Danish toymaker Lego (Billund / Denmark; www.lego.com) and tool manufacturer Stanley Black and Decker have completed an equity investment in additive manufacturer Evolve Additive Solutions (Minneapolis / USA; www.evolveadditive.com). Lego, Stanley Black and Decker Investments plus a third undisclosed investor have together invested USD 19m in the company, which has developed a selective thermoplastic electrophotographic process (STEP) technology designed to allow users to use production-grade thermoplastics for volume manufacturing applications.

The scalable technology can be used across industries, including consumer, automotive, industrial and medical, offering an alternative to injection moulding, Evolve said.

Carsten Rasmussen, chief operations officer at Lego, explained that Lego has “no immediate plans to launch 3D printed Lego bricks or elements commercially. We will continue to use additive manufacturing to maintain agility in our innovation pipeline and create fast prototypes to test new and innovative play experiences.”

Per Hjuler, of Lego Brand business development, said the group has been using additive manufacturing technology for more than 20 years. “Today, the company mainly employs the technology to create prototypes in the development of new products and we believe that the technology will become an even more important supplement to the current injection moulding capabilities in the future,” he stated. “With Evolve Additive Solutions we have found a very competent partner within this area.”

Evolve said its partnerships with world leading companies will help it bring the STEP technology to commercialisation. Other investors include 3D printing company Stratasys (Eden Prairie, Minnesota / USA; www.stratasys.com) as a minority shareholder since April 2018.