Carbon fiber materials recycling specialist Vartega has secured $10 million in a most well-liked fairness financing spherical led by Diamond Edge Ventures.
The financing can be used to advertise the corporate’s Fenix Fiber EasyFeed Bundles. This 100% recycled carbon fiber providing is optimized for purposes within the additive manufacturing, automotive, client electronics, and sporting items sectors.
Vartega is working with firms akin to 3D printing materials producer Xtellar to supply and provide sustainable supplies for additive manufacturing. The corporate can also be a founding member of the Colorado-based Superior Supplies and Additive Manufacturing Infrastructure Improvement and Training (AMIDE) Affiliation, and is actively conducting R&D to supply proprietary 3D printing thermoplastics.
Diamond Edge Ventures is the company enterprise capital arm of the Mitsubishi Chemical Group (MCG), and has expressed confidence in Vartega’s superior materials round provide chain imaginative and prescient. This $10 million funding spherical additionally drew assist from Round Innovation Fund, in addition to current traders HG Ventures and Techstars.
“Diamond Edge Ventures funding validates our efforts to deal with the pressing want for sustainable options within the composites business. We’re grateful for his or her assist as our lead investor for this pivotal funding spherical,” commented Vartega CEO Andrew Maxey. “This capital infusion will allow us to broaden our operations, improve our expertise, and additional set up Vartega as a frontrunner within the round financial system.”
“Because the world shifts in the direction of a extra sustainable future, we’re excited to assist Vartega of their mission to rework the supplies business,” added Curtis Schickner, President of Diamond Edge Ventures.
“Vartega’s progressive strategy to carbon fiber recycling aligns with our imaginative and prescient for investing in applied sciences that positively affect the atmosphere and economically meet present and future buyer wants.”
Vartega raises $10 million to bolster recycled supplies
Vartega boasts a proprietary recycling course of which allows high-performance carbon fiber to be recovered and transformed into superior supplies for the manufacturing of aerospace elements, automotive elements, and wind turbine blades.
In response to Vartega, its strategy reduces waste and gives a sustainable supply of high-quality recycled carbon fiber to producers by way of its Fenix Fiber and Fenix Fiber+ EasyFeed Bundles. Fenix Fiber is a powerful and light-weight carbon fiber reinforcement for compound thermoplastics, whereas Fenix Fiber+ incorporates high-performance components akin to functionalized graphene.
The $10 million financing can be leveraged to additional optimize Vartega’s just lately opened 82,000 sq. foot Denver-based manufacturing facility. Funds can even be allotted to commercialize extra recycling processes to broaden feedstock availability.
Vartega hopes to proceed to combine its recycled materials with business companions within the automotive, additive manufacturing, client electronics, and sporting items sectors.
Vartega’s additive manufacturing portfolio
A key facet of Vartega’s enterprise mannequin is the manufacturing of sustainable additive manufacturing feedstocks. In 2018, the Vartega launched the AMIDE Affiliation in collaboration with inexperienced expertise advocacy Colorado Cleantech Industries Affiliation (CCIA), North American engineering group EWI, and on-line 3D service supplier The 3D Printing Retailer.
This partnership obtained a $500,000 Superior Industrial Accelerator (AIA) Collaborative Infrastructure Grant from the Colorado Workplace of Financial Improvement and Worldwide Commerce. The Affiliation has used this funding to develop three innovation facilities in Colorado, specializing in the creation of 3D printing supplies akin to fiber-reinforced thermoplastics.
Extra just lately, in November 2023 Vartega introduced a five-year strategic partnership with Xtellar. Having first collaborated in 2018, this new partnership continues the 2 firms’ dedication to creating and commercializing sustainable 3D printing supplies.
Xtellar presently produces 4 completely different additive manufacturing supplies that make the most of Vartega’s recycled carbon fiber. These embody the corporate’s FL900PP-CF 100% recycled carbon fiber bolstered polypropylene 3D printing filament.
Leveraging Vartega’s Fenix Fiber, Xtellar sells 3D printing supplies to clients specializing in electronics, sporting items, automotive, and furnishings purposes. By means of this newest settlement, Vartega and Xstellar will work to launch at the least 5 new high-performance and sustainable supplies by Could 2025.
Xtellar just lately introduced the launch of its new UV fiber bolstered recycled PE pellet materials that comes with a UV stabilizer for big format 3D printers. Incorporating Vartega’s high-grade recycled carbon fiber, this new feedstock is known as GR-610R-GCF, and reportedly opens up Vartega’s materials to out of doors purposes such together with free-standing constructions.
Vartega has additionally labored to extend its R&D capabilities to compound its personal thermoplastics. By means of this, the corporate hopes to offer supplies on to 3D printer and filament producers.
Securing the round materials provide chain
The sustainability of fabric provide is a rising concern for these leveraging additive manufacturing.
Customers need to decrease their carbon footprint and alleviate provide chain challenges. To fulfill this demand, materials producers are producing recycled 3D printing supplies for a variety of purposes. In a Life Cycle Evaluation (LCA) printed in 2023, KIMYA reported that recycled PETG filaments can scale back CO2 emissions by as much as 35%.
In July 2023, 3D printing supplies and providers supplier CRP Know-how launched its 100% recycled Windform XT 2.0 IMG (Injection Molding Grade) 3D printing materials. This high-performance materials boasts a composite construction with a thermoplastic matrix, PA12 base, and enhanced carbon fiber reinforcements. This materials is produced from depleted Windform powders with out together with any virgin components.
Elsewhere, 3D printing firm Tectonic-3D launched a sequence of 3D printing filaments at Formnext 2023. One such materials, TenneT KRATIR PA11 CF, is a Polyamide 11 filament infused with carbon fiber that boasts a 98% biobased composition.
Equally, UK-based 3D printing filament producer Filamentive launched an financial system PLA made with 99.99% recycled supplies in March 2023. The composition of those filaments are derived from post-industrial waste. By utilizing single-source waste, this materials is free from particles, lowering the probability of contamination.
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Featured picture exhibits Vartega’s recycled carbon fiber materials. Picture by way of Vartega.
