properly.

One of many issues it’s good for is printing the cushion liner for prosthetics like synthetic arms. It might probably create a liner that serves as a protecting layer between pores and skin and a inflexible socket.

“The thrilling half for us is to do elements that you just can’t do every other method,” Sparrman mentioned.

These embrace constructions which might be like lattices or mushy and sturdy supplies. It makes them take into consideration a brand new future for foam seating or bedding. It can be used for brand new seals or gaskets.

“This new course of is inspiring new concepts, and new methods of bettering a product that could be very thrilling for us,” Kernizan mentioned.

Kernizan mentioned the corporate will seemingly keep on with mushy printed objects as a result of there’s a lot potential in that house.

“When you find yourself doing advanced geometries, you possibly can come to us,” he mentioned.