The 2022 Formnext Start-up Challenge Winners are selected by jury looking for enterprises that are “new, creative, viable, and above all, sustainable business ideas from the world of Additive Manufacturing”.
Photosynthetic (Netherlands), Lattice Medical(France), Rivelin Robotics, UK), SphereCube [Italy] and Alpha Powders (“Poland”) were the winners. Lattice Medical was also awarded the AM Ventures Impact Award.
Meet the winners at Formnext Hall 11.0, D72 in Frankfurt.
You can also read our series about the 2022 Formnext Start Up Challenge winners here.
3D Printing Industry: Would you like to introduce your company and yourself?
Valerio Di Pompeo, CEO, SphereCube: Valerio Di Pompeo, Mechanical Engineer, CEO of SphereCube – enabling 3D composite technologies.
3D Printing Industry: What problem does your business solve?
Valerio Di Pompeo: High-performance composite parts can be made with up to 10 processing steps. This results in high manufacturing costs, long lead times, flexibility, and high manufacturing cost.
These high-strength parts can only be made using molds. This makes it costly and, for small batches, prohibitively expensive. Molds also limit the complexity of the final pieces. The traditional production process creates large amounts of scrap, which has a significant impact on the sustainability and long-term viability of the entire process.
SphereCube comes in to this market! Our company is creating a state of the art 3D printing system that can process thermosetting polymers as well as long fiber reinforcements faster. We have the clear goal to not only reduce costs and speed up the time to market, but also to eliminate processing scrap and molds. This will lower the environmental impact of composite manufacturing.
3D Printing Industry: How can your company fit in the additive manufacturing ecosystem
Valerio Di Pompeo: SphereCube aims for an end-to–end solution. Our 3D printer is designed to produce continuous fiber-reinforced composites using thermosetting polymers. We also want to supply our materials, which are prepared using a patent system.
Innovative 3D printing technology for high-performance composite materials uses raw polymeric and fibre materials. The software that guides and controls the process and the 3D printer allows it to run.
Our competitors have the 4-axis small volume printer and the polymerization technique. Our proprietary technology heat cures the material, eliminating the UV-curable resin constraint.
3D Printing Industry: What are your expectations and hopes from exhibiting at Formnext 2022?
Valerio Di Pompeo: Formnext provides a platform to meet potential clients and validate our technology through PoC project. We’re also excited to see new technologies and meet startups.
3D Printing Industry – What advice would you give someone thinking about starting a company in the 3D printing business?
Valerio Di Pompeo: Our advice as a 3D printing startup is “look for what is missing”! The 3D printing market is expanding rapidly and offers an inherent flexibility that allows it to cover all aspects of production from software and materials to hardware, post-processing and even software.
It is tempting to believe that every invention or patent has been patented. There is still much technological innovation in many areas, including in applications and part development. Following the “Blue Ocean Strategy” to avoid the overlap with already developed solutions is definitely the best option, in my opinion.
3D Printing Industry: What would you say is the future roadmap of your company in the 3D printing industry?
Valerio Di Pompeo: A patent has been filed for a machine that can improve long reinforcement processability and the small prototype design of the 3D printing device.
We are currently working on a 3D printer that can print larger volumes. This will be available before the end the year. Once this is complete, we will begin to validate the system and provide service to customers outside of the company to help them understand the benefits of our 3D printer system.
We will need to hear from our customers to make sure we implement the best technology to maximize the process’ versatility and efficiency.
We see the first SphereCube 3D Printer entering the additive manufacturing market within the next few years. The company will also continue to work on research projects that make the thermosetting resin more durable.
Find out more about SphereCube.
Formnext will host the winners this week in Frankfurt. Hall 11.0, D72.
2022 Formnext Start-up Challenge Jury
Kristian Arntz CEO Fraunhofer Center for Networked Adaptive Production. ICNAP
Stefanie Brickwede is Head of 3D Printing DeutshseBahn, Managing Director Mobility goes Additive
Arno Held, Managing Partner, AM Ventures
Peter Mayr is Professor of Materials Engineering of Additive Manufacturing. Technical University of Munich
Alexander Oster, Director Additive Manufacturing at Autodesk
Michael Petch, Editor-in-chief, 3D Printing Industry
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SphereCube team is featured in the featured image. Photo via SphereCube.