BREAKING NEWS: Stratasys has acquired key assets of Forward AM

The Atomic Layers: S10E16 (00283)

May 16, 2025

Atomic Layer of the Day:

HELL NO! 😡

First of all, I had planned to write about something completely different today and had the entire article ready in my head. And now it’s all for nothing. Secondly, I’m in the middle of writing a report on the AM polymer market for 2024 for VoxelMatters, and today I just finished the section dedicated to materials. Now all the parts about Forward AM (and there are quite a few in the report) have to be rewritten from scratch...

Because as of today, Forward AM becomes part of Stratasys.

Well, maybe not literally. Stratasys has acquired the key assets and operations of Forward AM Technologies GmbH, but it won’t be integrating them into the company’s core structure. Instead, it will establish a standalone company under the name Mass Additive Manufacturing GmbH.

So, the Forward AM brand will likely remain (probably...?), but the company itself will bear this new name. This has already been communicated in the lead graphic that accompanied the announcement.

Since the news was posted by Forward AM on LinkedIn a few hours ago, I’ve been getting messages and questions from people in the industry asking “what do you think about it?”

My answer to all of them: I don’t know yet?

I don’t know, because I don’t know the price. Besides the LinkedIn posts, neither company has released an official statement.

I don’t know, because I don’t know what exactly was acquired. “Everything” or just “selected assets”? The LinkedIn announcement mentions “key assets,” which may mean that only some parts of the company’s portfolio were taken over by Stratasys. I assume this includes their resins, SLS and MJF powders, and at least part of the filament line. But is that all? I don’t know?

I also don’t know because the actual structure of Forward AM after separating from BASF was never officially clarified.

For example, the status of Sculpteo was unclear—like Schrödinger’s cat, it both was and wasn’t part of Forward AM, depending on who was speaking and in what context.

So we wait for the official statement, which will hopefully clarify all these uncertainties.

For now, in a casual and not-too-deep analysis, I’ll say this:

Resins portfolio – a very valuable asset, as it will benefit both Stratasys (for the RPS and Origin product lines) and many companies that relied on those materials and were cut off from supplies due to Forward AM’s recent troubles.
Powders portfolio – likewise, this benefits Stratasys’ SAF line, as well as SLS and MJF machine manufacturers and users. It’s also a flagship and valuable part of Forward AM’s offering.
Filament portfolio – this one I don’t know...? The filament market is becoming as tough for Western manufacturers as the desktop 3D printer market—struggling under the pressure of Chinese products. Maybe a few high-performance catalog items are worth it, but beyond that, I don’t see the point still running it (I mean PLA, PETG, ABS, ASA…). In fact, I had a brief chat today with the owner of one of Europe’s leading filament producers, and his reaction to the Stratasys–Forward AM news was simply, “So what?” (meaning it doesn’t matter to him or the market as a whole).

So, we’re dealing with cautious optimism here. Especially when we remember the financial performance of Forward AM while it was part of BASF. I covered that in the following article:

I’ve reviewed all Forward AM’s financial documents from the BASF era, and one thing puzzles me...

Pawel Slusarczyk

Jan 4

Read full story

Yes, I know—that was a long time ago and under different management—but the fact remains that the business was loss-making from the beginning. And once it became independent from BASF, it entered insolvency within six months.

So we’ll see. Like I said before—it all comes down to what was acquired, and for how much. Either it was a great opportunity that would’ve been foolish to pass up, or someone overpaid and walked straight into trouble.

That’s all from me for now—I’m going back to rewriting the Forward AM sections in the VoxelMatters report... 😫

Atomic Layer from the Past:

05-16-2018: Sinterit presented LISA 2 - a new generation desktop SLS 3D printer.

News & Gossip:

Sinterit has partnered with AMT to add vapor smoothing to its SLS 3D printing ecosystem, enabling a full end-to-end workflow. The system improves surface finish and part performance, targeting applications in medical, food, and automotive sectors. Modular setups include AMT’s PostPro SFX and DPX, suited for labs and small-scale production.
CoreTechnologie has launched 3D_Kernel_IO 2025, a cross-platform C++ SDK for CAD data processing. Key updates include faster load times, improved accuracy, Solidworks and STEP 242 export, and ARM64 support. It handles major formats, semantic PMI, model history, and kinematics, with integrated viewer, examples, and active support.
Bambu Lab’s MakerWorld platform has introduced new features, including a model category for laser and cutting plotters, aligning with the launch of its H2D printer. It also revised community guidelines, redefining “remixes” and improving content quality by limiting duplicates. New rules now apply for G-code and laser model uploads.