3-D printer maker Stratasys sees needed growth helped by new products

Annual revenue at Stratasys has fallen for the past six years, and the maker of 3-D printers is planning on the introduction of new additive printing technologies and three new products to give it a needed boost.

The company, based in Eden Prairie and Rehovot, Israel, exceeded revenue expectations when it reported year-end results on March 1, but annual revenue still decreased 18% to $520.8 million.

"We are accelerating into the Additive Manufacturing 2.0 era, in which we see global manufacturing leaders move beyond prototyping to fully embrace the agility that 3-D printing brings to the entire manufacturing value chain," said Stratasys CEO Yoav Zeif in a news release.

In a conference call announcing the company's new machines, Zeif said the additive manufacturing industry will be growing 20% a year, with most of the growth from production parts manufacturing rather than prototyping.

Richard Garrity, president of the Americas at Stratasys, said in an e-mail that the new phase of 3-D printing allows higher-volume production of end-use parts and allows the supply chain to be digitally connected.

Troy Jensen, senior research analyst with Minneapolis-based Lake Street Capital Markets has been following Stratasys for 18 years. "They are always trying to improve on speed and add new materials," he said.

The company announced three new products at its Manufacturing Week news conference Tuesday morning.

When it announced the deal, Stratasys projected Origin could add $200 million in incremental revenue within five years.

Origin is a pioneer in an additive manufacturing technology called digital light processing (DLP) that cures photopolymer resin with light, creating manufacturing-grade parts.

Stratasys is introducing the Stratasys Origin One 3-D printer. It updates the original Origin hardware and can use a range of third-party additive materials.

"Today, we're seeing the hardware, the software and the materials from Stratasys really come together to begin making production scale a reality for us," said Mark Savage, head of additive manufacturing at Switzerland's TE Connectivity, a longtime Stratasys and Origin customer, in a news release.

Stratasys will start taking orders for the Origin One in May.

The new printer has been in beta testing this year and will be ready to ship more broadly in the third quarter.

The third new product, the F770 FDM printer, uses one of Stratasys' existing printing technologies, will be able to make production-quality parts and will have one of the longer build chambers in the market.

Patrick Kennedy • 612-673-7926