"Mantle is poised to revolutionize the global tooling industry," said Alexandra Manick, principal of Schooner Capital. "The company’s advanced manufacturing platform, TrueShape, is proven to deliver significant cost savings and, more importantly, unprecedented speed for its customers. This paradigm-shifting solution is readily adoptable and sorely needed to address persistent skilled labor shortages and accelerate product development timelines for industrial toolmakers and OEMs worldwide,” said Manick.

“We purchased a Mantle system for two reasons — to reduce time-to-market for our products and to make our toolroom more efficient while attracting next-generation talent to Heyco,” commented Vice President of Operations Danny Anthony. “By using Mantle to print mold tooling, we have already brought a new product to market two months faster than we would have otherwise. We also increased the throughput in our toolroom by giving our toolmakers access to the latest technology that makes them significantly more productive.”

While job creation numbers grow, employers are scrambling to find skilled workers to fill those positions, and it’s only getting worse. More than two million manufacturing jobs could go unfilled by 2030, according to a study by Deloitte and the Manufacturing Institute.

The Series C funding round was led by Schooner Capital, a Boston-based private investment firm, joined by its largest existing investors, including Fine Structure Ventures, Foundation Capital, Corazon Capital, 11.2 Capital, and Build Collective.

By focusing on printing tools for mass production rather than the parts themselves, Mantle said it has tackled the longstanding issues of high costs and lengthy production times associated with tool creation for mass production. This strategic shift has resulted in cost reductions for customers exceeding 65% and accelerated manufacturers' development cycles by up to 90%, it claims.

Continued reshoring of manufacturing coupled with the skilled labor shortage in the United States has created a uniquely attractive business opportunity for Mantle’s TrueShape technology.

Tooling made via Mantle’s TrueShape technology have produced millions of parts while reducing both tooling lead time and cost. Image courtesy of Businesswire.

Röhm (Darmstadt, Germany) announced that it has invested a double-digit million amount in the expansion of a production plant for PLEXIGLAS (branded in the Americas as ACRYLITE) molding compounds in Shanghai. In November 2021, Röhm also announced the expansion of a production plant for PLEXIGLAS molding compounds in Worms (Germany). “This significant global capacity expansion will enable us to further increase delivery reliability and flexibility for the benefit of our customers worldwide”, says COO Hans-Peter Hauck.

US government incentives and policies, such as the Inflation Reduction Act, along with geopolitical risks in various parts of the world that threaten global supply chains have buoyed near- and reshoring as well as foreign direct investment (FDI), according to a recent report from the Reshoring Initiative. The organization said that 2023 was the second highest year on record in terms of job creation linked to reshoring and FDI, adding 287,000 jobs based on its record keeping.

General Pattern, a fourth-generation, woman-owned low- to medium-volume plastics processor, adopted Mantle’s technology to enhance flexibility in building production tools at prototype lead times and minimize the need to build entire tools by toolmakers. Cost, lead time, and labor were significantly reduced: Using Mantle’s technology, the company was able to shave off 3.5 weeks of lead time in tooling fabrication and required just four active hours of a toolmaker’s time.

Beyond the sheer numbers, some of those jobs require a specific skillset and command commensurate compensation. Moldmaking is in that cohort, which is why Mantle’s technology is attractive to investors and customers alike. The TrueShape system reportedly delivers the accuracy, surface finish, and tool steel properties required for demanding tooling applications, while reducing tooling lead times and costs. Mantle has gathered some testimonials to back up that claim.

Business, not surprisingly, is booming: Last year saw double-digit growth in shipments, according to San Francisco-based Mantle.

Mantle, an innovator in applying metal 3D-printing technology to the fabrication of precision tooling, reports that it has reached a significant milestone by securing $20 million in Series C funding. This raises the company’s total funding to more than $61.5 million and marks a crucial step toward widespread adoption of its precision metal manufacturing technology, the company said in the announcement.

Röhm has been successful in China for many years with its PLEXIGLAS molding compounds. The dynamic economic development of the automotive industry and the lighting industry in Asia is a driver for the expansion of capacity in Shanghai. The expanded molding compounds plant will go into operation in the second quarter of 2023. “In this way, we not only support the growth of our customers, but at the same time seize new market opportunities”, says Benjamin Ling, Asia President. Only a few months ago Röhm inaugurated a new technology center on-site in Shanghai.

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Heyco Products, a US-based manufacturer of wire protection products and electrical components, deployed Mantle technology for in-house molding and toolmaking.

Investors are bullish on Mantle’s metal 3D-printing system that reportedly can slash tooling costs by more than 65% and development cycles by as much as 90%.

Editor in chief of PlasticsToday since 2015, Norbert Sparrow has more than 30 years of editorial experience in business-to-business media. He studied journalism at the Centre Universitaire d'Etudes du Journalisme in Strasbourg, France, where he earned a master's degree.

Röhm’s branded polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) is an in-demand raw material in countless growing sectors, such as the automotive, construction and lighting industries as well as for domestic appliances. This is because PLEXIGLAS is especially well-suited for applications where durability, resistance to weather and UV, color fastness, high luminosity and transparency as well as hardness and scratch-resistance are key.