Introducing silicone to the world of additive manufacturing
Additive Manufacturing (AM) is a well-known technology for materializing rigid objects from plastics, metals or ceramics; but when it comes to soft materials, like silicone, the technology has not yet reached its maturity. At Spectroplast, our startup from the Switzerland’s Federal Institute of Technology, we developed a cutting-edge technology enabling the additive manufacturing of silicones to produce soft elastomeric components suitable for industrial and life-saving medical applications. Our value proposition revolves around: the first high-precision silicone AM platform, compatibility of our process with any industrial/off-the-shelf silicone, ISO-certified components (10993-5, 10993-10), time and cost-effectiveness due to direct fabrication, process working on low energy consumption and Zero-waste, development of tailor-made elastomeric 3D printing materials. With no similar commercially available solution on the market, our technology can serve as the perfect complementary technique for industrial-scale productions, moving from mass production to mass customization and going beyond the prototyping level. Spectroplast represents a radical innovative solution with the potential of disrupting the current silicone components’ production’s state-of-the-art and opening-up new markets, represented by the growing number of industry verticals in need of soft, functional and customized products. Currently, our solution is at TRL6 and we aim to scale it up to TRL9 to commercialize an industrial-scale silicone AM platform with top performance ratings from end-users and stakeholders by 2021. By applying to Phase 1 SME Instrument, we aim to carry out a feasibility study to verify the technical, commercial and financial viability of our solution and develop a business plan to drive its successful market uptake. Indeed, according to our realistic trading projections we will achieve approx. €12M total revenues by the 5th year (ROI = 3).