In April, Stratasys announced the formation of a spin-off company capable of unprecedented production capabilities. Since then, Evolve Additive’s Selective Toner Electrophotographic Process (STEP) has received validation in the form of a $19 million investment and its first alpha customer.
Ahead of the 2018 International Manufacturing Technology Show, Evolve announced that “a large manufacturing company with an iconic brand name and the undisputed leader in their field” had been shipped the first STEP system. This partner is meant to help take STEP out of Evolve’s lab and develop the technology for use in a manufacturing environment, including testing of STEP for new manufacturing strategies to reduce time to market and expand product design abilities.
STEP could have a big impact on the way goods are manufactured. As we described in our interview with the company’s founders, the technology “works by electrostatically charging a roller, which then passes over the build material, attracting the plastic particles onto the roller into the shape of an individual object layer. The particles are transferred onto a conveyor belt, which carry the layer to a build platform, where it is fused onto the preceding layers. In the existing version of the STEP machine, this reciprocating platform is moved back and forth continuously until the print job is complete. The tray then exits the machine and, using water, the supports are washed away from the printed objects.”
Evolve claims that STEP is 50 times faster than other polymer printing processes, like high-speed sintering (which is similar to HP’s Multi Jet Fusion). This results in a lower part cost for short and medium batches than traditional manufacturing methods. The process can produce isotropic parts with engineering-grade thermoplastics and is capable of full-color and multi-material printing.
It’s no wonder then that the company was able to raise $19 million through an equity investment round led by the LEGO Brand Group, with participation from Stanley Black & Decker Investments and another undisclosed investor. The LEGO Group has been using 3D printing for over 20 years, mostly for prototyping, but see 3D printing as a method for supplementing injection molding in the future. It could be that STEP would be used to 3D print end products at some point.
To learn more about the company, visit the Evolve Additive website.