Sinterit announced a massive factory upgrade that should position them well for substantial growth. 

Sinterit 3D Printers

The Polish company develops and sells a line of inexpensive SLS 3D printers, which use lasers to selectively fuse nylon powder. This allows the creation of very strong parts with considerable detail. The powder method means there is no need for support structures, typically leading to lower costs of post-processing.

Sinterit appeared five years ago with a compelling offering: a very low-cost SLS 3D printer, far lower priced than the commercial equivalents of the day from EOS or 3D Systems. These other systems cost perhaps 10X Sinterit’s price level. 

It was a great experiment, and the success of the company demonstrates that cost is a powerful factor when selecting 3D printers. While the high-end equipment is perhaps more capable in terms of materials, build volume and a few other dimensions, the simple Sinterit offerings are more than suitable for a great many customers. 

Sinterit Expansion

How successful is Sinterit? It seems their machine’s popularity has triggered a massive expansion of the factory facilities, where they construct the machines. The new facility will also hold administrative operations. 

Sinterit says they should be able to triple their production capacity. 

How are they financing this expansion? The answer is quite telling: 

“Although the company has been on the market for only five years, the startup era is long behind it. The new headquarters has been finished and adapted to production needs entirely from the company’s profit, without external investment.”

This is quite surprising, and suggests they are selling a great deal of equipment, enough to literally finance a huge factory expansion. 

Sinterit CEO Maxime Polesello said: 

“We designed everything on our purpose. The new factory is entirely adapted to the needs of SLS printers production and new products development, from warehouse, through assembly, products testing areas, and the R&D space. The brand new offices allow us to welcome and train our partners. With our new facilities, we have additional means to further deliver our ambitious strategy: increase adoption of AM by making SLS technology accessible to all professionals.”

Finally, they say:

“The new production facility and Sinterit headquarters are located in the industrial zone near one of the most important logistics hubs in the region. Moving out of the city center to the industrial zone finally ends the startup stage of the company.”

This is a very special moment for any company, when they realize they have succeeded as a business. 

Where does Sinterit go from here? I imagine they are secretly developing plans to actually engage that 3X factory to produce more units. But that requires selling 3X as many devices, too. I suspect they are working on new sales and distribution channels that can take the flow of equipment. Their recent entry to the US market may be part of this story. 

And we might even see a new machine or two from them. 

Congratulations, Sinterit!

Via Sinterit