9T Labs announced yet another expansion.
The Swiss startup company, founded only in 2018, has been developing a powerful 3D printing process for continuous carbon fiber that’s quite different from other approaches.
They are able to produce 3D printed parts with an astonishing 60% continuous carbon fiber content. This is quite different from most other continuous carbon fiber solutions, which lay down some strands of “CCF” within a mostly polymer 3D print.
Their process involves an unusual and proprietary post-print step involving nine tonnes of pressure, hence the company’s name. This is a method not used by any other 3D print company I’m aware of.
This capability allows 9T Labs to create parts of incredible strength, far greater than any other 3D printed part. This opens up the possibility of substituting very lightweight CCF parts for heavy metal parts in many lower-temperature applications.
There is one caveat with their process, however. The pressure step implies that their parts are “flat”. The print samples I’ve seen all have this geometric characteristic. However, while that may be viewed as a constraint, there are still a near-infinite set of possible applications for the technology.
That promise seems to be unfolding, as the company continues to expand. Previously the company advertised for a number of positions in December 2019, shortly after we interviewed them.
Then in April of this year we found them again hiring for a number of different positions, seemingly in addition to those of the prior year.
Now they’ve announced hiring into a number of higher-level roles, including:
- A new Chief Technology Officer
- Two new Sales Managers
The new sales managers are focusing on the DACH (German-speaking) region in Europe, as well as Italy. This indicates the company is focusing sales on those areas, and must be confident of their product at this time.
It also suggests they are using a strategy of gradual expansion, one that has been successful for many other 3D print companies. In time it’s likely that 9T Labs will have a presence across Europe, Asia and the Americas.
How many people now work at 9T Labs? It’s hard to say, but there are currently at least 29 people on LinkedIn working for the company, so it’s quite likely there staff complement is higher than than 30.
It’s certain to be much higher in the near future.
Via 9T Labs
