RENA Acquires HES Hirtisation Segment for Post-Processing for Metal 3D Printing

3D printing with metal gains yet another boost as RENA Technologies acquires the successful Hirtisation segment of Hirtenberger Engineered Services. With the goal of creating a new division for targeting the additive manufacturing sector, RENA announced that the existing HES team will be welcomed into the RENA corporate structure as they continue to serve the solar, semiconductor, and medical industries.

With this acquisition, RENA will have continued access not only to expertise but also progressive Hirtisation technology, offering high-performance tools in post-processing for 3D printed metal.

HES was founded in 2015 as it partnered with Happy Plating—a spinoff from an Austrian research center. Headquartered in Hirtenberg, Austria. HES is known as an exchange-to-exchange (E2E) technical provider specializing in the design and fabrication of functional metallic surfaces. Along with product offerings in coatings, nanowires, and sensors, it also manufactures precise, automated supply finishing modules. These are meant for the mass production of 3D printed metal parts for international customers in over 15 countries engaged in a variety of applications now relying on AM metal parts.

Hirtisation is suitable for all metals and alloys commonly used in 3D printing. A fully automatic finishing module for Hirtisated 3D-printed metal parts makes the process
highly efficient (Image and information from HES).

RENA, headquartered in Gütenbach, Germany, was founded in 1993, and also handles subsidiaries in Berg near Nürnberg and Freiburg im Breisgau. Known as a “wet processing company,” RENA systems are used to treat or customize surfaces, and this includes within the dental industry—an area that has become a focal point for manufacturers, with a wide range of projects emerging—from the use of complex 3D printed models for dental students to practice on to testing their accuracy, as well as forging ahead with new technology for 3D printing dental implants.

RENA’s interest grew in HES due to the experience level of its team, along with “efficient implementation of modern production machinery.” Its technology is expected to complement the RENA product line, to be expanded further at the new RENA Technologies Austria (RENA AT) hub for AM activities and all work related to electrochemical surface finishing.

“We are looking forward enthusiastically to working with our new colleagues at RENA because we can exploit RENA’s worldwide network as a launching pad for marketing our technology globally,” said Wolfgang Hansal, managing director of HES and designated managing director of the new RENA AT. “The first industrial machines have already been successfully introduced to the market. Together with RENA we can speed up establishment of our cutting-edge technology.”

While additive manufacturing continues to become a driving force in many applications today, functioning as a “building block of industrial production chains,” so does metal 3D printing and the associated and continually expanding study of materials and metal powders.

“With RENA Additive Manufacturing we can shape this process actively and gear up for growth,” said Michael Escher, managing director of the new RENA AT and Peter Schneidewind.