It’s an exciting time for the Origin team and me personally; on January 5, we announced the closing of our merger with Stratasys. Now that it’s official, I want to share with this community a little bit about us and why Stratasys was the optimal company for us to join in realising our vision.
When Joel Ong and I started Origin five years ago, polymer 3D print technology and materials did not have the speed, properties, and part economics for end-use applications at a large scale. These limitations led us on a path to develop a solution to realise that vision - the application of 3D printing to mass production.
Early on, we could see that it would be impossible for us to go it alone to provide an end-to-end solution. By working with world-class chemical companies, we could leverage each other's strengths and create additive solutions that enabled the part economics, mechanical properties, and throughput for production at scale.
The past year also shed new light on our industry and was a catalyst for photopolymerization technology for end-use parts, jumpstarted by our collaborative COVID-19 PPE and NP Swab production program. Most importantly, the collaboration between partners, customers, and even competitors has dramatically expanded the viability of additive production applications. In April, we announced a partnership with Stratasys to accelerate our 3D-printed NP Swabs' distribution to the places that needed them the most. We saw value in focusing on production while leveraging Stratasys global go-to-market capabilities and experience in the medical industry.
We believe the broader manufacturing industry is ready for mainstream adoption of 3D printing for end-use parts. But there is still a lot of work to be done for additive manufacturing to be as ubiquitous as traditional manufacturing methods.
We have merged with Stratasys to work together and leverage each other's resources, infrastructure, and capabilities to develop the next chapter of additive manufacturing for mass production. Together we will continue to push the envelope of additive manufacturing by offering our customers and partners the expertise, world-class support, and infrastructure of the largest 3D printing company in the world. Our capabilities will continue to evolve with a focus on delivering the best solution for our customers.
There isn't a single AM technology that can address current and future applications in manufacturing. There also isn't a single company that can fulfill all the needs of the market. In 2018 we came out of stealth mode announcing our partnership with BASF, pioneering the concept of Open Additive Manufacturing, which was a novel concept at the time.
This approach has delivered rapid growth of new advanced materials, partnerships, and applications. Relationships with materials and other manufacturing solution partners like BASF, Henkel, DSM, nTopology, and Dymax help us bring new and better solutions to our customers faster. Together with our partners, we’ve brought to market the world’s first photo-reactive FST material; economical, high-performance dental model materials; and moulding resins that compete with metal tooling. Over the past couple of years, the Origin One 3D printer and our proprietary Programmable PhotoPolymerization (P3) technology have produced millions of end-use parts in the footwear, aerospace, dental, medical, and tooling industries across nine different countries, at just a very early stage of commercialisation.
In our next phase, we will focus on robust application validation and process control to give manufacturers the confidence to invest in additive solutions for end-use parts.
Simultaneously, with Stratasys, we will strengthen our partnerships with world-class chemical companies and manufacturing software providers to build the best additive production ecosystem and unlock groundbreaking applications.
While the world defeats COVID-19, we will use the next few months to fully integrate into Stratasys' infrastructure and lay the foundation for a mass additive production ecosystem for us, our partners, and customers to scale.
While this is the end of our journey as Origin, our story is just beginning. There is still a lot of work to be done to fulfill the mission of mass additive manufacturing.
Join us for the next evolution.
