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Autodesk takes $10 m stake in hot additive manufacturing start-up Carbon3D

Carbon3D has received a significant vote of confidence
in its potential in the form of a $10 million investment from software giant
Autodesk.

The Californian start-up – which made headlines worldwide
last month after a TED speech from its founder and a cover story in Science magazine – was allocated the
funding through Autodesk’s Spark Investment fund.

“Carbon3D embodies the innovation that’s required to
change how products are made,” said Autodesk CEO Carl Bass in a statement.

“The incredible speed of its CLIP technology makes 3D
printing accessible for true manufacturing, beyond the prototyping and the
one-offs we see it being used for now.”

Co-inventor of Carbon3D’s method, Professor Joseph DeSimone
of University North Carolina-Chapel Hill, said he was “honored to have an
industry powerhouse like Autodesk” recognise his company’s potential.

Carbon3D uses light and oxygen to cure and inhibit the
curing of photosensitive resin in a vat to produce parts.

Prior to the Spark Investment Fund money, Carbon3D had
attracted backing from investors including Sequoia Capital and Silver Lake Kraftwerk worth $US 41 million.

Its method, which it calls CLIP (Continuous Liquid Interface Production) is claimed to be
25-100 times faster than what’s currently available.

The news sees Autodesk continuing to increase its relevance
in the world of additive manufacturing.

Long popular among the
Maker movement, for example through their 123D free software and its acquisition
of Tinkercad
, Autodesk announced its free,
open-source platform Spark, in May
last year. This was followed by the
release of its very own SLA 3D printer, Ember.

Its spark fund was announced in October.

“It will be interesting to see how other printer
manufacturers react to this news, as the CLIP technology behind the printer
already was enough to at least put many of them on-guard,” offered 3DPrint.com.

Image: http://carbon3d.com/

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