Stratasys is a 3D printing and additive manufacturing company that is headquartered in Eden Prairie, Minnesota and Rehovot, Israel. For over 30 years, the company has been pioneering the future of office-based rapid prototyping and direct digital manufacturing solutions through the development of 3D printers and 3D production systems.
Stratasys was founded by S. Scott Crump, along with his wife, Lisa H. Crump, in 1989. In April 1992 they sold the first company product, the 3D Modeler. A year later, in June 1993, Stratasys introduced its second product, the Benchtop. Following this release, Stratasys went public in October 1994 to acquire additional funds to expand the company’s engineering capabilities.
In addition to printers and materials, the company also offers decades of knowledge, consulting, training, workflow management and end-to-end support. This support is possible as Stratasys provides a choice of materials, smart software integrations and expert consultation through Blueprint. With offices in 13 countries, and the ability to print in many more, the Stratasys Direct team can print parts for clients on-demand. The company showcases its latest 3D Printing technologies for healthcare simulation at the International Meeting for Simulation in Healthcare (IMSH) from the Society for Simulation in Healthcare (SSiH), SESAM, SimGHOSTS, and at other medical simulation conferences each year.
Company brands include Stratasys Direct Manufacturing, which provides the parts on demand, blueprint consulting services, GrabCAD design community and 3D printing software. Another Stratasys brand is MakerBot, which provides desktop 3D printers. Stratasys’ 3D printing technologies include FDM, PolyJet and stereolithography systems. Working on ground-breaking projects that empower global businesses, the company says the relentless pursuit of innovation means customers benefit from accurate and reliable choice of printers on the market.
Stratasys 3D Printing Technologies Across Healthcare & Other Industries
At the forefront of Stratasys push for prototyping and manufacturing advancement, the company’s 3D printers, materials, software, professional services and on-demand parts have the ability to transform a product lifecycle from design through manufacturing and end use parts. Stratasys has used this approach to help organizations around the world reimagine the way they design and create using 3D printing technology. According to Stratasys, the company’s constant innovation has helped demonstrate to industry leaders how to work faster and smarter.
Making company products especially useful to these leaders, Stratasys provides tailored solutions for industries including aerospace, automotive, rail, healthcare, consumer products and education. Across these industries, applications allow users to 3D print the exact tool they need, with improved ergonomic properties, every time. Users can also produce their own more effective tools, jigs and fixtures while avoiding scrap or retooling by testing before machining — with unprecedented speed and cost-efficiency.
Other features of Stratasys products are that they can help the dental industry produce more accurate patient-specific orthodontic appliances, as the company’s solutions integrate with leading intraoral scanners and software to ensure predictable, repeatable results. In medicine, the solutions can improve surgical planning with tailored 3D printed clinical simulation models, make production more agile and create functional parts at a fraction of the cost of machining. Educators and professions rely on Stratasys 3D printers to create healthcare simulation models. By moving quickly from prototype to final product, Stratasys solutions additionally reduce warehousing costs.
Click Here to Connect to Leading Healthcare Simulation Vendors Like Stratasys
Across educational environments, concept modeling and functional prototyping in the classroom can help learners to see, hold and test their ideas – bringing tangible outcomes to their creativity. By using these Stratasys simulated learning solutions and technologies, organization leaders can improve patient safety and care, achieve design breakthroughs, simplify supply chains, optimize manufacturing operations and reduce costs.
In terms of consumer goods, Stratasys helps establish more accurate concept modeling, more functional prototyping and fewer design constraints. This is because 3D printing reduces the time needed to market and boost the cost-efficiency of the manufacturing process. Instead, users can go from design to prototype in just hours, not days. This makes receiving quicker feedback to improve their designs possible.
According to Stratasys, these technological features are what help company leaders to stay ahead of their competition, enabling them to work faster, more creatively and with reduced costs across their operations. For example, Google Arts and Culture was able to recreate models of historic artefacts and heritage sites with true color and accurate detail working with Stratasys technology. Further, the manufacturing company, Polari,s is constantly innovating within the fast paced automotive industry, and Stratasys and 3D printing have helped the company stay at the forefront of technology.
Stratasys 3D Printers and Materials
Stratasys 3D printers come with either FDM or Polyjet technology. FDM Technology works with specialized 3D printers and production-grade thermoplastics to build strong, durable and dimensionally stable parts with accuracy and repeatability. (Stratasys founder Scott Crump invented FDM Technology more than 20 years ago.)
PolyJet is a powerful 3D printing technology that produces smooth, accurate parts, prototypes and tooling. With microscopic layer resolution and accuracy down to 0.014 mm, the technology can produce thin walls and complex geometries using a wide range of materials available with any technology.
The 3D printing technologies are made easy, accessible and connected through Stratasys’ GrabCAD software. The free software offers an efficient process that streamlines the CAD-to-print workflow by allowing the user to print directly from CAD. They can also use the software to Organize, manage, and monitor printers and print queues from anywhere, stay up to date with email notifications and analyze material usage, history, and utilization of a printer with in-depth reports and dashboards.
