Evonik
Evonik has announced it has acquired Structured Polymers, a US-based start-up focused on the development of polymer powders for selective laser sintering (SLS) technology.
As a result of the deal Structured Polymers will be fully integrated into Evonik’s North American business with the company headquarters remaining in Austin, Texas.
Structured Polymers was co-founded by the inventor of SLS technology, Carl Deckard, and boasts a new patented technology which enables the production of polymer powders with controlled particle sizes ranging in diameter between 0.1 and 400 µm.
Evonik believes this technology will supplement its current capabilities and expand its offering to the additive manufacturing market.
“The acquisition of Structured Polymers’ technology excellently complements our existing activities with high-performance polymers for additive manufacturing,” commented Dr. Ralph Marquardt, the head of Strategy and Growth Businesses for Evonik Resource Efficiency GmbH. “Thanks to our decades of expertise in polymer chemistry, this means we will expand our portfolio of customised, ready-to-use polymer materials for the highly attractive, rapidly growing 3D printing market, thus giving us a key role in shaping development of that market.”
“The new technology allows us to take virtually any semi-crystalline thermoplastic, such as polybutylene terephthalate, polyether ketone, or polyamide 6, or polymer powders with specialised properties like colour, conductivity, or flame protection, and produce them for common powder-based 3D printing processes, such as selective laser sintering, high-speed sintering, or multi-jet fusion,” offered Thomas Grosse-Puppendahl, the head of the Additive Manufacturing Innovation Growth Field at Evonik. “In addition, we anticipate that Structured Polymers’ technology can be scaled up easily and economically.”
“We are very pleased to harness the power of Evonik to expand our innovative technology platform even further,” added Vikram Devarajan, CEO of Structured Polymers. “In the near future, this will allow us to diversify the 3D printing materials market to a significant degree and to work with our customers on developing new business opportunities.”
