Thu, 03/12/2015 - 00:00

LEUVEN, Belgium (March 12, 2015) – Materialise NV, a provider of Additive Manufacturing software and 3D printing solutions in the medical and industrial markets, announced the acquisition of Belgian-based CENAT, a developer of embedded computing software and solutions for additive manufacturing control systems. Materialise acquired CENAT for an upfront cash payment and will be required to make earn-out payments if certain conditions are satisfied. This transaction will enable Materialise to add new software solutions for quality control to its open platform for additive manufacturing, which already includes tools for everything from file preparation to complete automation and control systems. The embedded software and processing power of CENAT's AM machine control systems, which have been developed in collaboration with Materialise, will support the demanding quality control systems and processes needed to assure the correct production of printed end-parts in industries such as aerospace and medical. Materialise founder and CEO Fried Vancraen commented, "We are very proud to welcome the CENAT team to the Materialise Group. We began collaborating with CENAT in response to a growing demand for a greater control over quality for the manufacturing end-use parts, both within our own AM facilities as well as in those of our customers. As the system being developed was complementary to the broad range of solutions in our Open Software Platform for 3D Printing, the decision was made to bring the CENAT system in-house and to the market as part of our broad range of software solutions for industrial additive manufacturing." "CENAT is very enthusiastic about joining the Materialise group," stated Stijn Schacht, founder and CEO of CENAT. "We have enjoyed the close collaboration with Materialise's R&D team in the development of an AM machine control system and look forward to furthering this work from within Materialise. Furthermore, by teaming up with such established players in the AM industry, we are very excited to be increasing the reach of a technology that answers a growing need for greater control over quality and repeatability." For 25 years, Materialise has been focused on driving 3D printing forward with innovative applications, operating in an open ecosystem. The company's software offers a neutral platform to link all 3D printing applications with any 3D printer in the industry and, in 2014, Materialise announced multiple partnerships with 3D printer manufacturers to create build processors that link software even more directly with the machine. This latest acquisition will further improve the transfer of data between machine and user, enabling a potentially greater amount of print success and allowing users to manufacture even more complex and higher quality parts. Headquartered in Leuven, Belgium, Materialise is an international provider of Additive Manufacturing (AM) software solutions and sophisticated 3D printing services in a wide variety of industries, including healthcare, automotive, aerospace, art and design and consumer products. Based in Gent, Belgium, CENAT is part of T&M solutions Group, a Group focused on creating custom-made multi-disciplinary solutions to test, measure, inspect, assemble and control products in the manufacturing industry.