Hattersheim, April 24, 2018. Kuraray Europe today announced a partnership with Ultimaker, the global leader in desktop 3D printing. This collaboration is an alliance program to enable high level engineering plastics and composites on Ultimaker machines.
According to IDC, the global spending on 3D printing technologies is expected to reach nearly $12 billion in 2018. As 3D printers become more popular in the enterprise, there is an increased need for materials that can be used throughout the entire product development cycle. Kuraray will bring its extensive knowledge to generate and maintain material profiles so that customers can reliably use the materials on Ultimaker 3D printers.
By combining Kurarays own material knowledge with Ultimaker’s insights, Kuraray Poval will generate and maintain material profiles optimized for printing on an Ultimaker machine. This gives enterprise users access to a broader scope of professional applications and it allows them to print automatically using preconfigured settings available in Ultimaker Cura.
“High quality 3D prints are the result of an optimized alignment of hardware, software and materials. The alliances formed with these global chemical companies opens up the use of the most sophisticated engineering plastics on Ultimaker printers, allowing the customers of the chemical companies and Ultimaker to fully embed 3D printing in their existing workflows,” said Jos Burger, CEO of Ultimaker. “With the alliances more 3D printing users are getting access to sophisticated materials for all kinds of use cases in different segments and industries.” MOWIFLEX™ Kuraray’s water-soluble support material plays an important role here.
About Kuraray
Established in 1991, Kuraray Europe GmbH is based in Hattersheim, near Frankfurt am Main, Germany. In 2016 the company generated annual sales of over EUR 600 million. It has 760 employees in Germany at its sites in Hattersheim, Frankfurt and Troisdorf. Kuraray is a global speciality chemicals company and one of the largest suppliers of industrial polymers and synthetic microfibres for many sectors of industry. Examples are KURARAY POVAL™, Mowital®, Trosifol® and CLEARFIL™. Kuraray Europe also has around 100 employees at six other European sites. They are also working on the development and application of innovative high-performance materials for a wide range of sectors, including the automotive, paper, glass and packaging industries, as well as for architects and dentists.
Kuraray Europe is a wholly owned subsidiary of the publicly listed Kuraray Co., Ltd., which is based in Tokyo, Japan, and has more than 9,000 employees worldwide and sales of over EUR 4 billion.
Media contact:
Dr. Moritz Baier
Manager Thermoplastic Processing
Kuraray Europe GmbH
Philipp-Reis-Straße 4
65795 Hattersheim am Main
Tel.: +49 69 305 85397
E-Mail: Moritz.Baier@kuraray.com
Internet: poval.kuraray.com
