#3DStartup: Axtra3D’s HPS Technology Combines SLA and DLP to Overcome Limitations in Both

The startup of the month for March is Axtra3D, a young company born from the mind of Gianni Zitelli, an experienced Italian inventor on the AM scene. Based in the US, in Charlotte, NC, the company has its R&D hub in Vicenza. What is particularly innovative about the company is its Hybrid PhotoSynthesis (HPS) technology which combines SLA and DLP in a single process for the first time, proposing to push the boundaries of what photopolymerization can do. To learn more, we had a chat just with Gianni Zitelli, Founder, Chief Executive & Technology Officer of the company, who told about the company, its groundbreaking technology presented for the first time at Formnext 2021 and its X1 series 3D printers, powered by the patented HPS, TruLayer Technology, and Intelli-Cartridge technologies, and soon to be on the market.

3DN: Could you introduce yourself and your connection to 3D printing?

Hi! I am Gianni, an engineer, inventor and startupper. I started in 3D printing many years ago, in 2012, in Rome, Italy, in my engineering studio where I started to have my first experiences with the Bottom-Up photopolymerization printing process. At the end of 2013, I had the idea to develop a continuous bottom-up printing process, the LSPc – Self Lubricant Photocuring technology, and based on this idea I founded Nexa3D, at that time an Italian startup. In early 2015, after a life-changing meeting with a great American 3D printing exponent and mentor, I decided to move and incubate the company in California, in Ventura LA, where we still have the HQ. For personal reasons, at the end of 2016 I left the Nexa3D project and returned to Italy, where I incubated the EVERES project: a new DLP photopolymerization project for very high resolution applications, which was then acquired by an Italian manufacturing company that already had experience in metal additive manufacturing. Finally, the technology behind Axtra3D was born only a few years ago, during the pandemic!

The Axtra3D team

3DN: How did Axtra3D come into existence? What is your objective?

During the quarantine period due to Covid, I decided to develop a new patent portfolio, with an attempt to solve one of the biggest limitations in my field, that of the trade-off between speed, throughput, resolution and quality of printed objects, due to inherent limitations of the optoelectronic devices in adoption when it comes to SLA, DLP and LCD. Therefore, I began the development of an initial portfolio of 4 patents, two related to new light sources and a couple related to a new layer peel-off process. With Praveen Tummala, a close friend and colleague who had helped me take my first steps with the American Nexa3D, we decided to establish Axtra3D Inc. Incorporated in January 2021 and operational since May 2021 after an initial Seed Round of funding with the goal of making the first Proof of Concepts of the new Patent portfolio.