EOS founder Dr. Hans J. Langer has taken on a partnership in young Munich company DyeMansion GmbH as a business angel and shareholder.
The partnership was first initiated at the Munich 3D-Printing-Cluster, founded by EOS, UnternehmerTUM GmbH and the Strascheg Center for Entrepreneurship to encourage additive manufacturing development between established companies and startups. Adding colour to the world of laser sintered plastics is something that Langer believes is key to further developing additive manufacturing applications and the AM leader saw DyeMansion’s technology as the ideal platform for that growth.
“Ever since laser sinter technology has found increasing use in the production of additive manufactured serial parts, the demand for a simple, efficient and easily scalable colouring solution that provides not only high quality but also easily reproducible colouring results has intensified,” Felix Ewald, CEO of DyeMansion explained. “DyeMansion now offers exactly that solution. Thanks to the support of Dr. Langer and his group of companies, including the global market leader for industrial 3D printing technology, we now have the best possible conditions for making our vision a reality.”
Ewald, together with his co-founder and CTO Philipp Kramer, discovered this market niche back in 2013, and set out to develop this unique colouring technology that is now being made available.
Kramer adds: “The particular challenge was in coordinating the individual process sequence so that high quality and stable reproducibility are ensured in equal parts.”
According to DyeMansion, this proprietary process considerably improves several characteristics of treated parts including a high quality surface appearance and resistance to dirt, water and abrasion. The yellowing often found in laser sintered products is significantly reduced and colours are UV stable and bleach and solvent resistant.
The DyeMansion colouring process is available to order. Within just two working days, parts are coloured, polished and waterproofed. Currently, DyeMansion offers eight standard colours but eventually plans to offer the entire RAL colour range.
Detail about the future of the technology are very much on the quiet but Ewald added: “We are working on a scalable and global solution so that our technology can be used by customers worldwide.”
