Essentium and Hephzibah Partner to Increase 3D Printing Adoption in Korea

Even though South Korea announced a plan in 2014 designed to make the country a leader in the 3D printing industry, widespread adoption of industrial-scale additive manufacturing is still slow-going there, though research initiatives are much stronger. But a new collaboration between industrial 3D printer and materials OEM Essentium and South Korean 3D printing specialist Hephzibah could help speed up the process.

Essentium recently announced a distribution partnership with the industrial 3D printer business, which has been distributing additive manufacturing solutions since 2012 and has built up a strong industrial network in South Korea. Most manufacturing firms in the country know that they could potentially save a lot of money in production costs by adopting large-scale industrial 3D printing, but there are a lot of barriers to doing so, including economics, part strength, and production speed and scale.

By combining Hephzibah’s customer support skills, excellent service, wide network, and expertise with specific AM use-cases with its own industrial High Speed Extrusion (HSE) 3D printing platform, the Pflugerville, Texas-based startup believes that the two will be able to help South Korean manufacturing firms get past these widespread adoption issues.

“The speed, scale, and economics of the Essentium HSE 3D Printing Platform present huge efficiencies and improved time-to- market opportunities for our customers,” Joseph M.G. Lee, the President and CEO of Hephzibah said in a press release. “The fact that Essentium is an open platform means that our customers will benefit from greater innovation agility.”

Thanks to this new distribution partnership, Hephzibah will now offer its customers a complete range of Essentium’s materials, as well as the full Essentium HSE 180•S Series of 3D printers, which the company says are able to fabricate end-use parts with five times more accuracy, and 5-15 times more speed, than other FFF 3D printing systems. The series features low, standard, and high-temperature printer models, and would be a good choice of machine to use for applications in the automotive, consumer goods, and electronic manufacturing services industries.

By taking advantage of what the Essentium 3D printers can offer, in addition to the company’s planning, installation, support services, and training center, the company states that Hephzibah’s customers can invest in adding additive manufacturing to their shop floors without a high economic risk.

“The South Korea manufacturing industry – from automotive to consumer electronics and, more recently, aerospace – has a best-in-world reputation for quality and innovation,” stated Essentium’s CEO and Co-Founder Blake Teipel, PhD. “The integration of industrial-scale AM onto the factory floors of this manufacturing powerhouse has hugely exciting potential. I have no doubt that the combination of the Essentium 3D Printing Platform with Hephzibah’s rich customer knowledge and service infrastructure will ensure AM makes its mark in South Korea.”

(Images courtesy of Essentium)