- Company rapidly expanding market-leading solution portfolio to address all major facets of dentistry, including alignment, protection, repair, and partial/full replacement of teeth
- Announces largest contract award in company history, with estimated value approaching a quarter billion dollars over five years, to support indirect manufacturing process for clear aligners
- Commercial launch of direct printing technology for clear aligners targeted for late 2025
- Dual-material printing technologies enabling expansion into night guards, used to prevent damage due to teeth grinding during sleep, and increasingly in treatment of sleep disorders
- Pursuing key regulatory approvals for unique multi-material, single-piece dentures offering unparalleled combination of performance and beauty
- Affirms Company’s vision for leadership in dental industry by offering most comprehensive portfolio of 3D printing solutions to dental laboratories and practitioners around the world – a market estimated at over $14 billion by 2032
ROCK HILL, S.C., June 04, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today, 3D Systems (NYSE:DDD) announced its expanded focus and technology roadmap tailored to deliver the largest range of solutions for a growing digital dentistry market. The portfolio will include solutions for alignment, protection, repair, and replacement of teeth – the broadest portfolio available from any additive manufacturing solutions provider.
The Company also announced the signing of a multi-year purchase agreement, with a value estimated to approach a quarter-billion dollars through 2028, in support of the indirect manufacturing process for clear aligners. The contract builds upon the exceptional legacy the Company has established as a key supplier of 3D printing technology to the clear aligner industry. 3D Systems’ technology today enables the manufacture of roughly one million patient-specific clear aligners per day across this rapidly growing market. The Company believes this milestone orthodontics contract provides a strong foundation upon which to launch the next phase of significant expansion in the dental market, which will include novel technology for the direct printing of clear aligner products.
3D Systems has established itself as a leader in digital dentistry with its optimized workflow designed to drive new levels of speed, productivity, efficiency, and precision while also providing opportunities to improve the patient experience. Powered by 3D Systems’ proprietary Figure 4® technology, the NextDent® 5100 and NextDent materials provide the foundation of a digital dentistry solution. The platform supports an already broad and growing range of dental applications for lab managers, dental technicians, dental prosthetic technicians, clinical prosthodontists, and orthodontists. Today, this solution enables the production of trays, models, surgical guides, dentures, orthodontic splints, retainers, crowns, and bridges.
Building upon the NextDent technologies, the Company is now expanding into new oral applications, such as night guards. Night guards are a rapidly growing market segment driven by the need to prevent damage to teeth from night grinding, an affliction affecting millions of people around the world. Night guards are also increasingly used by physicians for the treatment of sleep apnea and related disorders. The Company expects night guards to become an important element of its dental technology portfolio over the next few years.
Earlier this year, 3D Systems showcased the newest application of its additive manufacturing dental technologies with the introduction of a first-to-market solution for multi-material, jetted, one-piece dentures. The Company believes its unique denture solution delivers a durable, long-wear, aesthetically beautiful prosthetic to the patient, enabled by the formulation of bespoke materials for both teeth and gums. The solution has already garnered interest from leading dental labs, including Glidewell, the world’s largest producer of restorative dental devices. 3D Systems anticipates FDA clearance of the solution in the second half of 2024, with rapid commercialization to follow.
“3D Systems captured an industry-leading position in digital dentistry many years ago, very early in its evolution,” said Dr. Jeffrey Graves, president & CEO, 3D Systems. “We believe the dental industry is now poised for a broad-based acceleration in the adoption of additive manufacturing technology that will impact all major dental applications, from tooth alignment and protection, to repair and replacement. With our decades-long leadership in the development of unique dental materials and printing technology, 3D Systems is ideally positioned to bring this full range of new, high-volume, custom applications to market over the next few years, and we are committed to do so.”
Dr. Graves continued, “Leveraging our fully integrated materials, hardware, and software development teams, we are working with market leaders in each dental product category, to bring these new applications to market as rapidly as possible. Our belief is that this approach offers maximum benefit to dental patients as they gain access to better performing, more cost-effective solutions to meet their personal lifetime needs.”
In concluding, Dr. Graves added, “Supporting the development and regulatory approval process for these new applications is essential, but equally important is the ability to rapidly scale processes to meet demand and to service customers as their volumes rise. Today, 3D Systems’ dental technology enables the production of over one million custom products per day and does so across multiple customer plants dispersed across several continents. The proof of our capability to reliably scale and support mass-custom production of dental products is well demonstrated in our recent multi-year contract award, the largest single contract in our company’s 40-year history, to support dental aligner manufacturing. We believe this is a strong indicator of the exciting potential dentistry holds for our company as we continue to expand our offerings and key partnerships to soon encompass all major patient applications, from night guards to dentures, and even to next-generation direct-printed clear aligners.”
According to Vantage Market Research, the global dental 3D printing market is estimated to be valued at $14.6 billion by 2032. With decades of experience in the dental industry, 3D Systems has been integral in catalyzing the adoption of 3D printing to produce patient-specific dental devices. The Company currently boasts the largest portfolio of dental 3D printing materials to address more than 30 applications and empowers dental facilities to manufacture dental appliances with heightened efficiency while minimizing material waste. This translates to accelerated production timelines, resulting in streamlined experiences for more than one million patients served each day.
Forward-Looking Statements
Certain statements made in this release that are not statements of historical or current facts are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the company to be materially different from historical results or from any future results or projections expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. In many cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by terms such as "believes," "belief," "expects," "may," "will," "estimates," "intends," "anticipates" or "plans" or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. Forward-looking statements are based upon management’s beliefs, assumptions, and current expectations and may include comments as to the company’s beliefs and expectations as to future events and trends affecting its business and are necessarily subject to uncertainties, many of which are outside the control of the company. The factors described under the headings "Forward-Looking Statements" and "Risk Factors" in the company’s periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, as well as other factors, could cause actual results to differ materially from those reflected or predicted in forward-looking statements. Although management believes that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, forward-looking statements are not, and should not be relied upon as a guarantee of future performance or results, nor will they necessarily prove to be accurate indications of the times at which such performance or results will be achieved. The forward-looking statements included are made only as of the date of the statement. 3D Systems undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements made by management or on its behalf, whether as a result of future developments, subsequent events or circumstances or otherwise, except as required by law.
About 3D Systems
More than 35 years ago, 3D Systems brought the innovation of 3D printing to the manufacturing industry. Today, as the leading additive manufacturing solutions partner, we bring innovation, performance, and reliability to every interaction - empowering our customers to create products and business models never before possible. Thanks to our unique offering of hardware, software, materials, and services, each application-specific solution is powered by the expertise of our application engineers who collaborate with customers to transform how they deliver their products and services. 3D Systems’ solutions address a variety of advanced applications in healthcare and industrial markets such as medical and dental, aerospace & defense, automotive, and durable goods. More information on the company is available at www.3dsystems.com.
