Materialise

Materialise NV is a Belgian technology company in the 3D printing / additive manufacturing sector, with a strong focus on medical technology. It specializes in additive manufacturing, medical software tools, and 3D printing services, offering proprietary software for 3D printers and printing operations, patient-specific implants and surgical guides, customized anatomical models, and bone models. It also operates i.materialise, a consumer-facing online 3D printing service.

Founded in June 1990 by Wilfried Vancraen and his wife Hilde Ingelaere as a rapid prototyping service bureau, Materialise is one of the longest-standing additive manufacturing companies in the industry. It quickly pivoted into developing 3D printing applications for healthcare, beginning work on digital 3D images of human anatomy in 1992. Vancraen remains CEO, and Ingelaere is now executive vice president of Materialise Medical.

Headquartered in Leuven, Belgium, the company's global headquarters houses one of the world's largest 3D printing service centers, runs on green energy, and is home to over 35 nationalities. Its software — including Materialise Mimics (medical) and Materialise Magics (industrial) — has become an industry standard, entering industrial manufacturing through partnerships with major machine makers such as Arburg, Concept Laser, EOS, Renishaw and Trumpf. Materialise is publicly traded on NASDAQ under the ticker MTLS.

The company has a track record of breakthrough applications: around 2000, hearing aid specialist Phonak engaged Materialise to develop Rapid Shell Modeling (RSM) software, automating the design of patient-specific hearing aid shells — the first high-volume, end-use application of 3D printing. This history of pioneering software-driven, mass-customized additive manufacturing makes innovation in this space directly relevant to Materialise.