Cetim, the Technical Centre for Mechanical Industry, and Desktop Metal, the company committed to making 3D printing accessible to manufacturers and engineers around the world, today announced a partnership to accelerate the global adoption of metal additive manufacturing. Cetim, which works closely with industrial companies to help to identify market opportunities and facilitate innovation and technical progress, will become one of the first adopters of the new Desktop Metal Shop System™, the world’s first metal binder jetting system designed for machine shops and metal job shops.

This announcement builds on the early momentum Cetim is seeing with the installation of the Desktop Metal Studio System™ into its Cluses, France facility. With both the Studio System, for rapid prototyping and low volume production of metal parts, and now the Shop System, Cetim’s customers, which span aerospace, oil and gas, automotive and other industries, will be able to explore new advanced solutions for their manufacturing needs – from low-volume prototyping to mid-volume runs of complex metal parts.

“As the demand for metal AM continues to grow, it is challenging for many of the mechanical industry companies we work with to identify the right solution that meets their needs and then to implement it in an effective and cost efficient way,” said Pierre Chalandon, Chief Operating Officer at Cetim, the Technical Centre for Mechanical Industry based in France.

“Desktop Metal technologies with both the Studio System and new Shop System completes our additive manufacturing machines park. From a general point of view, Metal Binder Jetting Technology is promising for a large part of our clients. Desktop Metal solutions portfolio covers the full metal product lifecycle, which is complementary to our experience on sintered material and finishing Operations,” Chalandon said.

In addition to the implementation of both the Studio System and Shop System, Cetim and Desktop Metal plan to collaborate on a variety of research initiatives leveraging Desktop Metal’s technologies, including design for metal AM processes, post-processing and finishing techniques qualification, workflow optimization and materials development, among others.

The Shop System, launched during Formnext 2019 in Frankfurt, Germany, enables shop owners to leverage affordable, high-quality binder jetting technology to print end-use metal parts with unparalleled speed, print quality, and productivity. Offering the most cost-effective solution in the industry starting at $150,000 USD for the printer, this high-speed, single-pass print engine helps shop owners eliminate many of the constraints previously seen with traditional manufacturing methods like CNC machining and tap into new opportunities to reduce their costs and increase revenue.

The Studio System, the world’s first office-friendly metal 3D printing system for functional prototyping and low volume production, is designed to make metal 3D printing more accessible, enabling design and engineering teams to print metal parts faster, without the need for special facilities, dedicated operators, or expensive tooling. The three-part solution, including printer, debinder and furnace, automates metal 3D printing by tightly integrating through Desktop Metal’s cloud-based software to deliver a seamless workflow for printing complex metal parts in-house – from digital file to sintered part.

“When it comes to empowering industrial companies with the additive manufacturing technologies of the future, Cetim is truly one of the leaders in Europe,” said Ric Fulop, CEO and co-founder, Desktop Metal.

“We are excited to partner with Cetim as one of the first customers for our ground-breaking Shop System and are eager to collaborate with Cetim on our shared efforts to change the way that companies manufacture around the globe.”

Cetim is one of the French leaders in metal additive manufacturing development, with different platforms and associated partners, covering almost all the direct and indirect technologies including LPBF, WAAM and MBJ dedicated to the transfer to industrials. Cetim is also strongly involved in international normalization of metal additive manufacturing. Cetim coordinates AFH, the initiative Additive Factory Hub which aims to innovate, develop and integrate additive manufacturing to address the key industrial and economic challenges.

Cetim has been involved in additive manufacturing for more than 15 years and has been developing specifically the Metal Binder Jetting technology for five years, from the design, the process, the characterization to the finishing steps. MBJ technology is opening new opportunities, increasing the production capacities, decreasing the global cost and allowing new materials.

About CETIM

As the leading French player in the fields of mechanical engineering innovation and R&D, Cetim has built up a wide network of partners. Its engineers and technicians operate in more than 30 countries each year. R&D function is carried out either within specific sectors or cutting across sector boundaries, and within either a national or an international context. It embraces a range of complementary aspects, including prospective studies in conjunction with international scientific communities, R&D concerning all areas of mechanical engineering, industry-specific studies and projects, and the large-scale federative technological projects. Cetim provides a comprehensive array of services to the mechanical engineering industry from consulting to testing and from engineering to training in new skills. Cetim is labelled Carnot institute, member of the Réseau CTI and of the Alliance Industrie du futur. www.Cetim.fr.

About Desktop Metal

Desktop Metal, Inc., based in Burlington, Massachusetts, is accelerating the transformation of manufacturing with end-to-end 3D printing solutions. Founded in 2015 by leaders in advanced manufacturing, metallurgy, and robotics, the company is addressing the unmet challenges of speed, cost, and quality to make 3D printing an essential tool for engineers and manufacturers around the world. Desktop Metal was selected as one of the world’s 30 most promising Technology Pioneers by the World Economic Forum; named to MIT Technology Review’s list of 50 Smartest Companies; and recognized among the most important innovations in engineering in Popular Science’s “Best of What’s New.” For more information, visit www.desktopmetal.com.