As the desktop 3D printing industry begins to mature, certain brands have survived the dive into the trough of Gartner’s Hype Cycle. Among them is XYZprinting, a subsidiary of the $30 billion contract manufacturer Kinpo Group, which made a surprise entrance into the 3D printing industry in 2014 with its low-cost da Vinci 3D printer. Soon, the company would begin to outsell even top brands like MakerBot and Ultimaker, according to market research firm Canalys. XYZprinting has continued to grow, and its most recent partnership with Dassault Systèmes is, in some ways, evidence as to just how far the Taiwanese brand has come.
XYZprinting has just announced a deal with the European software giant to integrate 3D printing solutions from XYZprinting’s product ecosystem into the widely used SOLIDWORKS software. This means that SOLIDWORKS users will be able to send their CAD files directly to XYZprinting devices for 3D printing. In other words, the process of exporting a model as an STL file and opening it in a separate print management software for 3D printing has been eliminated.
The 3D Jet inkjet 3D printer from XYZprinting, capable of layer thicknesses as fine as 13 microns. (Image courtesy of
Volim Photo.)
This is only a small bit of news from the two companies, but may be significant in some regards. XYZprinting began as a consumer-focused brand, releasing a number of low-cost fused filament fabrication 3D printers. While it continues to bring down the prices on its consumer products, the company has also expanded its range, venturing into the industrial market. This began with the Nobel 1.0 stereolithography 3D printer, but XYZprinting has also unveiled an inkjetting 3D printer, capable of printing at layer thicknesses as fine as 13 microns, and is developing a full-color binder jetting platform that it claims could be four to ten times faster than other binder jetting systems.
Previously, XYZprinting integrated its ecosystem into Microsoft’s 3D Builder app, allowing for direct 3D printing to XYZ printers. As the consumer 3D printing hype begins to die down, however, it’s important that the company establish itself in the industrial realm. According to Dassault Systèmes, “[m]ore than 3,073,600 product designers and engineers worldwide” use SOLIDWORKS. By making its products accessible to this audience, XYZprinting has a chance to demonstrate its industrial applications to an industrial crowd.