With this cessation of activity, 15 employees will be looking for a new job opportunity.
ARMOR GROUP, an industrial company specializing in ink formulation, and coating of thin layers on thin films, announced it is shutting down its 3D printing business KIMYA. The company launched this AM business 6 years ago, at 3D Print Lyon – with intrapreneur Pierre Antoine Pluvinage as project leader and business development director.
For those who do not know, KIMYA specializes in the development and commercialization of high-performance materials for AM. The parent company’s expertise in other industrial sectors such as responsible printing, foils for batteries and ribbons, gave KIMYA enough credit to accelerate its go-to-market strategy.
Like many material producers in the AM industry, the company signed collaborations with 3D printer manufacturers and resellers to expand its scope. ARMOR GROUP went further by opening another facility in the USA for the production of its materials.
“Usually I like to announce good news like the recent investment in ARMOR BATTERY FILMS’ new factory. But today it was with regret that we announced the closure of our KIMYA filament production and 3D additive manufacturing business, which we enthusiastically launched in 2017. ARMOR GROUP had nevertheless invested around €15 million in this new activity, which looked promising at the time, with 30 to 40% growth expected in this industrial segment. Unfortunately, growth in this market has been much weaker than expected, and the economic crisis has hit it hard, with sales volumes of new machines falling, leaving no prospect of any significant improvement in the medium term. Market leaders such as Stratasys are also suffering, and have just announced major layoff plans. The jobs of 15 people are affected. We will support them as best we can in line with our values to enable them to find new opportunities internally or externally. […] I’d like to thank the KIMYA teams who, around their manager Benoit Stoeux, have done a remarkable job in an adverse market and fought to the end, as well as the customers and suppliers who have supported us in this adventure,” Hubert de Boisredon said.
Stoeux took the lead of KIMYA last year, after Pluvinage’s departure. If it wasn’t for the current economic climate, we would have thought that Pluvinage’s departure somehow announced KIMYA’s cessation but the company is not the only high-performance material producer that discontinued its business.
Braskem, a large Brazilian petrochemicals company that bought filament supplier Taulman last year and spun out its 3D printing business into a separate unit called Xtellar during the same year shut down the operation of this activity in June of this year.
One reason that may explain this cessation is the fact that the activity of material producers on strong energy costs that they are not ready to deal with but that’s not enough. The upcoming November/December edition of 3D ADEPT Mag will provide further analysis of what this means for the industry.
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