Business

AMT completes $15M Series B funding round to advance post-processing technology

Additive Manufacturing Technologies (AMT), a UK-based provider of automated post-processing systems for the 3D printing industry, has announced the completion of a new £11M ($15M) Series B funding round.

The funding, led by Foresight Group’s Foresight Williams Technology Funds, brings AMT’s total capital raised to £18M ($25M). Additional contributions were made by new investors Saint-Gobain Surface Solutions and 15th Rock Ventures, and existing investors DSM Venturing, Midwest Additive Ventures, and NPIF – Mercia Equity Finance.

AMT will use the funding to secure the roll-out of its new PostPro SF chemical vapor surface finishing system, support the delivery of its upcoming PostPro DMS product, and scale its day-to-day commercial operations. The firm has also stated plans to invest in, and protect, its growing IP portfolio, which now boasts over 40 granted and pending patents.

Joseph Crabtree, CEO and Founder of AMT, said, “We are proud that all of our current investors have recognized the progress we’ve made and are continuing to support our vision to transform the 3D printing industry. This investment will allow us to commercialize and scale our end-to-end PostPro DMS Platform, for which we have already taken orders, and deliver on our vision of using 3D Printing as a viable alternative to traditional manufacturing.”

AMT Senior Management Team -Top L-R: Luis Folgar (EVP Americas) and Joseph Crabtree (CEO & Founder). Bottom L-R: Manish Dev (CFO/COO) and Viktor Pap-Kovacs (CTO). Photo via AMT.
AMT Senior Management Team -Top L-R: Luis Folgar (EVP Americas) and Joseph Crabtree (CEO & Founder). Bottom L-R: Manish Dev (CFO/COO) and Viktor Pap-Kovacs (CTO). Photo via AMT.

The drive towards AM industrialization

AMT expects the 3D printing industry to scale 10x over the next ten years, with more and more companies leveraging additive manufacturing for end-use part production. While 3D printers themselves are offering ever-greater throughput potential, it’s the post-processing market space that’s playing catch up. Essentially, the depowdering and surface finishing workflow is still a highly manual one, relying on human technicians to finish 3D printed polymer parts off before they’re shipped or assembled.

As well as accounting for up to 60% of a part’s costs, these manual steps are extremely time-inefficient and can lead to high part breakage rates. This is a bottleneck in the 3D printing workflow, rendering the technology unviable for high-volume applications. To truly scale and industrialize additive manufacturing, the industry needs automated post-processing systems like the ones offered by AMT.

“Although 3D Printing has been around for 20+ years, it is only now that we are starting to see the transition from low volume prototyping to end-use manufacturing at scale,” adds Crabtree. “Our automated 3D Printed part finishing platform is enabling blue chip companies to manufacture everything from critical medical suppliers to industrial components.”

TPU 3D printed parts before and after PostPro Chemical Vapor Smoothing. Photo via AMT.
TPU 3D printed parts before and after PostPro Chemical Vapor Smoothing. Photo via AMT.

AMT and the PostPro DMS

Since its founding in 2017, AMT has grown to over 80 employees in the UK, US, Hungary, and Taiwan. The company now has its post-processing systems deployed in over 25 countries around the world, and has processed over six million 3D printed parts.

Having doubled its revenue in 2020, AMT will now use the new capital to help launch its latest post-processing system, the PostPro DMS, in 2022. Described as an ‘end-to-end post-processing platform’, the PostPro DMS joins AMT’s existing portfolio of PostPro SF vapor smoothing devices and PostPro DP depowdering systems.

“Automated post-production is becoming crucial to enabling 3D printing at industrial scale”, said Andrew Bloxam, Director at Foresight. “This is a trend we see gathering pace and AMT has developed market-leading technology in this area. With this in mind, we are excited to continue supporting AMT as it looks to scale and expand into new markets.”

AMT PostProDP systems. Image via AMT.
AMT PostProDP systems. Image via AMT.

Earlier this year, AMT also closed a £2.5 million funding round following a partnership agreement with multinational printing firm HP to provide end-to-end post-processing services for HP’s Multi Jet Fusion (MJF) technology. The capital was used to accelerate the company’s growth and product development plans for the industrial 3D printing sector. 

More recently, AMT also received an Innovate UK grant worth £87,000 to develop a new organic solvent designed specifically for the post-processing of elastomer materials. Designed specifically for thermoplastic elastomers such as TPU, the solvent can be used in AMT’s PostPro Chemical Vapor Smoothing Process.

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Featured image shows the AMT Senior Management Team -Top L-R: Luis Folgar (EVP Americas) and Joseph Crabtree (CEO & Founder). Bottom L-R: Manish Dev (CFO/COO) and Viktor Pap-Kovacs (CTO). Photo via AMT.