In an interview with TCT at CES in 2015, former Ultimaker (pre-uppercase ‘Maker’ period) CEO and co-founder Siert Wijnia remarked that the 3D printing business was “shifting quickly out of the stone age of 3D printing into the Iron Age”, elaborating that the know-how was lastly shifting away from printing “issues” and into an period of printing merchandise with real performance and function. At a consumer-centric commerce present crammed with plastic statuettes and copycat polymer extrusion machines, the sentiment was considerably revolutionary on the time and noticed UltiMaker shifting in direction of a extra skilled consumer base.
UltiMaker grew out of a FabLab in Utrecht in 2011 when a bunch of mates, impressed by the RepRap mission, determined to construct their very own 3D printer. Shortly after, they started transport their first picket laser-cut kits underneath a Inventive Commons license, establishing a reputation throughout the maker neighborhood and the burgeoning collective of 3D printing start-ups popping out of the Netherlands on the time.
Within the intervening years, 3D printing has gotten extra crowded and extra aggressive. Gamers have come and gone, and consumer-focused {hardware} costs have shrunk to some extent the place just about anybody who needs one – which is not everybody, as beforehand predicted – can feasibly drop one into their Amazon basket. On the identical time, newer manufacturers like Bambu Labs and Creality have taken a big chunk of the market, with the most up-to-date figures from CONTEXT reporting a 60% share of the entry-level machine phase (these priced at lower than $2,500) now belongs to these firms.
UltiMaker, too, advanced. Its machines began showing on manufacturing strains at manufacturers like Heineken and L’Oreal, producing instruments and manufacturing aids, constructing out its ecosystem with optimised supplies and auxiliary {hardware} alongside the best way. However because the 3D printing market continues to take care of turbulence; rising threats place higher demand on dependable options; and the recognition of decrease price methods rises, how is likely one of the originators of desktop FDM navigating the uneven seas of additive manufacturing in 2025?
“There’s so many gamers and there is plenty of gamers doing the identical factor, which does not make plenty of sense,” commented UltiMaker CEO Michiel Alting von Geusau when TCT sat down with him at Formnext final November. New to 3D printing on the time, Alting von Geusau took on the function in 2023, 12 months after the completion of the Ultimaker and MakerBot merger, which introduced collectively two of probably the most recognisable manufacturers in desktop 3D printing. Since then, UltiMaker has continued with a gradual trajectory of latest product introductions. Its most up-to-date, the UltiMaker 6S, launched earlier this month, is pitched as its best but, constructing on the foundations of the flagship UltiMaker S5 however with a totally redesigned inside structure that includes new electronics, new movement planner, and optimised materials dealing with. It’s additionally €500 cheaper. The S6, UltiMaker claims, affords the economic pace, reliability and high quality of the S8, additionally launched earlier this yr, in a extra accessible bundle and is concentrating on three consumer segments: training, manufacturing and defence.
“The market actually must evolve,” Alting von Geusau continued. “The most important situation is that there is [few] methods which are actually in excessive quantity manufacturing. And I believe that’s the place perhaps the market has miscalculated previously as a result of they thought it will be so this share of the manufacturing market, however that is simply not taking place.”
The arrival of decrease price machines, and their acceptance by industrial gamers, can’t be ignored, although UltiMaker is steadfast about its positioning. The corporate says it’s working in a unique market, “constructing beneficial methods with nice software program” somewhat than “field shifting.” Alting von Geusau claims some clients of UltiMaker’s Issue 4 system, its most industrial-focused platform up to now, which arrived final yr geared in direction of ‘gentle industrial functions’, have reported a return on funding in simply three months.
“We’re much more within the skilled phase and what we attempt to do is supply extra full options,” Alting von Geusau mentioned, pointing to points round knowledge and IP safety alleged with decrease price alternate options. “For lots of people, it does not matter however I am certain that for skilled firms, it is an enormous situation.”
For that motive, UltiMaker is being very clear about the place and the way its new machines are constructed. When saying the S6, the corporate shared that its printers are being manufactured within the Netherlands underneath ISO 9001 for High quality Administration and ISO 14001 for Environmental Administration by BSI Group certifications, citing the stringent calls for of its clients in industries akin to defence and aerospace. Alting von Geusau believes that by constructing a dependable ecosystem of {hardware}, software program and supplies, with that high quality baked in, UltiMaker’s providing is exclusive.
“We can not compete straight with them simply on 3D printer,” Alting von Geusau mentioned of decrease price FDM methods. “However we will compete if we provide an entire ecosystem with plenty of supplies, with plenty of good settings, knowledge safety, defending your IP.”
Within the battle for 3D printing adoption, safety, it appears, is UltiMaker’s greatest line of defence. It’s no shock, given the rise of in-field navy functions, provide chain challenges, and nationwide methods concentrating on AM applied sciences, that UltiMaker has singled out defence as an essential market. In 2022, for instance, the Royal Netherlands Navy took an unconventional method to testing the energy of a two-kilogramme plastic 3D printed half printed on an UltiMaker S5 in a Covestro nylon-based polymer loaded with carbon fibre towards an armoured car which was 6,000 instances heavier. It is also deploying UltiMaker S sequence 3D printers to provide spare components on-demand. The Dutch Air Pressure can be utilizing UltiMaker machines to create customized instruments to take care of its fleet of helicopters, fighter jets, and cargo planes. For these clients, the place knowledge safety is essential, UltiMaker might be providing a USB-enabled model of the S6, the S6 Safe, a variant that was initially examined on the S8, and options everlasting firmware and Loctite screws, and removes the digital camera and wi-fi connectivity.
In a more moderen dialog with TCT forward of the S6 launch, Andy Middleton, UltiMaker SVP EMEA & World Advertising elaborated, “We have a really excessive degree of confidence there. The monitor document, much more bulletproof than earlier than from a {hardware} perspective.”
The shift to industrial functions will not be new for UltiMaker. One of many first huge tales to focus on the worth of desktop printers in a manufacturing atmosphere was Volkswagen Autoeuropa, which reported 98%-cost and 89%-time financial savings by bringing its tooling, jigs and fixtures manufacturing in-house again in 2017. Additional firms like IME Automation, North American Lighting and ERIKS have all used UltiMaker’s desktop polymer methods, together with the inherited MakerBot Methodology platform, to quickly produce parts like packaging jigs, nesting blocks and welding jigs.
Middleton, mentioned, “We’re seen available in the market as that firm that delivers all of this. And in addition the belief. That is essential available in the market.”
Whereas MakerBot merchandise underwent a relaunch on the finish of 2023 as an education-focused arm, UltiMaker doubled down on its place as the economic arm of the corporate with the Issue 4. Middleton recognises its professional-focused methods require a unique promote. These aren’t sub $1,000 machines. The S6, whereas extra reasonably priced, remains to be a $5,000 funding. However Middleton believes strongly in its worth proposition (as does UltiMaker – the S6 is the primary of its machines to return with an prolonged two-year guarantee). He elaborated that the 4 instances higher speeds supplied on the S6, for instance, equate to having the output of 4 S5 machines in a single S6 – primarily a $5,000 funding versus $25,000.
“UltiMaker is shifting significantly into the skilled world of FDM,” Middleton mentioned. “There isn’t a higher system on the market with the monitor document and the legacy that we have now.”
In line with figures from UltiMaker, roughly 40,000 UltiMaker S5s have been put in up to now, and there are over 250,000 UltiMaker customers worldwide. Its Cura software program can be probably the most extensively used slicing platforms on the market, and its cloud-based Digital Manufacturing unit supplies entry to over 300 materials profiles. There’s a legacy there and a longtime ecosystem, and UltiMaker believes the S6 is its most simple and accessible entry level.
“At present I believe UltiMaker has constructed up a proficiency in 3D printing second to none,” Middleton mentioned. “And now we have now the arrogance to enter these three particular segments with an incredible understanding of supplies, nonetheless remaining open supply.”
The 3D printing business is a really completely different place to the one the UltiMaker Authentic landed in. UltiMaker’s repositioning comes at a difficult time for AM. Mergers and acquisitions have modified the panorama dramatically, excessive rates of interest have slowed industrial machine gross sales, whereas the appliance demand in defence, and viability of the know-how, is at its highest. “Cautious optimism” is an applicable mantra. UltiMaker believes its established presence, along with a extra accessible machine providing based mostly on probably the most acquainted AM processes on the market, will permit it to capitalise on this demand whereas the business steadies itself.
“A giant change is required,” Alting von Geusau supplied of the state of the AM business again in November. “As a result of provided that you earn a living, [can you] spend money on new options and concepts. Nevertheless it’s unusual that this market has been there for, I do not know, 15 years and it is taking so lengthy to develop into worthwhile. So that basically wants to alter. We’re fortunate. We’re worthwhile. However I believe we’re one of many few available in the market. We have now to make the change now to assume extra about what do our shoppers need as an alternative of what incredible methods do we expect we have now to throw on the market.”
When requested about his private outlook, Alting von Geusau paraphrased a dialog he’d had a day earlier, the place a colleague famous, “that is the mark of the hype and the hope”. He’s optimistic about the way forward for UltiMaker, believing if it will probably do issues otherwise, it may be profitable. Although don’t anticipate something too completely different any time quickly. As a substitute, the corporate is maintaining its focus slender, constructing on its blueprints with merchandise that assist its ecosystem and are geared in direction of key segments the place its know-how can have probably the most affect.
“It stays fascinating and I am trying ahead to seeing what the market’s going to be in 5 years,” Alting von Geusau mentioned. “And who will nonetheless be there.”
