A French firm specializing in elastomer manufacturing utilizing AM know-how, based in 2016, is celebrating the completion of its tenth yr. It was based by 4 engineering college students. Its story started with a modified RepRap printer, developed for wound care analysis. As we speak Lynxter employs 35 individuals and has shoppers from the aerospace and medical industries on three continents. To mark its first full anniversary, it’s organizing a celebratory anniversary occasion going down on Might 22 at Technocité of their house metropolis of Bayonne.
Allow us to begin from the start, which implies from 2016. Co-founder Thomas Batigne had beforehand developed a modified RepRap printer as a part of his sole proprietorship Dyol System. The aim was to supply prototype wound dressings for analysis involving diabetic sufferers on the Rangueil College Hospital in Toulouse.
The venture attracted curiosity from the Urgo Group, which acquired a part of the ensuing mental property. Batigne related with Julien Duhalde, Karim Sinno and Camille Chaper by means of the “Les Entrepreneuriales” program. The 4 co-founders developed the idea throughout their research at ENIT and created an industry-oriented printing platform.
From a storage to the primary orders
The workforce’s first machine, the DS2016, and its successor the S600D, established Lynxter’s place within the area of core know-how. In addition they generated the primary orders from industrial shoppers and analysis laboratories. Amongst them was Airbus, which had supported the corporate from the very starting. The modular structure of the S600D grew to become the technical basis on which subsequent techniques have been constructed.
In 2022, Lynxter launched the S300X platform at Formnext, that includes LIQ21 and LIQ11 toolhead techniques. It prolonged the platform’s capabilities to incorporate extremely advanced silicone and polyurethane formulations. The corporate additionally developed its personal supplies manufacturing. Elastomer syringes and cartridges are manufactured instantly on the Technocité facility.
The inner analysis and improvement laboratory carries out ongoing work in collaboration with long-standing industrial companions. Lynxter can also be one of many beneficiaries of the France 2030 program, the French authorities’s strategic industrial funding program.
Aerospace and medication as the primary instructions
Lynxter techniques have entered a number of regulated sectors. In medication, the group AP-HP, which means Help Publique Hôpitaux de Paris, investigated 3D printing with silicone in gadgets custom-made to affected person wants. Purposes included customized respiratory masks for newborns and silicone anatomical fashions for surgical coaching. In aerospace, Safran used the know-how to fabricate parts requiring particular elastomeric properties. Industrial functions additionally embody silicone masking components for floor remedy processes.
What distinguishes each areas is one frequent denominator. It comes all the way down to components that can not be manufactured utilizing conventional strategies. Both they’re too geometrically advanced. Or they require properties that no inflexible materials can present. 3D printing with silicone solves each issues concurrently.
10 years in numbers
The numbers communicate for themselves. Presence in 43 international locations throughout three continents. 35 workers. Manufacturing 100% in France. First place on the planet in silicone 3D printing. A decade of steady innovation with patented options in elastomer printing.
Behind these numbers, nonetheless, stand actual individuals. They’re those who design the machines, develop the supplies and serve shoppers from Europe to Asia. Lynxter has from the start positioned emphasis on a tradition of collaboration and the native character of the corporate, whereas sustaining a presence within the international market. That mixture hardly ever comes collectively by itself. Right here it clearly does.
The corporate celebrates its decade on Might 22 at Technocité in Bayonne. It’s a good alternative to look again, but in addition to ask what comes subsequent. As a result of an organization that began from a storage and a modified RepRap printer and ended up as a worldwide chief in its class is unlikely to be planning to decelerate.