Austrian developer of Lithography-based Metal Manufacturing (LMM) process, Incus GmbH closes its year 2021 with a series A investment round. While the exact amount of this investment round was not disclosed, we do know it will support the industrialization of the company’s LMM process across industries.
As a reminder, this process enables the fabrication of prototypes and small-scale production of components in MIM (metal injection moulding) quality. The last time we talked about this process’ capabilities, it was to highlight the technology’s potential for the production of ready-to-use parts in space.
With the new investment round, the Austrian company plans to develop a new printer concept which would include a larger building volume and simplified post-processing steps. Based on industry companies’ feedback and expectations regarding industrialized AM production, the concept will bring automation to another level, while bringing down cost per part and manufacturing larger parts at the same printing speed.
“The continued support of our investors underscores the potential of our technology and enables us to expand our operational and R&D capability,” stated Dr. Gerald Mitteramskogler, CEO of Incus. “Our production-scale printer is symbolic of our future goals. In sinter-based AM, post processing and the manual work it entails is time-consuming and we are planning to provide new solutions to simplify these steps, especially for smaller parts.”
The printing of the green parts is followed by several steps such as cleaning and preparing to create the final product. For smaller, complex parts, the fine cleaning step might account for more than 50% of the total manufacturing costs due to manual labour. Incus is exploring new ways of simplifying these steps to minimize labor via automation and reduce costs, the company explains in a press communication.
“Post-processing is one of the biggest pain points in additive manufacturing. We believe that with Incus and the LMM technology we have a manufacturing solution in our portfolio that can bring the industry closer to a practical solution for mass manufacturing,” adds Johann Oberhofer, Managing Partner at AM Ventures.
Lastly, Incus has grown its team of experts from four to 16 employees during the past two years. The company now adds Adrian Keppler, industry expert and former CEO of EOS GmbH to its investors’ board in order to receive guidance on the growth journey ahead. Keppler will help to transform Incus from a product to a solution business focusing on overall customer success.
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