An emergency newsletter (Nano Dimension & Desktop Metal update)
The Atomic Layers: S9E22 (00259)
Atomic Layer of the Day:
Guys, today’s update will be exceptionally short and quick. It turns out I have to urgently head out for a meeting that was originally scheduled for tomorrow, and since it's already 7:00 PM my time (CET), I didn’t want to keep you hanging...
Today, we have one major piece of news and a handful of others that are just as interesting — I might circle back to those over the next few days. But let’s start with the most important one:
Nano Dimension has announced the beginning of a process to explore so-called “strategic alternatives” for recently acquired Desktop Metal.
In practice, this means the company is in a tough financial spot — facing liquidity issues and obligations — and is evaluating different options to help it get out of crisis.
Now, pay attention!
Such strategic alternatives can include the sale of part or all of the company, restructuring, raising new capital, or — in some cases — even bankruptcy.
In light of this, Robert Warshauer has been appointed to Desktop Metal’s Board of Directors. He’s an experienced turnaround manager specializing in restructuring. The company has also brought on two external financial advisors: Piper Sandler & Co. and FTI Consulting, Inc., to support the evaluation of possible actions and help implement the best course forward.
The statement emphasized that there are no guarantees about the outcome of this process, or when it might be concluded. Nano Dimension said more details would be revealed during their financial results presentation for 2024 and their outlook for 2025 — scheduled for the end of April 2025 (so within the next week).
What does this mean?
My friends, it means things are really bad — and there’s a real chance that there might not be much left of Desktop Metal when the dust settles.
That, of course, is the worst-case scenario — it's still possible they’ll manage to raise capital from somewhere (after all, Stratasys just pulled it off recently), or maybe a buyer will show up for selected assets (their materials portfolio and EnvisionTEC’s IP are definitely the juiciest pieces).
But deep cuts are definitely coming, and whatever’s left of Desktop Metal afterward… it’ll be a ghost of the former unicorn.
Atomic Layer from the Past:
04-22-2019: 3ders.org published its final article, gradually fading into the depths of online obscurity...
News & Gossip:
3YOURMIND has launched an AI-powered Technical Drawing Analysis tool within its Part Identification software. It speeds up technical drawing analysis up to 200x, enabling faster digitisation of spare parts, especially in defence, aerospace, and energy. The tool uses OCR and LLMs to assess manufacturability and forecast production costs and lead times.
SHINING 3D has released BlueStar Mapping, a free AI-powered texturing software for creating accurate, true-color 3D models. It integrates photogrammetry, AI, and texture fusion to automate and streamline workflows, offering high precision, universal scanner compatibility, and ultra-high resolution—ideal for digitizing artifacts, product modeling, and photorealistic assets.
Now look at this, beacuse it seems to be pretty awesome… Joshua Bird has introduced the S4-Slicer, an experimental tool for non-planar 3D printing. Unlike traditional horizontal slicing, S4 generates curved print paths to improve surface quality and strength on angled geometries. Integrated into a Jupyter notebook, it deforms models via a tetrahedral mesh, enabling slicing with standard software like Cura. The G-code is then transformed back to restore the original shape with curved paths. Though computationally intensive, this method makes non-planar printing accessible using existing tools. Inspired by the S³ slicer, S4 stands for “Simplified S³,” focusing on practicality over hierarchy. The project remains open and exploratory.