MetShape Discusses its Innovative Lithography-Based Metal Manufacturing (LMM) and Investment from AM Ventures

Back in March 2021, AM Ventures announced the launch of a first-of-its-kind, venture capital fund solely devoted to industrial 3D printing. Now, the company is set to announce their first investment in a production and development provider, MetShape. MetShape is unique in not just its use of the novel Lithography-based Metal Manufacturing technology but also in the expertise that it brings to customers in the form of thermal post-processing technologies. We sat down with Andreas Baum to find out more about the investment from AM ventures and the company itself in an exclusive interview.

3DN: Can you introduce yourself and your connection to AM?

My name is Andreas Baum and I am one of three founders of MetShape. We are a spin-off company from Pforzheim in Germany. My first contact with additive manufacturing goes back to 2003, when I wrote my diploma thesis on laser deposition welding. Since then, I have been passionately involved in various metal additive manufacturing technologies as part of numerous research and development projects at Pforzheim University.

The MetShape team including Andreas Baum (second from the left)

3DN: How was MetShape started? What is its mission?

The basic idea for the LMM technology was created in 2015 as part of a research project by our co-founders Johannes Homa and Carlo Burkhardt. In the following years, it was further developed in close cooperation between Lithoz and Pforzheim University, with Lithoz focusing on the development of the printing process and Pforzheim University developing the thermal post-processing (debinding and sintering). As LMM turned out to be a success story, in 2019 Lithoz gave birth to Incus, which develops and manufactures the machine for additive manufacturing of green parts.