On September 18, 2018, Antarctic Bear learned from foreign media that Evolve Additive Solutions (EAS), a subsidiary of Stratasys, announced the completion of a 19 million US dollar equity investment led by the Lego Group. Undisclosed investors.
Evolve Additive Solutions was established earlier this year as a subsidiary of Stratasys to develop a proprietary Selective Thermoplastic Electrophotographic Process (STEP) technology designed to pass 50 times faster than existing additive manufacturing solutions Scalable solutions that radically improve manufacturing.
Based on Stratasys' 3D printing and additive manufacturing expertise, Evolve's STEP technology is expected to compete with traditional processes such as injection molding. The solution is suitable for high-volume production of hundreds of thousands per year.
Electrophotographic technology, also known as electrostatic copying, is the technology used by most copiers and laser printers. The essence is the use of electrostatic charges to attach images to a substrate (that is, paper). This kind of substrate is only a single 2D thin layer, but if you stack them layer by layer, you can form a 3D solid. This is the principle of EPSD technology-it changes the substrate from paper to a powder-based photosensitive insulation material, and then exposes a slice of the target object as an image on it, and finally achieves 3D printing. The whole process is roughly as follows:
① Set the substrate to a state that can accept the potential charge image of the 3D object, thereby attracting the dots of material particles to the charging or discharging area of the image, and "printing" the various layers of the object. These particles melt under heat and pressure, and then fuse together.
② Add these layers to the substrate one by one through the transfer belt until the entire 3D solid is created. It is worth mentioning that the transfer belt is the key to the convenience of this technology because it can hold multiple objects at one time. In addition, a semi-curing reaction occurs on it, which reduces the water content of the material and generates residual stress.
Designed for automated manufacturing and factory-level integration, the highly scalable STEP solution combines time-tested 2D imaging technology with a proprietary patent developed by Evolve to precisely create fully dense parts with isotropic properties.
Steve Chillscyzn, CEO of Evolve Additive Solutions, commented: "As we begin the commercial development of professional STEP technology, Evolve has entered an exciting new phase of growth and we are excited to establish equity partnerships with the world's leading companies, which Recognize the production potential of STEP and work with Evolve to bring the technology to commercialization. "
The LEGO Group has been using additive manufacturing technology for more than 20 years. "Today, the company mainly uses this technology to create prototypes in the development of new products, and we believe that this technology will become a more important complement to injection molding in the future," said Per Hjuler, a business unit of the LEGO Brand Group. "With Evolve Additive Solutions, we have found a very competent partner in this area."