Group Sales Director
Stratasys’ decision to move into production-grade metal additive manufacturing is a significant moment for our industry. For years, we’ve all been talking about additive shifting from prototyping to genuine production, but progress has often been slow and fragmented. This announcement feels different. It signals a direction of travel that many of us in the UK engineering sector have been waiting for.
For SYS, as the UK’s Platinum Partner for Stratasys, it opens up a wider set of opportunities for our customers and gives them something they’ve been asking for: a single, trusted ecosystem for both polymer and metal technologies, backed by the level of service and expertise they already expect from us.
One of the biggest frustrations for manufacturers has always been how disjointed the AM landscape can feel. You might have one supplier for polymers, another for metals, a separate software stack, different support teams, and so on. It’s workable, but it isn’t efficient.
With Stratasys now bringing metal into its portfolio, we are moving towards a more complete, more cohesive AM ecosystem. For our UK customers, that means one partner supporting their entire additive strategy, not just one part of it. It means the same service levels, the same reliability, and the same focus on long-term value that SYS has built its reputation on.
We’re seeing a shift in the types of conversations we’re having with customers. It’s no longer “Can you print this?” but “Should we be printing this?” and “Where does additive fit in our overall manufacturing approach?”
That shift opens the door to metal. Sectors like defence, aerospace, space, automotive, medical devices, industrial machinery and subcontract engineering are all looking for solutions that combine the strengths of polymer with the performance of metal. They’re not looking to replace polymer; they’re looking to extend what’s possible.
Metal brings the mechanical properties that certain applications simply demand: strength, conductivity, heat resistance and structural stability. When you combine that with the flexibility and speed of polymer AM, you get a far more rounded, capable manufacturing toolkit.
Metal additive manufacturing has been held back in some areas by complexity. Powder handling, safety requirements, and slow production speeds have made many companies cautious. What Stratasys is doing with MoldJet feels much more aligned with how real manufacturers operate.
It’s an industrial process designed for productivity and consistency, without some of the barriers that have historically slowed adoption. Will MoldJet be the first technology we see in the UK? It’s certainly a possibility. We will be working closely with the Tritone team to ensure we have the right knowledge, training and technical grounding to support customers properly when the time comes.
This year has been a solid one for SYS. Growth has been especially strong in defence, aerospace, medical and dental. These sectors rely on industrial-grade polymer technologies that deliver reliability, repeatability and full traceability. They also value the fact that we don’t just sell machines. We uncover applications, help quantify the value and stay involved long after installation.
That approach becomes even more important with metal. The market is already splitting into two clear groups. On one side, you have entry-level prosumer machines. On the other, you have true industrial systems that can deliver production-ready parts with consistency. SYS has always been focused on the industrial end of the spectrum, where downtime matters, where quality matters and where people expect real human support, not a helpline and a PDF.
Metal AM fits naturally into that philosophy.
The timeline for UK availability will develop over the coming months. What matters most is that when the technology arrives, it lands with the right level of expertise and support behind it. Stratasys expanding into metal isn’t simply about launching another machine. It’s about building a more complete, more capable AM ecosystem that reflects how modern manufacturers actually work.
For UK industry, it means the pathway to a fully integrated additive strategy is now clearer than ever. For SYS and our customers, it marks the beginning of a new chapter, where polymer and metal work side by side to solve bigger, more complex engineering challenges.
And in my view, that’s exactly what the market has been waiting for.