Desktop Metal, Inc.
TypePublic
NYSE: DM
IndustryManufacturing
GenreMetal 3D printing
FoundedOctober 2015 in Cambridge, Massachusetts
FoundersRic Fulop, Jonah Myerberg, Ely Sachs, Rick Chin, Christopher Schuh, A. John Hart, Yet-Ming Chiang
HeadquartersThird Avenue,
Burlington, Massachusetts
,
United States
Key people
Ric Fulop (CEO)
Jonah Myerberg (CTO)
Products3D printing systems
RevenueUS$16.5 Million (2020)
Number of employees
300 (2019[1][2][3])
Websitedesktopmetal.com

Desktop Metal is a public American technology company that designs and markets 3D printing systems.[4][5] Headquartered in Burlington, Massachusetts,[6][7] the company has raised $438 million in venture funding since its founding[8][9] from investors such as Google Ventures, BMW,[10] and Ford Motor Company.[9] Desktop Metal launched its first two products in April 2017:[11] the Studio System, a metal 3D printing system[12] catered to engineers and small production runs,[13] and the Production System,[11][14] intended for manufacturers and large-scale printing.[15] In November 2019, the company launched two new printer systems: the Shop System for machine shops,[16] and the Fiber industrial-grade composites printer for automated fiber placement.[17] The World Economic Forum named Desktop Metal a Technology Pioneer in 2017.[18]

History

2015–2016

Desktop Metal was founded in October 2015[19] in Cambridge, Massachusetts, as a startup company focused on 3D metal printing.[20] Among the seven founders[10] were Ric Fulop[4] and Jonah Myerberg of A123 Systems, Rick Chin of SolidWorks, and Yet-Ming Chiang, Ely Sachs, Christopher Schuh,[20] and A. John Hart of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).[10] Sachs was known for coining the term 3D printing years earlier.[15] At the time of its founding, the company was developing a process for metal 3D printing that would be fast and small enough for office settings.[21] Xconomy wrote that the company's intent was to create a metal 3D printer that would "churn out parts more quickly" and be "much cheaper, smaller, safer and easier to operate" than alternatives on the market.[14] To eliminate the need for trained personnel to operate the equipment, dangerous features such as lasers were not made a part of the design process.[21] By October 2015 the company had 11 employees,[20] with Ric Fulop as CEO.[21]

Initially the company raised around $14 million in startup funding,[21] with leading Series A funders including New Enterprise Associates, Kleiner Perkins, and Lux Capital.[5][20] By the spring of 2016, the company was headquartered in Lexington, Massachusetts, and had developed functioning prototypes.[4][22] After former investors injected an additional $34 million into Desktop Metal in April 2016,[4][21] that summer the company raised funding from investors including GE Ventures and Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures.[22] By February 2017, the company had moved its headquarters to Burlington, Massachusetts.[6][7][23] That month the company raised $45 million in a Series C round of venture funding[6][19] led by GV[23] and including participation from BMW iVentures and Lowe's Ventures.[6][7][19] With total raised brought to $97 million,[6][7][19] the capital was used for research and development, with plans to begin selling the first product later that year[7] in a variety of industries.[6]

2017

Desktop Metal was collaborating with Ford Motor Company's research and advanced engineering and manufacturing teams by 2017, refining its system to meet manufacturing requirements.[24] Desktop Metals was also working with BMW in Munich to explore eliminating the need to warehouse parts,[6] and companies such as Milwaukee Tools[25] and Jabil Circuit Inc. A U.S. were evaluating the printers for production use.[26] The company revealed two distinct metal 3D printing systems in late April 2017: a studio model and a production model.[11] The Studio System, safe for office settings[27] is designed for rapid printing and the production of small volumes,[13] while the latter is intended for high-speed production of parts.[27] Both systems include a printer, furnace, and cloud-based software to operate the machines,[14] with the ability to print several hundred alloy types.[11] Forbes described the pricing scheme of the products as "competitive," noting the systems cost "10 times less than what's on the market."[15]

Stratasys, an investor in Desktop Metal,[5] announced in May 2017 that its resellers would stock Desktop Metal's products.[28] The World Economic Forum named Desktop Metal to its 2017 Technology Pioneers list of 30 companies in June,[18] and also that month, MIT Technology Review named Desktop Metal among its 50 Smartest Companies in the World for the year.[29] Desktop Metal raised a total of $115 million[25][30][31][32] in a Series D round of funding in July 2017,[31][33] its largest round to that point.[34][33] Funds went to R&D, its sales program, and international growth[32][33] and brought the total raised since founding to $212 million.[32][34][35] The company began shipping the Studio System in December 2017[24] as part of its "Pioneer" program. The first printer went to Google's Advanced Technology and Products Group[2] and among other early customers were the United States Navy, Built-Rite Tool & Die, and Lumenium.[36]

2018

By early 2018 the company had been granted two patents for separable support and an interface layer, with around 100 patents pending for around 200 inventions.[2] In February 2018 the company previewed Live Parts,[2] a software program for automatically generating printable designs.[37]

At CES 2018 Desktop Metal won an emerging tech award from Digital Trends.[37] In 2018 it also won a Gold[38] Edison Award.[2] In March 2018, Ford Motor Company led a $65 million investment round in Desktop Metal, with Ford's CTO joining Desktop Metal's board of directors.[39] With a $1.2 billion valuation, by May 2018 Desktop Metal had been named the fast growing "unicorn" in United States history, surpassing $1 billion after 21 months in operation.[40] Desktop Metal introduced an upgrade to its industrial scale systems at Formnext 2018, claiming the 50% printing speed increase made the model "the fastest metal printer in the world."[41] Cofounder Ric Fulop asserted that the system dropped the price per part significantly compared to other systems, in one case from $700 per kilo of parts to $50 a kilo.[1]

2019–present

In January 2019, Desktop Metal raised an additional $160 million in funding, resulting in a valuation at $1.5 billion.[8][42][43] By May 2019, the company employed around 300 people, mostly engineers, with the machines made through contract manufacturing. It also had a sales channel distributing in 48 countries.[1] In June 2019, the company began shipping to Europe.[44] By 2019, the company had raised $437 million from investors, and was one of only three 3D printing unicorns. In November it introduced a system for metal job shops[16] and a system using fiber placement.[17]

In December 2020, the company started trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the ticker DM. They did this via a reverse IPO merger with Trine Acquisition Corp. (NYSE:TRNE), a special-purpose acquisition company.[45]

In January 2021, Desktop Metal purchased EnvisionTEC, a German company that specializes in photopolymer printing.[46] On March 15, Desktop Metal announced its new line Desktop Health, specifically focused on healthcare products in the fields of dentistry, orthodontics, dermatology, orthopedics, cardiology, plastic surgery, and printed regenerative.[46][47] Also in March, Michael Mazen Jafar came on board as CEO of the new line.[46][47]

In May 2023, industrial 3D printer company Stratasys agreed to acquire Desktop Metal in an all-stock transaction valuing the combined company at $1.8 billion, in which existing Desktop Metal shareholders will own around 41 percent of the combined company.[48] Stratasys terminated the acquisition in September after its shareholders voted against the acquisition after two companies made unsolicited bids for Stratasys.[49]

Products

Printer systems

Desktop Metal launched its first two products in April 2017:[11] the Studio System, a metal 3D printing system[12] designed for engineers and small production runs,[12][13] and the Production System,[11][14] intended for manufacturers and large-scale printing.[15] In 2019 the company introduced the Shop System, a metal binder jetting printing system designed for machine and metal job shops,[16] as well as Fiber, a continuous carbon fiber printer using automated fiber placement technology (AFP) to make parts.[17]

Studio System

Both the Studio System and Production System include two key components: a printer that produces small objects out of metal powders, and a sintering furnace to densify the objects using[25] thermal processes.[15] The systems can print a variety of materials,[50] including steels, copper,[11] aluminum,[51] and alloys such as Inconel. Powders also used in the metal injection molding market[27] are housed in replaceable cartridges[15] made by various metallurgy companies and Desktop Metal.[11] As the process doesn't utilize high power lasers,[50] or hazardous materials, the Studio System can be housed inside office spaces[15] with standard wall outlets.[14]

The Studio System uses a proprietary technology called Bound Metal Deposition,[12] similar to fused deposition modeling (FDM)[50] where the printer "extrudes a mixture of metal powder and polymers to build up a shape, much as some plastic printers do." When the shape is complete, it is placed in a furnace which burns away the polymers and "compacts the metal particles by sintering them together at just below their melting point."[13] At that temperature the metal is fused without melting and losing its shape.[11] The sintering causes predictable shrinking, which the system's software compensates for by making items slightly larger during the printing step.[13] Beyond the printer and furnace, the Studio System also includes a debinder to remove part of the polymer binder before sintering.[33]

Production System

The Production System uses a printing method where droplets of a binding agent are "jetted" onto a metal powder in heated layers.[14] The method is called Single Pass Jetting, used for quickly producing metal parts.[27] According to the company, the system can process 8,200 cubic centimeters per hour, which is nearly 100 times faster than laser-based systems using powder bed fusion (PBF).[52] It can produce dozens of parts simultaneously.[53] The Production System was named by Popular Science as one of the top engineering innovations of 2017, in the magazine's annual Best of What's New issue.[54]

Live Parts software

Desktop Metal developed Live Parts,[2] an AI software for users to automatically generate printable object designs.[37] The program allows users to input specifications for an object, then creates a computer model which can be printed[55] using any 3-D printing system.[2]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 O'Connor, David (May 10, 2019). "Full throttle: Desktop Metal on automotive manufacturing's new paradigm". TCT Magazine.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 O'Connor, Daniel (May 1, 2018), "Production Ready - Desktop Metal prepares to unleash its Production System", TCT Magazine
  3. ↑ Biagiotti, Mark (October 24, 2017). "Desktop Metal continues to shine in Burlington". Daily Times Chronicle. Retrieved January 19, 2018.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Primack, Dan (April 26, 2016). "Term Sheet — Tuesday, April 26". Fortune. Retrieved January 18, 2018.
  5. 1 2 3 McCue, TJ (October 29, 2015). "Stratasys Invests In Direct 3D Metal Printing Startup". Forbes. United States. Retrieved November 25, 2017.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Kolodny, Lora (February 6, 2017). "BMW and Lowe's among investors pouring $45 million into Desktop Metal, the 3D printer startup". TechCrunch. Retrieved November 25, 2017.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 Woodward, Curt (February 6, 2017). "Metal 3-D printer startup lands another $45m". The Boston Globe. Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Retrieved November 25, 2017.
  8. 1 2 Feldman, Amy. "3-D Printing Unicorn Desktop Metal Grabs Another $160 Million As It Prepares To Ship Its Mass-Production Printers". Forbes.
  9. 1 2 Heater, Brian, "Desktop Metal gets another $65 million in a round led by Ford", TechCrunch
  10. 1 2 3 Desktop Metal Leadership, Desktop Metal, retrieved January 18, 2018
  11. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Kolodny, Lora (April 25, 2017). "Desktop Metal reveals how its 3D printers rapidly churn out metal objects". TechCrunch. Retrieved November 25, 2017.
  12. 1 2 3 4 Mearian, Lucas (April 25, 2017). "Startup claims 3D printers create metal parts faster, more cheaply". Computerworld. Retrieved November 25, 2017.
  13. 1 2 3 4 5 "3D printers start to build factories of the future". The Economist. July 1, 2017. Retrieved January 19, 2018.
  14. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Engel, Jeff (April 25, 2017). "Desktop Metal, Backed By $97M, Unveils Its First Metal 3D Printers". Xconomy. Retrieved January 18, 2018.
  15. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Knapp, Alex (April 25, 2017). "This Startup Aims To Revolutionize Metal 3D Printing For Manufacturers". Forbes. United States. Retrieved November 25, 2017.
  16. 1 2 3 "Desktop Metal 3D Printers Set to Disrupt Manufacturing", Nanalyze
  17. 1 2 3 "3D printing continuous fiber on the desktop", Composites World
  18. 1 2 Dale, Brady (June 16, 2017). "The 7 Coolest Global Companies Fixing All That's Broken in This World". Observer. United States. Retrieved January 19, 2018.
  19. 1 2 3 4 "BRIEF-Desktop Metal says raised $97 million in equity funding since Oct 2015". Reuters. February 6, 2017. Retrieved January 19, 2018.
  20. 1 2 3 4 Engel, Jeff (October 27, 2015). "Stratasys, Big VCs Bet $14M on 3D Printing Startup Desktop Metal". Xconomy. Retrieved January 19, 2018.
  21. 1 2 3 4 5 Engel, Jeff (April 27, 2016). "Desktop Metal Grabs $34M to Move Prototype 3D Printers to Market". Xconomy. Retrieved January 18, 2018.
  22. 1 2 Castellanos, Sara (July 5, 2016). "GE, Saudi Aramco help fund Lexington 3D printing startup". Boston Business Journal. Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Retrieved November 25, 2017.
  23. 1 2 J. O'Brien, Kelly (February 6, 2017). "Google, BMW invest $45M in Burlington 3D printing startup". Boston Business Journal. Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Retrieved January 19, 2018.
  24. 1 2 Chernova, Yuliya (March 19, 2018), "Ford Leads $65 Million Investment in Desktop Metal", The Wall Street Journal
  25. 1 2 3 Vanian, Jonathan (July 17, 2017). "This Startup Just Got Over $100 Million to Push Metal 3D-Printing". Fortune. Retrieved November 25, 2017.
  26. ↑ Mims, Christopher (May 14, 2017). "Your Shoes Will Be Printed Shortly - Innovative techniques in 3-D printing mean some previously impossible design will start showing up in consumer products". The Wall Street Journal. New York City, United States. Retrieved January 15, 2018.
  27. 1 2 3 4 Molitch-Hou, Michael (April 25, 2017). "Desktop Metal Reveals 100x Faster Metal 3D Printing Tech". Engineering.com. Retrieved January 19, 2018.
  28. ↑ Davies, Sam (May 9, 2017). "Stratasys and Desktop Metal announce extension of strategic partnership". TCT Magazine. Retrieved January 19, 2018.
  29. ↑ "50 Smartest Companies 2017". MIT Technology Review. United States. June 27, 2017. Retrieved November 25, 2017.
  30. ↑ Heater, Brian (July 18, 2017). "Desktop Metal gets $115 million in funding to deliver metal 3D printing for manufacturing". TechCrunch. Retrieved January 19, 2018.
  31. 1 2 Chernova, Yuliya (July 17, 2017). "Manufacturing Startup Desktop Metal's Valuation Tops $1 Billion - Fast rise for a company that has yet to ship first product". The Wall Street Journal. New York City, United States. Retrieved November 25, 2017.
  32. 1 2 3 Tsang, Amie; de la Merced, Michael (July 17, 2017). "Morning Agenda: Peltz Challenges Procter & Gamble". The New York Times. New York City, United States. Retrieved January 15, 2018.
  33. 1 2 3 4 Sawers, Paul (July 17, 2017). "Desktop Metal raises $115 million to make metal 3D printing more accessible". VentureBeat. Retrieved January 19, 2018.
  34. 1 2 Rosen, Andy (July 17, 2017). "Desktop Metal gets $115 million investment in 3D printing technology". The Boston Globe. Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Retrieved November 25, 2017.
  35. ↑ Keene, Cindy Atoji (November 16, 2017), "12 weeks of paid parental leave applies to dads, too", The Boston Globe
  36. ↑ Knapp, Alex (December 18, 2017), "Desktop Metal Begins Shipping Its Metal 3D Printers For The Office", Forbes
  37. 1 2 3 Newman, Daniel (January 16, 2018), "Top 18 Tech Trends At CES 2018", Forbes
  38. ↑ Desktop Metal named 2018 Gold Edison Award winner, The Fabricator, April 16, 2018
  39. ↑ "Ford invests $65 million Desktop Metal's 3D-printing technology - Boston Business Journal". www.bizjournals.com. Retrieved March 20, 2018.
  40. ↑ Schubarth, Cromwell (May 2, 2018), These 10 unicorns flew the fastest to billion-dollar valuations, Silicon Valley Business Journal
  41. ↑ "Desktop Metal upgrades Production System for 2019 launch, claims "fastest metal printer in the world"". 3D Printing Industry. November 13, 2018.
  42. ↑ Vinoski, Jin (May 20, 2019). "Ely Sachs Is The Living Embodiment of 3-D Printing". www.forbes.com.
  43. ↑ "2019 3D Printing Industry Awards winners announced". 3D Printing Industry. June 11, 2019. Retrieved July 8, 2019.
  44. ↑ "Desktop Metal Studio System receives CE certification, European shipments begin". Metal AM. June 20, 2019.
  45. ↑ "Desktop Metal is now officially on the NYSE » 3dpbm". 3D Printing Media Network - The Pulse of the AM Industry. December 10, 2020. Retrieved April 19, 2021.
  46. 1 2 3 "Desktop Metal launches a health-focused business line". TechCrunch. Retrieved April 19, 2021.
  47. 1 2 Dignan, Larry. "Desktop Metal forms Desktop Health, aims to expand into healthcare". ZDNet. Retrieved April 19, 2021.
  48. ↑ Roof, Katie; Baker, Liana (May 25, 2023). "Stratasys to Combine With Desktop Metal in $1.8 Billion Deal". Bloomberg News.
  49. ↑ Habib-Valdhorn, Shiri (September 28, 2023). "Stratasys shareholders nix merger with Desktop Metal". Globes.
  50. 1 2 3 Products, Desktop Metal, 2017, retrieved November 27, 2017
  51. ↑ The 3D Printing Company That Could Transform Manufacturing, Bloomberg, May 14, 2018
  52. ↑ Wohlers, Terry (2017), Desktop Metal: A Rising Star of Metal AM Targets Speed, Cost and High-Volume Production, Shrewsbury, United Kingdom: Metal AM, p. 92, retrieved January 19, 2018
  53. ↑ Bray, Hiawatha (October 22, 2017), "Thinking outside the mold, with 3-D printers that make objects of steel", The Boston Globe
  54. ↑ Griggs, Mary Beth (October 17, 2017). "This year's 11 most important innovations in engineering". Popular Science. Retrieved November 25, 2017.
  55. ↑ "10 Breakthrough Technologies", MIT Technology Review, 2018
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