The formnext 2019 start-up challenge winners will be at next week’s show in Frankfurt. 3D Printing Industry was again on the jury panel to select start-ups bringing innovative solutions to the additive manufacturing sector.
Spectroplast offers a silicone 3D printing service using SLA and DLP 3D printers.
Company co-founder and CTO Petar Stefanov told me more about what visitors to the start-up area at this year’s formnext can expect to see.
3D Printing Industry: When was your company founded and where are operations based?
Spectroplast: Spectroplast was founded in 2018 as a spinoff from ETH Zurich – one of the world’s leading technical universities. We chose Zurich, Switzerland for the company headquarters because of the abundance of highly skilled and highly motivated young people.
3D Printing Industry: What does your company do?
Spectroplast: Spectroplast is introducing the world’s first high precision real silicone 3D prints. We developed material chemistry and a process to 3D print real silicone objects with very high precision and at an industrial scale. Spectroplast currently makes this technology available through our 3D print service, where customers can upload digital files on our website and we manufacture and ship back physical products.
3D Printing Industry: How does your company fit into the additive manufacturing ecosystem?
Spectroplast: As a 3D printing service we are addressing a variety of markets ranging from general industries for customized sealants, through life-enhancing products like hearing aid enclosures and prosthetics, to life-saving products like patient-specific anatomical models for surgical training. We try to position ourselves as a complementary process to liquid injection molding suitable for manufacturing of small and medium series production of finished products as well as functional prototypes.
3D Printing Industry: What are you hoping to gain from exhibiting at Formnext 2019?
Spectroplast: Formnext is always a blast. For us, it is a great opportunity to demonstrate to potential customers with industrial and healthcare applications that, for the first time ever, there is an alternative process to manufacture real silicone products faster and at a fraction of the cost of conventional methods. At Spectroplast production starts with 1 piece and products are shipped within days instead of weeks or even months as is the case with liquid injection molding.
3D Printing Industry: How would you describe the roadmap for your enterprise in the coming years?
Spectroplast: The healthcare and medical sectors are a major focus for us as we believe that our technology opens new options for patient-specific medical devices that can improve the lives of patients in need everywhere. In addition to constantly improving the quality and increasing our production capacity, we plan to target all necessary certification of compliance for introducing a medically certified silicone material to the world of additive manufacturing.
3D Printing Industry: Is there anything else you would like our readers to know about?
Spectroplast: Visit our booth at Formnext 2019 to learn more about how Spectroplast’s silicone 3D printing technology is disrupting various industries ranging from industrial to healthcare and medical.
More information about Spectroplast is available online.
The 3D Printing Industry team will be back in Frankfurt for formnext next week. Get in touch if you’d like to meet. If you can’t attend the show, then follow our social media accounts on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
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Featured image shows flexible 3D printed silicones. Photo via Spectroplast.
