The TCT Co-Creator Panel

As Editor I am duty bound to serve the readership first, and I strive to do that with our print, online and digital content.

Over the coming months I will be continuing to build up a team of co-creators that best represent the readership of The TCT Magazine to get involved in the magazine to a level that we've never had before.

This won't be for everyone I know, so that's why I would like to open the doors to you and let you make up your own minds. If you'd like to be able to shape the direction of our coverage in a tangible and measurable way, I would love to hear from you.

I have approached a number of prospective candidates directly with an excellent uptake, so we're building from a strong base. I won't be looking for huge amounts of your time, just your thoughts and comments when we're covering your area of expertise — be it 3D printing, additive manufacturing, rapid prototyping, software, design, manufacturing... or something else?

For example, I might ask your opinion on a story — to which you can wax lyrical or pass on the offer, it's your call. Likewise you will be able to contact any member of the team directly to ask for coverage of X, Y or Z, and we'll do our utmost to accommodate you.

If you're interested in finding out more, including some of the benefits we can offer you, please drop me an email to james@rapidnews.com and we'll get the conversation started.

Jim Woodcock

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Who will get the acquisition fever next?

A roll of the dice for Stratasys is sure to liven up the markets.

One of the signifiers of a maturing market is an increasing rate of acquisition from established players, and from investors looking for a piece of the action. The last 12 months has seen a number of important acquisitions — driven largely by one major player, 3D Systems.

There are other companies with some cash to splash however...

The news last month that one of the UK's largest and most prestigious engineering companies, Renishaw, has bought 100% of the UK's only AM machine manufacturer, MTT, sent shock waves through the industry. Quite what the response was behind closed doors, and how this will inform the future plans of metals-based AM machines is yet to be seen, but we can guess that a few plans are being re-written.

On the subject of big names, let's not forget that HP bought into the sector last year with their deal to sell re-branded uPrint's from Stratasys — arguably making HP the biggest 'brand' in the sector, especially to those outside the AM bubble. How has this translated into sales? Difficult to say at this point, though both parties insist they are happy with the progress in HP's five territories.

From within the industry we had news that Materialise NV acquired the German AM software specialist Marcam Engineering GmbH, reducing the specialist AM software providers significantly. By bringing Marcam's metals expertise in-house Materialise have filled the holes left by their existing software solutions, and acquired an innovative and well-respected group of developers.

Last night we received the latest acquisition news: that Stratasys, not wishing to be left behind, has put it's hand into its pockets and pulled out $38 million for SolidScape, maker of the high-precision wax-based AM machines that have found significant traction in the jewellery and dental markets.

This latest move makes a lot of sense for Stratasys — the SolidScape technology opens up significant new markets that the company's stalwart FDM tech has been little suited to in the past. It also means that their main rival in the market, 3D Systems, don't steal too much of a march on the company.

Companies currently developing the jewellery and dental markets, including but not limited to 3D Systems, Envisiontec and EOS — will now have to consider that SolidScape has some serious backing behind it, and this move from Stratasys is certainly a statement of intent.

So who or what's next to be snapped up? Someone must have their eye on the troubled Solido 3D (website still not available at time of writing) outfit and it's IP. The SD300 Pro has been around for over a decade now, and refuses to be buried. Bad tech doesn't last long in this sector, so there must be something of interest to one of the bigger players? Or could we see one of the faster-growing startups accelerate their development processes by taking a tried and tested tech back to their guerilla labs with them?

One thing is for sure, there's more of this to come — both acquisitions within the industry (3D Systems have made this much clear) and from outside too. It's all jolly exciting from the 'neutral' point-of-view.

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