Mantle
Automotive mould insert printed with Mantle's TrueShape technology.
Automotive mould insert printed with Mantle's TrueShape technology.
California-based Mantle has come out of stealth to launch its TrueShape metal 3D printing technology which has been designed to produce tooling components.
The company has stepped into the market off the back of a $13m investment round and believes its technology can ‘shave months’ off lengthy and costly development cycles within the tooling sector.
Said to produce high-precision metal parts, Mantle has developed its TrueShape technology in order to address the challenges of tooling in product development cycles. Wanting to reduce the time it takes to develop and procure tools, as well as the thousands of dollars it costs, Mantle is bringing to market a technology that combines additive manufacturing and subtractive finishing into a single hybrid process. The technology works by printing flowable metal paste material in the shape of the part using a precise positioning system and extrusion-based print head before high-speed cutting shapes the layers to improve part surface finish and detail. Parts are then put through a sintering process where they are heated to a temperature just below their melting point and fused into a dense, solid metal component.
The company believes TrueShape yields a superior accuracy and surface finish, while also being able to use unique metal pastes that produce high-hardness steels that meet the demanding requirements of the tooling industry.
“Manufacturers require proven part quality and performance. By using Mantle printed tooling, they can continue to use the same high-performance thermoplastics and get parts of equivalent or superior quality in less time and at a lower cost,” commented Ted Sorom, CEO and co-founder of Mantle. “We help companies speed their product to market with dramatically faster new product introductions while leveraging their proven mass production expertise.”
Though the company has operated in stealth, it has already managed to get its technology in the hands of manufacturers. A global appliance manufacturer is said to have produced over 200,000 washing machine parts with a Mantle mould component that cost 67% less than its traditional counterpart and took 70% less time to be produced. Additionally, a medical device manufacturer has reduced the lead time of one tool by 80% and is said to have performed ‘just as well as tools made with traditional methods.’ Cosmetics company L’Oréal has also had access to TrueShape.
“Mantle’s TrueShape technology delivered the dimensional tolerances and surface finish that are needed for the precision moulds we use at L’Oréal,” offered Blake Soeters, Director Product Conception at L’Oréal. “We are excited because of the positive impact this technology will have on our ability to rapidly bring new products to market.”
Bringing products to market is the goal of Mantle too, and not just through its users. The company’s offering includes custom printing hardware, a user-friendly software suite and multiple tool steel materials. It has also said ‘additional solutions’ are on the roadmap for a wide range of applications in the ‘$300B precision parts market’, which includes jigs and fixtures, low volume industrial machinery and spare parts, and high volume part production. Mantle has so far been supported in its endeavours by a range of venture capital investors, with Foundation Capital, Hypertherm Ventures, 11.2 capital, Plug and Play Ventures, Corazon Capital and Future Shape, the investment firm of former Apple inventor Tony Fadell, all joining to raise $13m for the company.
“Mantle gives you the superpowers to make Apple-quality mechanical parts in days not months and lowers your cost by orders of magnitude,” said Fadell, Principle at Future Shape. “That speed and affordability let you iterate to get your parts to perfection and still lets you launch much earlier. I wish we had these Mantle tooling breakthroughs for our Nest, iPod and iPhone projects.”
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