Metallum3D Founder Nelson Zambrana Discusses 3D Printing

Metallum3D is the first additive manufacturing company to develop a commercially viable microwave sintering process that reduces the sintering time of 3D printed metal and ceramic parts by up to 90%. Our patent-pending microwave sintering technology provides an order of magnitude improvement in performance over existing systems, reducing sintering times from days to hours.

Prior to founding Metallum3D, I was working in new product development in the medical device industry, and I experienced firsthand the technical challenges and high costs of existing additive manufacturing technologies. There was a gap between what was technically possible and what was financially viable. We took the leap to develop new additive manufacturing technologies to close this gap.

From an educational perspective, I studied business administration at Penn State University and received a degree in mechanical engineering from Temple University. In terms of work experience, I have spent the last 25+ years in multiple engineering, engineering management, new product development, and operations management roles in companies such as Hewlett Packard and Medtronic.

Our vision is to make industrial additive manufacturing more accessible to a broader set of customers by improving both performance and costs. In other words, we aim to provide our additive manufacturing customers with more value.

We have a small, focused management team composed of Kyle Redinger (board director), Phil Williford (board director), and myself (board chairman and CEO). Kyle is a serial entrepreneur, real estate developer, and angel investor. In 2012, Kyle co-founded Vivid Cortex, a SaaS database performance platform that was acquired by SolarWinds in 2019 for $117.5 million. Phil is a US Special Forces Army veteran who currently is the senior director of Worldwide Operations and Continuous Improvement at Herbalife Nutrition Corporation, a global company with over $5.5 billion in yearly revenues. The team came together over a shared vision, and we have been working together since January 2017.

Current microwave heating processes, including sintering, are primarily based on multi-mode resonant technology. This technology has found enormous success in low-power, domestic microwave oven applications due to its robustness and simplicity. 

When applied to a sintering process, there are two major technical challenges with multimode resonant systems that have prevented the broad commercial use of microwave energy for sintering. The first challenge is non-uniform microwave energy distribution, which results in hot and cold spots inside the microwave cavity. The second technical challenge is a reverse heating profile where the inside of the part is hotter than the outside of the part. Until now, these two technical challenges had remained unsolved, thereby preventing the broad commercial use of microwave energy for sintering. 

Metallum3D is the first company to develop new, patented technologies that solve these two technical challenges, allowing us to offer the first commercially viable microwave sintering process. The companies that currently make microwave sintering furnaces all use multi-mode resonant technology, which is only suitable for small-scale experimental use. Our true competition comes from existing additive manufacturing companies that use conventional sintering furnaces. The two most notable competitors are Markforged and Desktop Metal, both of which use conventional sintering furnaces that are characterized by long sintering times that are measured in days. Metallum3D’s patent-pending microwave sintering technology provides a significant competitive advantage by reducing the sintering process time by up to 90%. From days to hours, an order of magnitude improvement.

We sell additive manufacturing hardware and consumable 3D printing materials.

We were attracted to equity crowdfunding because it democratizes investment opportunities in startup companies. For a lot of people, meeting the accredited investor requirements is difficult, which excludes them from making equity investments. Equity crowdfunding levels the playing field and allows a new class of investors to invest in startup companies. 

After four years of intensive research and development work, we are ready to commercialize our patent-pending technologies. We will be using the proceeds from this equity crowdfunding round to go to market and begin generating revenue.

Our primary business goal is to provide our customers with an additive manufacturing system that provides them with exceptional value. The value we provide has two components: 1) performance and 2) cost. We aim to provide our customers with the best performance by developing innovative, patent-pending technologies. And we aim to provide our customers with the best (not lowest) cost by operating our company with sound engineering, manufacturing, and business practices.

 In terms of exits opportunities, there are two possible scenarios:

1) An acquisition by a company that could benefit from our microwave sintering technologies. Our microwave sintering technology is compatible with multiple manufacturing processes outside of the additive manufacturing industry, which effectively increases the number of potential acquirers.

2) Investor liquidity through selling shares in a secondary market.

In terms of future goals, we have a five-year plan in place, which, when executed, will prepare the company for either exit scenario.