Businessweek

Stratasys Ltd. provides additive manufacturing (AM) solutions for the creation of parts used in the processes of designing and manufacturing products and for the direct manufacture of end parts. The company’s solutions are sold under seven brands, including desktop 3D printers for idea and design development, various systems for rapid prototyping, and large production systems for direct digital manufacturing, or DDM. The company also develops, manufactures, and sells materials for use with its systems. It holds approximately 500 granted or pending additive manufacturing patents worldwide. Products The company’s products consist of various series of AM systems and the consumables they use. These series offer a range of performance options for consumers, depending on their desired application, as well as on the nature and size of the designs, prototypes or end-products they seek to produce. The company offers its AM systems under the following brands: uPrint, Mojo, Objet, Dimension, Fortus and Solidscape. These products include affordable desktop 3D printers for idea and design development, a range of systems for rapid prototyping (RP), and large production systems for DDM. The company also offers a range of approximately 130 3D printing materials, including 120 proprietary inkjet-based PolyJet photopolymer materials and 10 proprietary fused deposition modeling (FDM)-based thermoplastic materials. The company’s AM systems are described as follows: Idea Series: The idea series includes its lower capacity and entry-level set of 3D printers, comprising the MoJo and uPrint product families. These products are designed for desktop use and accordingly are used most often by individual professionals, small design teams and educators. Both product families are FDM-based. MoJo, a new 3D printer, was introduced in May 2012. MoJo targets new entrants into the 3D printing market, and accordingly requires no training for set up and operation, with settings selected at the host computer. It includes a preprocessing software, Print Wizard, which helps users manage workflow. uPrint Personal 3D Printer and the uPrint Plus, which offers the same small footprint as the uPrint but offers a 33% larger build envelope. It also allows the user to print in seven additional colors and offers two resolution settings. Both the uPrint and uPrint Plus use its FDM technology to build models with its ABSplus material, enabling users to visualize and communicate product ideas as well as to test the form, fit and function of models and prototypes. Design Series The company’s design series includes two different product families containing seven different AM systems: the Precision family, consisting of its Objet brand Desktop, Eden and Connex product lines, and the Performance family, consisting of its Stratasys Dimension brand production systems. The range of products in the design series, featuring both PolyJet-based and FDM technologies, makes it suited for all aspects of RP, from design visualization and communication to form and fit verification to model building for functional testing. The variety of products also provides customers with a range of choices of features such as printing capacity, production speed and price. Dimension family of 3D production systems The Dimension line of systems allows users to create parts in ABSplus plastic. This material enables production of parts containing the strength required for true form, fit and functional testing. Objet family of 3D printers Connex 3D printers The Connex line of 3D printers is an advanced PolyJet-based printer line offering a set of features, including the ability to deposit two materials simultaneously while printing. The company’s Connex 3D printers offer large tray sizes, large cartridge capacity and high duty cycles, and produce a variety of objects at high speeds with smooth surfaces, complex shapes, and stand-out text, using a range of materials. Users of Connex products are able to change the material mix based on pre-set specifications in its integrated software, allowing them to vary the material properties of the resulting composite material