IKONICS, not to be confused with Bosnian basketball player Goran Ikonić, is an imaging solutions company that has, since its inception in the 1950s, branched out into specialized machining and a process called “digital texturing”. In the company’s most recent annual financial report, IKONICS has outted itself as another player interested in entering the 3D printer market. There’s an interesting sentence tacked onto the end of one paragraph in the Future Outlook section of the report stating, “The Company has modified its DTX technology to enter the market for prototyping and 3D printing.”
IKONICS has gradually grown as a business thanks to its photoimaging technology, specifically UV light. In more recent history, the company has manufactured micro-machining systems that machine fine details onto tough, brittle objects using UV light and sand. IKONICS’ DTX machines are different, though, used to print photoresist textures that can then be placed into moulds to be wrapped around the surfaces of objects. An example of such digital texturing might be the bumps of leather-type material you might see on the steering wheel of your car to give it depth and friction. You can watch a video describing the digital texturing process below:
What it means for IKONICS to modify their DTX technology for 3D printing and prototyping, I’m not sure. Because their DTX machines rely on UV light, could it be possible that they have something similar to stereolithography in mind? Maybe they’ve figured out how to add a Z-axis to their two dimensional printers so as to 3D print textured objects. Any other ideas are welcome. We’ll have to wait and see if IKONICS brings anything revolutionary, or indeed new, to the floor.
Source: Yahoo! Finance
