Divergent has announced a new version of its Laser Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF) printer and a new site. The company aims to do nothing short of “further accelerating its mission to build the new industrial age.” It also says that it has “built the most advanced industrial metal 3D printer in the United States.” This implies that German and Chinese 3D printers are more advanced than American ones. This is quite an admission by the firm; after all, if it really thought it had built a better machine than EOS and BLT, it would have said it had made the world’s most advanced 3D printer. But this is sure to be welcome news to the Krailling crowd. However, I’m not sure if this implies that Divergent thinks that it has made a more advanced 3D printer than the Nikon SLM Solutions NXG. Or at least those units made in the US.
Divergent has always excelled at marketing, partnerships, and PR. The 3D printing market, always curious about Divergent’s prospects, is now wondering what the firm is doing with its over $1.1 billion in investments. After developing large-scale glue robots, the firm then diverged to an LPBF machine. It diverged, developing a design and manufacturing service to help companies produce AM parts. High-profile partnerships followed, diverging it further from making a car.
What is it doing to provide itself with new capabilities that others do not have? What can it do that an Incodema or Sintavia can’t? What’s the difference between Divergent’s offering and what a service does? What exactly is Divergent? Is it a late-out-of-the-gate unicorn designed to disappear, like a cohort of other firms? Perhaps there is a kind of duality between those entrepreneurs who can get money and those who excel at shipping products? Or will Divergent be able to make good on its promises to “build the new industrial age?” And why does it keep claiming to be the world’s first end-to-end software-hardware production system for industrial digital manufacturing? Clearly, Materialise had this decades ago, and lots of services have this now. What does that claim even mean? Does the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) not have any software hardware production systems more advanced than Divergent? Has no one at ORNL or elsewhere ever built such a system? I’m done with mollycoddling everyone; it’s just not a good strategy for promoting the common good. It’s time to put up or shut up.
The Monolith One.
The company says its printer will have an output eight times higher. The system, called Monolith One, has 24kW and a build volume of 700 x 700 x 835 mm, while measuring 6.5 x 6.5 x 8.2 m.
Large-Format Metal LPBF Systems Comparison
Manufacturer & Machine Model [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
Build Volume (X × Y × Z mm)
Build Volume (Liters)*
Laser Array Configuration
Individual Laser Power
Total Cumulative Laser Power (kW)
Size Status vs. 700×700×835mm
Eplus3D EP-M3050
3058 × 3058 × 1200
11,
Divergent has announced a new version of its Laser Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF) printer and a new site. The company aims to do nothing short of “further accelerating its mission to build the new industrial age.” It also says that it has “built the most advanced industrial metal 3D printer in the United States.” This implies that German and Chinese 3D printers are more advanced than American ones. This is quite an admission by the firm; after all, if it really thought it had built a better machine than EOS and BLT, it would have said it had made the world’s most advanced 3D printer. But this is sure to be welcome news to the Krailling crowd. However, I’m not sure if this implies that Divergent thinks that it has made a more advanced 3D printer than the Nikon SLM Solutions NXG. Or at least those units made in the US.
Divergent has always excelled at marketing, partnerships, and PR. The 3D printing market, always curious about Divergent’s prospects, is now wondering what the firm is doing with its over $1.1 billion in investments. After developing large-scale glue robots, the firm then diverged to an LPBF machine. It diverged, developing a design and manufacturing service to help companies produce AM parts. High-profile partnerships followed, diverging it further from making a car.
What is it doing to provide itself with new capabilities that others do not have? What can it do that an Incodema or Sintavia can’t? What’s the difference between Divergent’s offering and what a service does? What exactly is Divergent? Is it a late-out-of-the-gate unicorn designed to disappear, like a cohort of other firms? Perhaps there is a kind of duality between those entrepreneurs who can get money and those who excel at shipping products? Or will Divergent be able to make good on its promises to “build the new industrial age?” And why does it keep claiming to be the world’s first end-to-end software-hardware production system for industrial digital manufacturing? Clearly, Materialise had this decades ago, and lots of services have this now. What does that claim even mean? Does the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) not have any software hardware production systems more advanced than Divergent? Has no one at ORNL or elsewhere ever built such a system? I’m done with mollycoddling everyone; it’s just not a good strategy for promoting the common good. It’s time to put up or shut up.
The Monolith One.
The company says its printer will have an output eight times higher. The system, called Monolith One, has 24kW and a build volume of 700 x 700 x 835 mm, while measuring 6.5 x 6.5 x 8.2 m.
Large-Format Metal LPBF Systems Comparison
Manufacturer & Machine Model [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
Build Volume (X × Y × Z mm)
Build Volume (Liters)*
Laser Array Configuration
Individual Laser Power
Total Cumulative Laser Power (kW)
Size Status vs. 700×700×835mm
Eplus3D EP-M3050
3058 × 3058 × 1200
11,