Today, 3D Systems (DDD +1.25%) announced it acquired Village Plastics Co., a manufacturer of 3-D printing filaments. The purchase price was not disclosed.
Village Plastics Co. is based out of Norton, Ohio, and is one of the leading manufacturers of 3-D printing materials including ABS, PLA, and HIPS. 3D Systems highlighted three reasons for the acquisition, including widening its gross profit margin for the materials category that is quickly growing, the extension of its filament materials knowledge base and manufacturing capacity, and finally, the acceleration of its development of thermoplastics for 3-D printing.
3D Systems noted that it planned to "immediately integrate Village Plastics materials and manufacturing technologies to accelerate its development of advanced filament-based materials for its growing Cube® and CubeX™ 3D printers." 3D Systems also said it would continue to support all of Village Plastics' existing customers.
Just last week, 3D systems acquired Figulo Corporation, the industry's leading consumer-oriented 3-D ceramics printer. In September, it also announced the acquisition of Sugar Labs, a California-based 3-D printer of custom edible products made from sugar. In August, it acquired design-oriented, cloud-computing service TeamPlatform, as well as CRDM, a U.K.-based firm that provides prototyping and tooling services.
"With the Village team on board, we expect to be able to enhance the profitability of this growing category and fast track the delivery of new high-performance filament-based products for the benefit of our users worldwide," said 3D Systems President and CEO Avi Reichental.
