Stratasys, Ltd. is an American-Israeli manufacturer of 3D printers and 3D production systems for office-based rapid prototyping and direct digital manufacturing solutions. The company is incorporated in Israel. Engineers use Stratasys systems to model complex geometries in a wide range of thermoplastic materials, including: ABS, polyphenylsulfone, polycarbonate and polyetherimide and Nylon 12. Stratasys manufactures in-office prototyping and direct digital manufacturing systems for automotive, aerospace, industrial, recreational, electronic, medical and consumer product OEMs.
History
Stratasys was founded in 1989, by S. Scott Crump and his wife Lisa Crump in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. 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 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 on NASDAQ; the company sold 1.38 million shares of common stock at $5 per share, netting approximately $5.7 million. In January 1995, Stratasys purchased IBM's rapid prototyping 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 system very similar to Crump's patented fused deposition modeling technology. In 2003, Stratasys fused deposition modeling 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 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 3D printers. 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 at New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art. 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 3D printers based in Rehovot, Israel, in an all-stock transaction. Stratasys shareholders 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 of the new company was approximately $3.0 billion.
Acquisition of MakerBot, Solid Concepts and Harvest Technologies
On June 19, 2013, MakerBot Industries 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.
Investment in Massivit 3D
On February, 2016, Stratasys announced an investment in Israeli company to promote and deploy Massivit 3D's proprietary super-sized 3D printing solutions.
Investment in Inkbit
On November 4, 2016, announced that Stratasys led an equity funding round with DSM Venturing to propel production of its Vision-based, artificial intelligence additive manufacturing platform.
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. Created in 2010, through a partnership with the Canadian engineering group KOR Ecologic, it is a hybrid vehicle with a futuristic look.
