Re: What's happened to BPM?

From: George Sachs (sachs@pipeline.com)
Date: Wed Oct 15 1997 - 01:11:06 EEST


The BPM news is interesting and a little sobering, in that they were one of
the pioneers of RP. They acquired one of the first patents in this field
invented by William Masters in 1984 and called "Ballistic Particle
Manufacture" (from which the company derived its name). I believe this year
they also announced that they had significantly improved their system by
enabling the jet to have five degrees of freedom. I guess even having a
great concept early on is no guarantee of success in the marketplace. Maybe
they just took too long going from concept to product (perhaps the ultimate
irony given that their product WAS RP!). I would imagine that the patent
rights and assets will be sold to some other company. Anyone care to guess
who that company will be? Should we start a contest?

This announcement together with the consolidation of 3D & EOS might point to
the beginnings of a shakeup in what is now a maturing market. It may also
indicate that, despite the annual growth of RP, sales volumes may still not
be sufficient to support a large number of R&D efforts and the related cost
of product development, support and continual improvement. I'll be
interested in learning what actually caused them to give up. Keep us posted
Yakov et al!

George Sachs
Paradyme Systems

>Group:
>Any thoughts as to what this says to and about the industry?
>
>Brad Fox
>Rapid Design
>
>
>>BPM Technology has ceased operations as of Oct 9, 1997. They are currently
>>repositioning assets and arranging to license the technology.
>>
>>Too bad!
>>
>>------------------------
>>Yakov Horenstein
>>Milano, Italy
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>



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