The developer of 5D printers Stereotech has attracted investments from a fund managed by Kama Flow

The Venture Fund of the National Technology Initiative (NTI Venture Fund) under the management of Kama Flow invested $1,3M in the Stereotech - russian manufacturer of 5D printers and software.
The 5DTech technology developed by the company can be applied in completely different industries: aviation, automotive, prosthetics, construction. And it also allows you to achieve record strength indicators (a sample of ABS plastic gives a strength of 130 MPa) and printing speeds unattainable by 3D printers.

Anatoly Tulaev, Co-founder, Director of Stereotech Development: "We are creating a new trend in the global market of spare parts for industrial equipment. Sooner or later, everything will come to the fact that consumables and spare parts for industrial equipment will be printed on the territory of the manufacturer's factory, with a multiple reduction in cost. Savings from one printer at the enterprise, as the experience of Severstal shows, today can reach up to $80 000 a year, and the payback period of one machine will be 2 months”.

The possible economic effect of using a printer farm at a medium-sized factory may amount, according to the company's experts, to $2,6M per year. The cost of one gram of printed product varies depending on the material used. For metals, the cost of a gram will be less than $ 1, for a composite with solid carbon fiber - about $2.

The main feature of the startup and its technology is the production of standard parts (not unique samples) that prevail in production. This approach implies the expansion of the additive printing market itself, rather than fighting in a competitive and formed 3D printing market. The problem that 5D printers solve is the dependence of enterprises on supplies and lockdowns, with the risk of stopping production.

Pavel Okhonin, Partner at Kama Flow: "The composite 3D printing market is quite fast-growing, which is confirmed by large rounds and acquisitions in recent years. We see that technologies aimed at reducing the supply chain of spare parts to manufacturing enterprises, including in pandemic conditions, have become especially relevant. For industrial companies, the delivery of parts for complex equipment takes considerable time, which leads to expensive downtime. In this regard, self-printing of consumables and spare parts can be an excellent solution. However, the existing classic products on the market based on 3D printing technology are not yet able to fully solve the key problems of the market - the high cost of deploying such production at the enterprise, the insufficiently high strength of products and the speed of their manufacture. Stereotech's five-axis printing technology allows us to meet the growing demand for fast and flexible production of high-quality high-strength products with minimal costs. We are confident that the demand for the solution and the innovative potential, combined with the serious scientific background of the team in the field of additive technologies, will allow the company to successfully scale its product on the international market and further grow into a global business.”