Stratasys and Creaform Enter Into Joint Marketing Agreement

Stratasys has inked a joint marketing partnership for the North American market with Creaform, makers of portable, 3D measurement solutions.

Marco St-Pierre, the Division Vice President for Innovation and Technology at Creaform, says the interconnected relationship between 3D printing and 3D scanning made the deal a perfect fit for both companies. He says the agreement is targeted at allowing companies across a range of markets to accelerate their product development processes and meet customer needs.

“We believe that Creaform’s Go!SCAN 3D scanners and VXmodel Scan-to-Print software are the perfect complement to Stratasys 3D Printers,” says St-Pierre. “There is clear and natural synergy between our technologies, audiences and applications, and partnering with the market leader is a tremendous opportunity for us.”

Creaform specializes in 3D portable metrology and scanning technologies, and the company is a unit of AMETEK Ultra Precision Technologies. The parent company is itself a division of AMETEK Inc, a major manufacturer which boasts more than $3.6 billion in annual sales.

Creaform scanners and solutions are used to realize product design through reverse engineering and prototyping, the development of custom dies and molds, fabrication of jigs and fixtures, the design of prosthetics, orthotics, surgical aids and guides for biomedical applications and are used in mechanical engineering and design education.

During May of last year, Creaform launched a new range of Go!SCAN 3D color scanners: the ’50’ for mid-sized parts, and the ’20’ for small parts, launched a redesigned version of their flagship product, the new HandySCAN 3D which they say is 25 times faster, 40% more accurate, and 50% smaller than the previous iteration, and unveiled the VXModel, a scan-to-CAD and scan-to-3D-print software module which integrates directly into VXelements.

“By partnering with Creaform, Stratasys is able to offer its customers access to a new source of 3D printable content,” says Bruce Bradshaw, the Vice President of Marketing for Stratasys North America. “This is expected to enhance existing solutions – and open up new applications – in a wide range of industries. We view Creaform to be an excellent addition to our growing partner ecosystem.”

The companies say the deal applies to jointly authorized Stratasys and Creaform resellers in North America. They say resellers will promote and sell both companies devices and solutions directly to end users.  The terms of the agreement also stipulate that both companies will invest in marketing and joint channel recruitment activities.

According to Bradshaw, both companies will demonstrate this new joint solution during the American Society for Engineering Education Conference and Exposition. That exposition takes place during the week of June 14 – 17 this year in Seattle, Washington.

Have you ever used Creaform scanning or metrology solutions in your work? Let us know in the Stratasys and Creaform forum thread on 3DPB.com.