A SCOTTISH 3D printing specialist has received a £39,000 grant to boost growth.
Brechin-based Angus 3D Solutions secured the regional selective assistance grant from Scottish Enterprise.
Building on growth last year, partly due to a grant from Zero Waste Scotland in 2018 to buy the Markforged Metal-X, the firm headed by global manufacturing veteran Andy Simpson has now put in place a three-year growth plan.
This will include Mr Simpson and employee John MacLeod being joined by a second employee to increase work supporting the circular economy in Scotland by enabling rapid prototyping and the remanufacture of parts to keep machines in use.
READ MORE: Brechin start-up gets backing for 'first 3D metal printer commercially available in UK'
Angus 3D will also add bespoke carbon fibre manufacture and a vacuum-forming service to its list of capabilities in addition to greater 3D printing capacity, it said.
Its Brechin Business Centre premises will also be grown to cope with more new equipment.
A third unit is being taken on by the firm with the help of Angus Council’s Business Angus team and neighbour TecNiche, which agreed to move so Angus 3D can add the unit next door to its existing pair.
READ MORE: Spacewalking astronauts release 3D-printed satellite
Mr Simpson said: “I’ve been talking about the huge opportunity the circular economy offers the manufacturing and oil and gas sectors for years now.
“Its ability to save on costs as well as time and materials is huge but still in the early stages of being exploited here, so it’s great to have backing from Scottish Enterprise and Angus Council to pursue realising that opportunity.”
Jane Martin, of Scottish Enterprise, said the firm is “a great example of how entrepreneurial talent, skills and ideas can create a growing business and new jobs”.
Alison Smith, head of Angus Council’s business team, said: “Angus has the highest percentage of people employed in manufacturing in Tay Cities Region and it is a key growth sector for the future with a shift to advanced and high value and sustainable manufacturing and engineering. We are delighted to be able to support Andy’s plans.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here