Stratasys & Graphene Technologies Partner to Research & Develop Graphene-enhanced 3D Printing Materials

Stratasys and Graphene Technologies will work together to develop graphene-enhanced 3D-printing materials. Stratasys and Graphene Technologies’ partnership came about because of the work of the Binational Industrial Research and Development of BIRD Foundation.

Though the organization’s acronym sounds like it should deal with avian creatures, the BIRD Foundation actually is very much in the business of ideas. The organization scouts Israel and the U.S. for promising technologies and products. Then the foundation exposes the people and companies behind these technologies and products to potential partners in the United States and Israel. The foundation also gives grants to the companies to help them get their ideas off the ground. If a product or technology from this partnership is financially successful, the BIRD Foundation will receive a royalty.

During a meeting in June, the BIRD Foundation’s board, approved grants for 11 projects worth $8.9 million. The approved projects are in fields such as 3D Printing, farming and Information Security. In addition to the $8.9 million in grants from BIRD, the businesses behind the projects will have an additional $16 million in private sector funds at their disposal.

Dr. Eitan Yudilevich, Executive Director of the BIRD Foundation, said of the chosen projects: “This is an impressive list of projects when you consider their technological innovation, diversity of applications, and partnerships: among them are a project that can advance 3D printing, an application to identify infections in water, which includes an American start up and an established Israeli utility, and a system to manage and optimize resources for paper manufacturing facilities.”

The approved projects are as follows:

• Stratasys and Graphene Technologies will develop Graphene enhanced 3D printing materials
• Lightapp and Pratt Industries will develop resource optimization for paper manufacturing facilities
• DVP Technologies  and DVTEL will develop video surveillance for sea and waterside applications
• Evogene  and Marrone Bio Innovations will develop novel agricultural insect control products from microbial sources
• Galileo Satellite Navigation Ltd. and Cadence Design Systems, Inc. will develop software GNSS implementation
• Genome Compiler Ltd. and Amyris will develop “Biofab,” a synthetic biology software platform-as-a-service
• iReveal Design Automation and Alphabyte Technologies will develop scalable end-to-end verification
• ColorChip and Gigoptixwill develop next generation pluggable transceivers
• Mekorot and ANP Technologies will develop an automated test system for detection of pesticides in waters
• TeleMessage and Sprint will develop secure RCS messaging
• ZDF Medical and Molex/ Polymicro Technologies will develop technology for high energy delivery devices for medical applications

Graphene has been described by some as a miracle material.  With exceptional strength and electrical conductivity, applications within the 3D printing space could prove to be significant for any of the major 3D printing companies.  We have seen several smaller 3D printing companies in the past invest in R&D around graphene, however not much has really come out of this research as of yet.  As the larger corporations enter the space, new, exciting 3D printable materials could change the means of production as we know them.  Let us know your opinion on this partnership in the Stratasys graphene forum thread on 3DPB.com.

The interconnected carbon atoms of graphene