One of the oft-ignored 3D printing technologies is laminated object manufacturing (LOM), in which layers of material (such as paper, plastic, or metal) are glued together, pressed with a heated roller, and subsequently cut out with a blade or laser. The process, originally developed by Helisys Inc., was largely abandoned because of its inability to produce very complex, precise, functional, or hollow parts. A much superior evolution of that process does exist today in the form of Mcor’s prominent 3D paper printing technique. Not that long ago, however, an Israeli company called Solido intended to capture the 3D printing market with the sale of desktop LOM machines, originally priced at about $15k. There are still a few Solido SD300 3D printers around, sold by companies like SolidModelUSA for less than $10k, but Solido seems to be out of business. After news of the company’s termination in 2011, there are still strange noises bubbling from what was thought to be its corpse.
Apparently, in February, a shell corporation called EZ Energy Ltd. (TASE:EZ) announced that it would enter the 3D printing market. According to the Israeli business news site Globes, the remnants of Solido Ltd. may be acquired by an unknown private company and 12% of that company will be acquired by EZ Energy Ltd. This strange, difficult to decipher news, does not seem out of place in Solido’s tumultuous history.
Founded in 2000, Solido was meant to revolutionize the desktop 3D printing market with its plastic laminate printing process. Over the course of its lifespan, Solido earned millions of dollars, culminating in an investment from a private equity fund called Fortissimo Capital. Fortissimo backed out of the deal, paying only $3 million of its intended $8.5 million investment, after “disputes over due diligence”, according to Globe. Without the funds necessary to continue, Solido laid off all of its 30 employees and entered receivership.
It’s difficult to know what this news means, not only due to the legal jargon, but also given the physiological obstacles preventing human beings from seeing into the future. aminated object manufacturing, though previously deemed affordable (despite the $350 price of printing materials at SolidModelUSA), was also thought to be inferior to other 3D printing methods. Still, while cautious, we shall not entirely discount EZ Energy, Ltd. before seeing what it can come up with.
Source: Businessweek
