As a first, highly visible step on this journey, AddiFab has relocated to new and significantly larger facilities.
The last time we talked about AddiFab, we were discovering how the company’s technology delivers the freedom of additive manufacturing with the volumes of injection molding in a unique manufacturing process called Freeform Injection Moulding (FIM).
A lot has happened since then for the Danish manufacturer. Like many companies, AddiFab has played its part during the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic, by collaborating with Danish emergency medicine specialist Michael Mølmer to create a PPE that protects front-line workers from exposure to airborne vira like Corona, Sars and Mers – this of course, using its FIM process.
Once it has found stability – or let’s say a new way of operating amid this pandemic, the expert in the field of printed injection mold tooling unveiled a module for micro injection molders.
Named AddLine Micro, the module would be an upgrade package that allows users of AddiFab printers to increase printer resolution from a very decent 50 µm to a top-of-the-line 10 µm. In other words, the smallest feature achievable is smaller than a white blood cell. According to the company, for Micro Injection Molders, this level of resolution is exactly what is needed.
Lasse Staal, co-founder and CEO of AddiFab, has spent more than a decade developing minimally invasive medical devices. He sees the new 10 µm package as a very strong value-add for this industry. “With Freeform Injection Molding, we basically broke down the materials barrier between 3D printing and injection molding,” he says. “We have also demonstrated that FIM does not impact biocompatibility in a range of rubbers and polymers, enabling device manufacturers to blitz through pre-clinical trials. Miniaturization is one of the hottest topics in the medical device industry, and we are proud to support medical device manufacturers in their efforts to bring better devices faster to market.”
The Add-Line Micro package should have been made available to select beta customers during this Q1 2021. Hopefully by the end of the year, the company will share a first feedback regarding the use of this new module.
Furthermore, as we are ending this first quarter of the year, AddiFab makes other great announcements for its expansion: a fund raising of mGBP 4.5. (6.3 mUSD) led by leading private equity firm West Hill Capital and the move to a new office.
The round that was completed in only 48 hours, will support the development of the Freeform Injection Molding-as-a-service in the US, EU and Japan as well as the development of applications in key verticals including but not limited to Medical Devices, Personal Protective Equipment, Automotive, Packaging, Consumer Electronics, Personalized Prostheses and Critical Utility Infrastructure. Remember FIM is a good production candidate in prototyping applications for recycled materials and other materials that are not otherwise 3D-printable.
The new headquarters – conveniently localized near Copenhagen airport, subway and highways – offer more than twice the space for growth. Lasse Staal explains: “At AddiFab, we are dedicated to supporting our customers in their implementations of Freeform Injection Molding. The new headquarters allow us to take this support to an entirely different level. Whether it be extensive feasibility studies, on-site R&D projects or deliveries of larger FIM system packages, we will be able to accommodate customer ambitions”.
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