UnionTech and DSM have decided to sign on to a co-venture in internationally distributing Somos SLA materials. This venture comes in the wake of UnionTech’s expansion into SLA equipment in America and Europe in 2016. Both companies have had an active distribution agreement in China since 2003. However, they are now going global with their operations to meet international opportunities.
“We are proud to work very closely with the Somos group, combining our fully open hardware platform technology with their constant innovation in resin development,” states Uniontech President Barry Tsou. “Working together on open platforms brings huge benefits in developing materials that meet the criteria of our customers needs directly.”
A Ground-breaking Deal For Both Companies
DSM’s Somos group are responsible for this partnership with UnionTech. The agreement covers a range of new products. UnionTech’s PILOT commercial series and the RSPro production product lines will both employ Somos materials. This global distribution deal further cements the deep ties between both companies.
Somos has been in the SLA market since the 80’s. They’ve been developing resins that closely resemble engineering thermoplastics in terms of functionality for quite some time. Somos’ stereolithography resins are currently in use in over 600 UnionTech stereolithography installations globally.
This announcement also comes hot on the heels of other announcements by UnionTech. We’ve previously covered UnionTech’s newest strategy in the market. The company is looking to provide its PILOT series as a viable, economical option for many producers. While the company is looking to penetrate the market with this pricing strategy, they may also be improving their supply and materials development strategy through this partnership with DSM. Similarly, UnionTech are also using their own in-house PolyDevs software in their machines. This all indicative of how much control they have over every element of production.
Featured image retrieved from UnionTech.