Stratasys, Ltd. is an American-Israeli manufacturer of

3D printer 3D printing or additive manufacturing is the construction of a three-dimensional object from a CAD model or a digital 3D model. It can be done in a variety of processes in which material is deposited, joined or solidified under computer co ...

s, software, and materials for polymer additive manufacturing as well as 3D-printed parts on-demand. The company is incorporated in Israel. Engineers use Stratasys systems to model complex geometries in a wide range of

polymer A polymer (; Greek '' poly-'', "many" + '' -mer'', "part") is a substance or material consisting of very large molecules called macromolecules, composed of many repeating subunits. Due to their broad spectrum of properties, both synthetic a ...

materials, including: ABS,

polyphenylsulfone Polyphenylsulfone (PPSF or PPSU) is a high performance polymer made of aromatic rings linked by sulfone (SO2) groups. Production Commercially important polysulfones are prepared by condensation of 4,4'-bis(chlorophenyl)sulfone with various bisph ...

(PPSF),

polycarbonate Polycarbonates (PC) are a group of thermoplastic polymers containing carbonate groups in their chemical structures. Polycarbonates used in engineering are strong, tough materials, and some grades are optically transparent. They are easily work ...

(PC) and

polyetherimide Polyetherimide (PEI) is an amorphous, amber-to-transparent thermoplastic with characteristics similar to the related plastic PEEK. When comparing PEI to PEEK, the former is cheaper but has lower impact strength and a tighter temperature range. D ...

and Nylon 12. Stratasys manufactures in-office prototyping and direct digital manufacturing systems for automotive, aerospace, industrial, recreational, electronic, medical and consumer product

OEMs An original equipment manufacturer (OEM) is generally perceived as a company that produces non-aftermarket parts and equipment that may be marketed by another manufacturer. It is a common industry term recognized and used by many professional or ...

History

Stratasys was founded in 1989, by S. Scott Crump and his wife Lisa Crump in

Eden Prairie, Minnesota Eden Prairie is a city southwest of downtown Minneapolis in Hennepin County and the 16th-largest city in the State of Minnesota, United States. As of the 2020 census, it has a population of 64,198. The city is adjacent to the north bank of ...

. The idea for the technology came to Crump in 1988 when he decided to make a toy frog for his young daughter using a glue gun loaded with a mixture of polyethylene and

candle A candle is an ignitable wick embedded in wax, or another flammable solid substance such as tallow, that provides light, and in some cases, a fragrance. A candle can also provide heat or a method of keeping time. A person who makes candle ...

wax. He thought of creating the shape layer by layer and of a way to automate the process. In April 1992, Stratasys sold its first product, the 3D Modeler. In October 1994, Stratasys had an

initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investme ...

NASDAQ The Nasdaq Stock Market () (National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations Stock Market) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the US by volume, and ranked second ...

; the company sold 1.38 million shares of

common stock Common stock is a form of corporate equity ownership, a type of security. The terms voting share and ordinary share are also used frequently outside of the United States. They are known as equity shares or ordinary shares in the UK and other Comm ...

at $5 per share, netting approximately $5.7 million. In January 1995, Stratasys purchased IBM's

rapid prototyping Rapid prototyping is a group of techniques used to quickly fabricate a scale model of a physical part or assembly using three-dimensional computer aided design (CAD) data. Construction of the part or assembly is usually done using 3D printing ...

intellectual property and other assets and employed 16 former IBM engineers, who had been developing a small 3-D printer that relied on an

extrusion Extrusion is a process used to create objects of a fixed cross-sectional profile by pushing material through a die of the desired cross-section. Its two main advantages over other manufacturing processes are its ability to create very complex c ...

system very similar to Crump's patented

fused deposition modeling Fused filament fabrication (FFF), also known as fused deposition modeling (with the trademarked acronym FDM), or called ''filament freeform fabrication'', is a 3D printing process that uses a continuous filament of a thermoplastic material. Filam ...

(FDM) technology. In 2003, Stratasys

(FDM) was the best-selling rapid prototyping technology. FDM is a process that the company patented, which is used to produce three-dimensional parts directly from 3D

CAD Computer-aided design (CAD) is the use of computers (or ) to aid in the creation, modification, analysis, or optimization of a design. This software is used to increase the productivity of the designer, improve the quality of design, improve c ...

files layer-by-layer for use in design verification, prototyping, development and manufacturing. In 2007, Stratasys supplied 44% of all additive fabrication systems installed worldwide, making it the unit market leader for the sixth consecutive year. In January 2010, Stratasys signed an agreement with HP to manufacture HP-branded

s. In August 2012, the HP manufacturing and distribution agreement was discontinued. In May 2011, Stratasys announced that they had acquired Solidscape, a leader in high-precision 3D printers for lost wax casting applications. In 2012, Defense Distributed, an unrelated project to produce a working firearm by 3D printing, was intended to use a Stratasys printer. Stratasys refused to permit this and withdrew its license for use of the printer, citing that it did not allow its printers "to be used for illegal purposes". In 2014 the Israeli fashion designer Noa Raviv featured grid pattern centered couture garments which were created employing Stratasys' 3D printing technology. Some selections from the aforementioned collection were exhibited in 2016 at the exhibition "Manus X Machina" at the

Anna Wintour Costume Center The Anna Wintour Costume Center is a wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's main building in Manhattan that houses the collection of the Costume Institute. The center is named after Anna Wintour, the longtime and current editor-in-chief of ' ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

. In 2019, the J750 model was recognized as the Enterprise 3D Printer of the Year in the polymer printer category at the 2019 3D Printing Industry Awards in London, England.

Merger with Objet

On April 16, 2012, Stratasys announced that it agreed to merge with privately held Objet Ltd., a leading manufacturer of

s based in

Rehovot Rehovot ( he, רְחוֹבוֹת ''Rəḥōvōt'', ar, رحوڤوت ''Reḥūfūt'') is a city in the Central District of Israel, about south of Tel Aviv. In it had a population of . Etymology Israel Belkind, founder of the Bilu movement, ...

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

, in an all-stock transaction. Stratasys

shareholders A shareholder (in the United States often referred to as stockholder) of a corporation is an individual or legal entity (such as another corporation, a body politic, a trust or partnership) that is registered by the corporation as the legal ...

were expected to own 55 percent of the combined company, and Objet shareholders would own 45 percent. The merger was completed on December 3, 2012; the

market capitalization Market capitalization, sometimes referred to as market cap, is the total value of a publicly traded company's outstanding common shares owned by stockholders. Market capitalization is equal to the market price per common share multiplied by ...

of the new company was approximately $3.0 billion.

Acquisition of MakerBot, Solid Concepts and Harvest Technologies

On June 19, 2013,

MakerBot Industries MakerBot Industries, LLC is an American desktop 3D printer manufacturer company headquartered in New York City. It was founded in January 2009 by Bre Pettis, Adam Mayer, and Zach "Hoeken" Smith to build on the early progress of the RepRap Proje ...

announced that it was purchased by Stratasys for $403 million. On April 2, 2014, Stratasys announced that they had entered into definitive agreements to acquire Solid Concepts and Harvest Technologies, which will be combined with RedEye, its existing digital manufacturing service business, to establish a single additive manufacturing services business unit. The acquisition was finalized on July 15, 2014. On May 12, 2022,

MakerBot MakerBot Industries, LLC is an American desktop 3D printer manufacturer company headquartered in New York City. It was founded in January 2009 by Bre Pettis, Adam Mayer, and Zach "Hoeken" Smith to build on the early progress of the RepRap Proje ...

and Ultimaker announced plans to merge. The new single company is to be backed by NPM Capital and MakerBot-owner Stratasys and co-led by existing CEOs Nadav Goshen and Jürgen von Hollen.

Investment in Massivit 3D

On February, 2016, Stratasys announced an investment in Israeli company Massivit to promote and deploy Massivit 3D's proprietary super-sized 3D printing solutions.

Investment in Inkbit

On November 4, 2016, Inkbit announced that Stratasys led an equity funding round with DSM Venturing to propel production of its Vision-based, artificial intelligence additive manufacturing platform.

Acquisition of Origin

On December 9, 2020, Stratasys announced a deal to acquire San Francisco-based Origin for $100 million. The acquisition was finalized on December 31, 2020. On April 27, 2021, Stratasys announced the Stratasys Origin One, an updated version of the Origin One 3D Printer targeted towards production applications.

Acquisition of Xaar 3D

In 2021, Stratasys acquired the outstanding shares of Xaar 3D, which Stratasys purchased from

Xaar Xaar (foaled 1995) was a British-bred Thoroughbred racehorse and sire, best known for his performances as a two-year-old in 1997. In his juvenile season, he won four of his five races, including the Prix de Cabourg and Prix de la Salamandre in ...

. Xaar 3D provides 3D printers using SAF Selective Absorption Fusion technology, a type of powder bed fusion. This technology is designed to 3D print polymer production parts at volume. The first printer used the technology is called the H350.

Acquisition of RPS

In 2021, Stratasys announced the acquisition of RP Support Ltd. (RPS), which makes large

stereolithography Stereolithography (SLA or SL; also known as vat photopolymerisation, optical fabrication, photo-solidification, or resin printing) is a form of 3D printing technology used for creating models, prototypes, patterns, and production parts in a lay ...

3D printers.

Acquisition of Riven

In October 2022, Stratasys acquired the Berkeley-headquartered quality assurance software company Riven.

3D car production systems

In 2014, Stratasys prototyped an electric car with fully 3D-printed exterior panels, and a few printed interior parts. Development took one year, and parts were constructed using a Stratasys Objet1000.

Urbee

Urbee is the first car in the world manufactured using additive manufacturing technology (its bodywork and

car window The windshield ( North American English) or windscreen (Commonwealth English) of an aircraft, car, bus, motorbike, truck, train, boat or streetcar is the front window, which provides visibility while protecting occupants from the elements. M ...

s were "printed"). Created in 2010, through a partnership with the Canadian engineering group KOR Ecologic, it is a

hybrid vehicle A hybrid vehicle is one that uses two or more distinct types of power, such as submarines that use diesel when surfaced and batteries when submerged. Other means to store energy include pressurized fluid in hydraulic hybrids. The basic princi ...

with a futuristic look.3D Printed Car Creator Discusses Future of the Urbee
YouTube

References

{{Minnesota Corporations Companies based in Eden Prairie, Minnesota 3D printer companies 1989 establishments in Minnesota Manufacturing companies based in Minnesota Electronics companies established in 1989 Fused filament fabrication Companies listed on the Nasdaq 1994 initial public offerings Tax inversions