Tuesday, March 28, 2023
Interview - INITIAL
INITIAL, one of the French and European leaders in Additive Manufacturing will be present at 3D PRINT Paris in 2023. In this interview, Sylvestre Perrin, CEO of INITIAL, gives us a complete picture of this still growing company. He also shares information on the latest 3D printer innovations, 3D printing technologies and complementary services that the company offers, to be found on their stand in October.
Hello Mr. Perrin, can you introduce yourself in a few words as well as your role within INITIAL?
I took over as CEO of INITIAL in October 2021. I am proud to contribute to writing a new page in the company’s 30-year growth history. Since its creation, INITIAL has continued to evolve and consolidate its position as a French leader in the field of product design and production of parts in 3D Printing, Additive Manufacturing and Thermoplastic Injection. Our 4500m2 design and production site is based in Haute-Savoie, near Annecy.
We are active in Europe with the support of our representatives in Italy and Spain. We have also recently acquired the company Creabis in Germany. We are a dynamic and constantly growing company, and our presence in Europe is a key element of our international development strategy.
We hold a central role in the industrial landscape and additive manufacturing. INITIAL is indeed one of the subsidiaries of Prodways Group, the French leader and global player that has developed across the entire value chain of 3D printing and digital manufacturing. The Prodways group is committed to offering the most complete technological range of digital manufacturing solutions, from design to production.
We support our customers on exclusive projects in many sectors of activity: the aeronautics and space industry, defence, watchmaking and automotive… We also offer 3D printing solutions dedicated to the medical sector allowing a sector in constant evolution and in constant search for more innovative tools, to manufacture ultra-personalized surgical equipment adapting to the specificity and morphology of patients.
INITIAL has been participating in the show for many years. What does this event bring to your business?
As a leading French industrial player, INITIAL is one of the historical participants of the event. This is an opportunity for the entire 3D printing sector to meet for 2 days of business exchanges to present their latest innovations and industrial solutions. Privileged moments of exchange during this second largest additive manufacturing meeting in Europe. 3D PRINT is the essential place that brings together the major players in the sector, French and international brands and principals. The 2023 edition will undoubtedly be a new success.
“This is an opportunity for the entire 3D printing sector to come meet 2 days of business exchanges to present their latest innovations and industrial solutions.“
On previous editions, did the show help you to capture new types of prospects that you were not reaching before?
It’s undeniable. The show is a real opportunity for manufacturers to come and meet us to understand additive manufacturing and all its possibilities.
We are recognized for our expertise and this exhibition allows us to present all our potential and our production solutions from prototype to series. Exchanges around concrete projects allow us to forge privileged relationships around technical issues and technological challenges that we must meet for our future customers.
A word on the innovations that you will present at the show this year? Do you have a success story integrating these innovative solutions to share with us?
We are offering a new material that strengthens our offer for the production of plastic 3D printed parts. A high performance polyamide 100% biosourced and derived from castor oil. These new bio-based composites are a real alternative for the production of prototype parts, effectively replacing conventional plastics and composites of fossil origin. We hope that these kind of new materials and their processing techniques will enable fully sustainable and circular 3D printing in the near future.
We are also innovating in 3D metal printing. We now propose Inconel on an EOS M400 machine. This allows us to offer our customers a manufacturing platform of 400x400x400 mm and the power of 4 lasers simultaneously! We are thus strengthening our series production offer thanks to one of the highest production volumes on the market.
Then, the last few months have been marked by the ramping up of our new “3D Molding” technology, which combines tools manufactured using 3D printing and thermoplastic injection. This innovative technological alternative thus meets the needs of manufacturers who can now benefit from this new means of production to reduce their time to market and shows an exemplary synergy of the teams both in terms of skills and technically at the service of innovation.
Finally, among the recent axes deployed is also the complete offer of training and workshops dedicated to additive manufacturing and intended to support our customers in their process of integrating this means of production. All industrial sectors are impacted by all additive manufacturing technologies and they must be part of an innovation process to maintain their competitiveness. A training offer in total immersion in the heart of 3D printing within our production center.