NORTHBROOK, Ill.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Impossible Objects today announced that Ford Motor Company, the best-selling car brand in America and ranked in the top 10 of the Fortune 500, is a customer.
Ford recently purchased two Impossible Objects “Model One” 3D printing machines to be used by the company for research and development.
“We believe there’s huge opportunity for our technology across the $12 trillion global manufacturing market, and we’re honored to have Ford as a customer,” says Bob Swartz, Chairman and Founder of Impossible Objects. “We’re looking forward to working with Ford and exploring all the ways the company can use 3D printing at scale.”
The Ford news is the latest in a series of positive announcements for Impossible Objects in recent months. The company raised $6.4 million in Series A funding from leading investors in October 2017. In addition, Ford joins a growing list of Fortune 500 companies signing on to use Impossible Objects’ machines. That list includes Jabil, a product solutions company providing comprehensive design, manufacturing, supply chain and product management services, which bought a machine in the summer of 2017. The Model One has won several prestigious industry awards, including the Innovation Award at the RAPID + TCT 3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing conference for the service or product that will have the greatest impact on the industry, as well as the European TCT Technology Innovation Hardware Award and the Society of Manufacturing Engineer’s (SME) 2018 Excellence in Composites Manufacturing Award.
As demonstrated by the recent developments, industry experts and leading manufacturers across a variety of sectors are recognizing and looking to add Impossible Objects’ game changing technology to their manufacturing process. Leveraging high-speed 2D graphics technologies, it enables companies to use a wide-range of composite and advanced materials, including carbon fiber, Kevlar and fiberglass together with PEEK and other high performance polymers, to build the strongest, lightweight parts at scale.
The Model One empowers customers throughout the entire manufacturing process, from prototyping to high-volume production, allowing businesses to:
- Create Stronger Parts: Through Impossible Objects’ unique process, Model One is able to create parts that are many times stronger than current 3D printers.
- Use a range of high-quality advanced materials: Impossible Objects enables companies to build truly functional parts, from high performance materials that other processes cannot use, such as carbon fiber and PEEK. Because of the composite makeup, customers will be able to customize the part applications, whether to have heat and/or chemical resistant properties, stiffness or flexibility, or other attributes.
- Power 3D printing at scale: With faster build speeds than other additive manufacturing technologies and traditional composite lay-up techniques, Impossible Objects has the potential to enable companies to build vital parts at production speeds 100x faster than current methods. Further, users can make the same part for the prototype and mass production.
The Model One is now shipping and being delivered to customers.
About Impossible Objects
Impossible Objects Inc. was founded in 2009 with the belief that materials sciences inventions would enable 3D printing to revolutionize the world in the same ways that computers and the Internet have revolutionized the way we live, work and play. Impossible Objects is venture-backed and is staffed by a multidisciplinary team with extensive experience in manufacturing, additive manufacturing, materials sciences, aerospace, composite materials and engineering, and developing and commercializing new technologies.
