Markforged

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). Production machines can also print kevlar.

At the 2015 Consumer Electronics Show, Markforged unveiled its cloud-based 3D printing software Eiger, which allowed for easier collaboration for a team through a cloud-based workflow process.

2017

At the 2017 Consumer Electronics Show, Markforged unveiled the Metal X, which is a 3D printer capable of 3D printing metal parts at a low cost, under $100k. The process has been referred to as ADAM (Atomic Diffusion Additive Manufacturing) technology and it has an in-process laser inspection for dimensional accuracy. Metal 3D printers at the time cost between $500,000 and $1 million.

2018

In March 2018, Markforged was sued by a rival 3D-printer manufacturer, Desktop Metal, which claimed intellectual property theft and patent infringement in regard to methods patented by Desktop Metal involving "adding layers of an easily removed material to a printed metal product". A finding in favor of Markforged was rendered in the patent infringement case in July 2018.

2019

In January 2019, a new UL Standard, 2904, "ANSI/CAN/UL Standard Method for Testing and Assessing Particle and Chemical Emissions from 3D Printers", was published Markforged noted in October 2019 that it was pursuing certification against this new standard, claiming that it uses "a plastic compound that generates lower emissions than many competing machines". In December 2019, Markforged appointed Shai Terem as president and chief operating officer. Terem joined the team from Kornit Digital, a digital printing company specialising in textiles, where he was president of the Americas region. Terem had previous experience in additive manufacturing, having worked at Stratasys years before.

2020

In early 2020, Markforged became the first known additive manufacturing platform to achieve ISO/IEC 27001 Certification. ISO/IEC 27001:2013 is an Information Security Management System (ISMS) standard published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). The certification was applied to Markforged's hardware and Eiger cloud and fleet management software, showing that they meet rigorous international standards in privacy, confidentiality and integrity. In February 2020, the company began to market a 3D-printer system capable of printing pure copper, a version of the company's "Metal X" system; the methodology had been in development for some time and involves the use of plastic-encapsulated copper pellets as the raw material.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Markforged helped to produce over 6,000 face shields in the first three months and partnered with a company called Neurophotometrics to produce Fiberflex Rayon, a 3D printed nasopharyngeal swab for use in diagnostic testing for COVID-19. The effort was renamed Swab56, which developed 55 prototypes over the course of 36 hours before a final design was reached. In October, Markforged announced that Terem was promoted to chief executive officer and president, while the founder Gregory Mark had moved to the role of chairman. The company also announced the launch of The Digital Forge, a cloud-based platform that the company states is the first industrial Additive Manufacturing platform leveraging AI.

2021–2024

In December 2021, Markforged announced its plans to move to a new corporate headquarters at 60 Tower Rd in Waltham, Massachusetts, to accommodate the company’s growth. The move was planned to be completed in the fall of 2022, and as of February 2023 the new headquarters is currently operational. In October of 2023, the FX10 launched as a next generation composite printer. At Formnext in 2024 the FX10 metal print head was debuted. Making the FX10 the first industrial printer capable of printing composite and metal parts.

Products

Markforged offers an additive manufacturing platform called The Digital Forge. The platform combines the company's range of products, which include 3D printers, software and materials, with AI technology. All products are developed and produced in the company's home state of Massachusetts. 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 - 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. 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 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. In 2019, Markforged released the Sinter-2, a larger furnace with four times the sintering workload of Sinter-1.

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. Because the fibers are contained in a filament, the printer is capable of freely orienting the fibers within the print plane.