Vitro3D is reimagining the future of manufacturing with its advanced volumetric technology, enabling rapid, high-quality production of complex parts. This sustainable approach surpasses traditional methods, empowering industries to tackle existing challenges and unlock new opportunities that were previously impossible.
FELLOWS
Camila Uzcategui
Camila Uzcategui is the co-founder and CEO of Vitro3D, a company pioneering volumetric additive manufacturing. She earned her Ph.D. in materials science and engineering from the University of Colorado, Boulder, and has a B.S. in physics and a B.A. in anthropology from Florida International University. With over eight years of experience in light-based additive manufacturing, Uzcategui brings extensive expertise in applying advanced technologies to industry. She advocates for technology entrepreneurship with a social lens to create sustainable solutions.
Johnny Hergert
Johnny Hergert is the co-founder and CTO of Vitro3D, an additive manufacturing company that provides tools to maximize manufacturers' flexibility to create never-before-possible objects. While obtaining his B.S. in chemistry from Oregon State, Hergert built his first 3D printer and has been studying and innovating in the additive industry for 10 years. He started Vitro3D with his co-founder while finishing a Ph.D. at the University of Colorado Boulder.
TECHNOLOGY
Critical Need
Manufacturers across high-value industries are limited by existing technologies in efficiently producing complex polymer parts. Methods like injection molding and 3D printing fall short of providing a cost-effective, high-quality solution for producing high-resolution parts at varying scales of production. Injection molding isn't economical for small batches and struggles with complex geometries, while 3D printing is often limited to lower-performance materials unsuitable for mass production. In the electronic connectors and components industry, for example, the next generation of products faces critical manufacturing roadblocks due to these resolution, speed, and material flexibility limitations.
Technology Vision
Vitro3D is introducing a new 3D fabrication technology that significantly speeds up production and enables the creation of complex shapes not possible with current manufacturing techniques. Vitro3D’s approach uses an optical toolhead to enable layerless, volumetric parts fabrication directly onto manufacturing lines. This streamlines production by eliminating support structures that other additive methods require, allowing hybrid components without assembly, and offering an unlimited build area. This pioneering approach in polymer structuring accelerates part fabrication by a factor of 100 compared to 3D printing methods, and it can create complex geometries unachievable with injection molding.
Potential for Impact
Vitro3D's innovation will dramatically enhance society by enabling the on-site and on-demand production of critical parts in high-value industries using a wider range of sustainable materials when fully implemented. This disruptive manufacturing technology will foster innovation in a broad range of industries, including electronics, personalized medicine, and regenerative tissue creation, reaching previously inaccessible locations with its low-cost, modular system. By improving the accessibility and quality of products for a broad spectrum of populations, Vitro3D aims to significantly enhance the quality of life globally, moving from solving complex industrial challenges to making a profound societal impact.
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