Silicon Valley 3-D printing and additive manufacturing specialists Carbon 3D Inc. has raised $81 million from new investors GE Ventures, BMW, Nikon and fine chemicals company JSR Corp. to move forward with growth plans.
The Redwood City, Calif.-based company said the new investments bring its total funding up to $222 million, which will allow it to help more customers make a transition from using 3-D printing only in prototyping to mainstream manufacturing.
Carbon and its proprietary continuous liquid interfaced production (CLIP) manufacturing technology have been used to produce high profile trim parts for automakers and says it is accelerating production for its M1 printer.
“In today's digital world, additive manufacturing is changing how products are designed, made and serviced at GE,” said Steve Taub, senior director of advanced manufacturing for GE Ventures in a Sept. 15 news release. “Carbon's CLIP technology can print exceptional quality parts for end-use production, opening the doors to incredible possibilities like low volume manufacturing, freedom of design and mass customization.”
Carbon works with a range of plastics, including nylon and polyurethane.
New investors Nikon Corp. and JSR are “exploring synergies making Carbon's technology available in Japan as well as entry into other Asian markets,” the company said.