- Lithoz GmbH, global leader in ceramic 3D printing, has confirmed 2022 as its strongest year ever
- Sales of their ceramic 3D printers have almost doubled from last year, having already hit two thirds of the full year order intake target by the end of Q2
- Most of the incremental volume has come from industrial customers scaling up to digital ceramic mass production
- With 4 sites, 3 ceramic AM technologies and more than 140 employees on board, Lithoz has already passed some major milestones, mirroring the rise in industrial demand by enlarged capacities and an “all from one source” technology portfolio
Image Credit: Lithoz GmbH
As the end of the year approaches, this leading year for the company marks a significant shift in innovators using ceramic 3D printing technology to scale their ceramic additive production up to industrial levels. While serial production via LCM technology has already been successfully implemented by many innovation leaders in various fields, more and more customers from industries as important and diverse as aerospace, dental, medical and electronics are now also taking advantage of this powerful process.
Thanks to new and existing partners in the industry investing more and more in additive manufacturing technology, Lithoz has almost doubled their machine sales this year as they achieve their mission of establishing LCM as the industrial standard of ceramic 3D printing. Alongside this milestone in machine sales, the company now has several customers with machine parks of CeraFab 3D printers producing millions of ceramic 3D-printed parts per year. Having additionally launched two new powerful materials, this rising demand highlights how the advantageous properties of ceramics are increasingly being recognised for medical, dental and industrial applications.
According to 3dpbm’s latest Ceramic AM report, the total value of the ceramic AM market amounted to $154 million in 2020, and is expected to grow at a staggering CAGR of 36.5% until 2030. With its industry-proven LCM technology, Lithoz has once again confirmed its position as global market leader. After sending the year’s final two CeraFab System S65 printers on their journey to a new customer in the United States, CEO Dr. Johannes Homa sees this industry growth as a sign of manufacturers recognising that “ceramic 3D printing is not about replacing well-established processes, but about where can 3D printing create added value and new possibilities.“
This year, the company introduced two new technologies to their impressive portfolio of 3D printing technology. The powerful Lithography-based Ceramic Manufacturing (LCM) process, which was until this year its sole 3D printing technology, was joined by Laser-Induced Slipcastingwith the launch of the CeraMax Vario V900 3D printer in June. This utilizes an entirely new technique to build large, thick-walled parts with full densities. The announcement of Lithoz’s first company acquisition in the form of CerAMing then added LSD-Print as an upcoming process, which will give innovators yet another pioneering technology to work with ceramic 3D printing.
Lithoz co-founder and CTO Dr. Johannes Benedikt was extremely proud of his team’s achievements this year. Underlining the huge potential of combining ceramic as a powerful material with the geometric freedom of additive manufacturing, he stated that “all answers to our urgent questions of today, from ageing societies to sustainability and climate change, will probably contain a 3D-printed ceramic part as part of the solution.”