Markforged

Markforged Holding Corporation is an American public additive manufacturing company that designs, develops, and manufactures The Digital Forge — an industrial platform of 3D printers, software and materials that enables manufacturers to print parts at the point-of-need. The company is headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts,[2] in the Greater Boston Area. Markforged was founded by Gregory Mark and the chief technology officer (CTO) David Benhaim in 2013. It produced the first 3D printers capable of printing continuous carbon fiber reinforcement and utilizes a cloud architecture.

History

2014–2016

The company began as a start-up at SolidWorks World 2014 in San Diego with a working prototype of the "Mark One" printer, capable of printing in continuous carbon fiber (the first to do so), fiberglass, nylon and polylactic acid (PLA).[3] Production machines can also print kevlar.[4]

Products

Markforged offers an additive manufacturing platform called The Digital Forge.[22] The platform combines the company's range of products, which include 3D printers, software and materials, with AI technology.[20] All products are developed and produced in the company's home state of Massachusetts.[23] In order to streamline the development of its systems and ensure quality for the end-user, Markforged manages the full 3D printing development stack in-house. Commercial sales are conducted through an indirect channel of value-added resellers and partners throughout the world.

Metal 3D printers

The Metal X system produces metal parts using the Atomic Diffusion Additive Manufacturing (ADAM) process[24] - a combination of material extrusion-based additive manufacturing and metal injection molding. "Green parts" composed of metal powder and a polymer binder are printed by the Metal X printer.[25] Next, solvent is used to remove a portion of the binder material from the printed parts, leaving "brown" parts. Finally, after thermal debinding and sintering, near net-shape metal parts are produced.

The system was announced in 2017[26] and launched in 2018, consisting of the Metal X printer, Wash-1 debinding station, and Sinter-1 furnace. The Metal X printer has a build volume of 300mm x 220mm x 180mm. Available materials on the Metal X system include 17-4PH stainless steel, tool steels (H13, A2, D2), Inconel 625, and pure Copper.[27] In 2019, Markforged released the Sinter-2, a larger furnace with four times the sintering workload of Sinter-1.[24]

Industrial composite 3D printers

Markforged industrial composite printers produce parts using a material extrusion process with continuous fiber reinforcement. A dual-extruder system deposits a composite base material to form the shells and infill with the primary nozzle, and using a secondary nozzle, deposits a reinforced filament containing a core of high tensile strength continuous fibers.[28] Because the fibers are contained in a filament, the printer is capable of freely orienting the fibers[29] within the print plane.

The X7 (previously called Mark X) was released at the end of 2016 with accuracy improvements, a stiffer gantry, and larger build volume of 330mm x 270mm x 200mm, 2.5 times larger than that of the Mark Two.[30] The printer also has a laser micrometer used for bed leveling and part inspection. In 2017, Markforged announced the X3 and X5 printers on the same chassis with modified hardware. Both machines print using Onyx, and the X5 has the ability to add continuous fiberglass reinforcement.[31]

Desktop composite 3D printers

Markforged released the first commercial continuous fiber printers in 2014,[32] starting with the Mark One. The printer had an anodized aluminium unibody and the ability to print with strands of continuous carbon fiber.

The Mark Two was released in early 2016 as an update to the Mark One. Enhancements include the relocation of the fiber cutter to the print head, motion system improvements, on-printer calibration utilities, and the introduction of a micro carbon fiber filled nylon filament called Onyx.[33]

type	Public
traded as	nyse: MKFG
industry	Additive manufacturing
genre	3D printing
founded	2013
founders	Gregory Mark David Benhaim
hq location city	Waltham, Massachusetts
hq location country	U.S.‡R1R‡
key people	David Benhaim (CTO) Shai Terem (CEO & President) Mark Schwartz (CFO)‡R1R‡
products	3D printing systems
website	https://www.markforged.com/

History

2014–2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

2021–2024

2025

Products

Metal 3D printers

Industrial composite 3D printers

Desktop composite 3D printers

Business

References