Materialise, a 3D-printing products and services company, has acquired Polish prototyping firm e-prototypy for an undisclosed sum, a move that further consolidates the 3D-printing space in Central Europe. Materialise, based in Leuven, Belgium, also owns Czech prototyping firm Usti Nad Labem CR.
“Thanks to the acquisition, Polish customers will be gaining access to the vast production capacity of Materialise. Furthermore, current Materialise customers will benefit from access to the scanning and reverse engineering services of e-Prototypy,” said Bart Van Der Schueren, Vice President Industrial Production in a release.
What does this mean for the central european 3D printing world? Plenty. First, it shows that these sorts of companies are heating up as evidenced by this purchase as well as 3D printer maker Zortrax’s recent sale of 6,000 units to Dell Asia. Central Europe has always been a manufacturing center and as new techniques come aboard it’s only natural for major industrial cities throughout the region to come back online while experimenting with new methods of manufacture. While the deals aren’t quite huge, there’s definitely something moving in the high tech vodka belt.