In defense of your cat she knows exactly where her litterbox is and uses it religiously. SGLB however is indiscriminate in the manner in which they spread their droppings among the shareholders.

"I guess if you can't "show me the money" !!!! You write a long letter"

Bingo!! Sigma may not be able to sell anything but they have perfected the ability to communicate half truths and unfounded projections to sooth their shareholders angst. The longer this story goes on, the more it stays the same.

Gee, wouldn't you think that any manufacturer those kind of heavy-duty requirements would want multiple current user references that provided strong evidence that the software performed as advertised? 'm afraid that SGLB's test sites would provide little cofidence for such an order.

Akin to standing on the Titanic believing the icebergs are going to melt.

Kanya: I would suggest you read it once again. Carefully. Note that it states that this is a beta customer commercialization product. i.e. still in testing, which means it will not generate any revenue. Think about what Sigma's record has been thus far with their "beta products": Zero sales in ten years. I wouldn't get excited yet.

The hard question you need to ask is whether or not you would buy the stock today as a first time owner. If the answer is no, you should sell. Why would you want to own something that you don't believe is worth buying. This is a tough lesson to learn and after several decades of investing I'm still learning but it is the right thing to do. A few dollars salvaged from a bad investment is better than none.

Dearth of follow-through sales is far stronger evidence of problems than the dentists opinion.

Captain: Certainly not my understanding. RTE, Rapid Test and Evaluation, is exactly what it says....an opportunity to test and evaluate before purchasing. To my knowledge there is no commitment to purchase as evidenced by the lack of sales. To my way of thinking if a test site does not purchase it "drops out". I don't know how else you could spin it.

Johnny: I don't think it is entirely fair to blame the sales and marketing folks for Sigma's lack of sales. They have been successful in establishing a good number of evaluation tests and OEM agreements. They can't compel a customer to buy. The fact that so many companies have evaluated the product over the past several years clearly points to the lack of a value proposition for a potential customer. Whether the product does not live up to it's claimed capabilities or the end user's level of sophistication is insufficient to justify the expenditure, as some here claim is unknown. The fact remains that given seemingly unending trials with no sales leads me to conclude that at least for now the product does not meet market needs.

How did your EOQ contest results turn out?

In New Mexico it's succinctly described as "all hat and no cattle".

ChARLIE:

EOY .95
Q-1 1.20
Q-2 1.60
Q-3 1.60
Q-4 1.60.

If John has certain knowledge that a contract will be announced next week then certainly buying shares is illegal. However if he simply has faith that agreements will be forthcoming based upon the evolution of the business then buying on the open market is perfectly legal. He has communicated his faith in the future sales to shareholders. By purchasing shares he simply reinforces what he has already communicated.

If I were John Rice and I had convictions in my outlook for the next six months I would buy 25,000 shares on the open market and encourage my Board members to buy as well. The stock price would jump to $1.50 overnight and continue upwards from there assuming his projections came to pass. Seems simple enough.

Outlook "I am just curious why some one that has direct contact with the company and has used the product hasn’t jumped in to have as much ownership?" Does make you wonder doesn't it? To my knowledge neither management nor board members have ever purchased a single share on the open market. One would think that if this were the slam dunk many here would have you believe that there would be at least some insider buying. I think that the stock still has to prove itself with significant (multi-million dollar) sales before you are going to top a dollar. And.....if it lags into the new year you will likely see sixty cents again.

Cast. You are assuming a net margin of about 30% which I think is reasonable. However don't forget that if they sell via Materialise they are going to capture a good chunk of that margin themselves so the number of units sold to break even will go up. To assume that SGLB will receive 30% net of sales on top of what Materialise talkes out is unrealistic in my opinion.

Your math is certainly interesting. SGLB has an expense run rate of $500,000 a month. If they were to sell 5 systems before the end of the year that would be $600,000 in revenue (more or less). At a net margin of 30% (which would be extremely generous) they would still have net income of less than $200,000 resulting in a two month loss for November/ December of $800,000. I don't think anyone here has really seriously considered the sales volume that would be required just to break even. One or two sales will certainly result in a temporary pop in the price, but they will have to come through with massive volume sales to make any kind of sustaining difference in the stock price.

There is no reason to believe that this evaluation will turn out any differently than all of the previous ones. A total non-event. When you offer your software for next-to-nothing for evaluation few will turn you down.

Great timing. Those that hesitate to cut their losses on this bounce will regret it.

Hawks: I'm actually in Albuquerque, some 50 miles from the SLLB offices. I have visited their offices during two board meetings and passed by numerous times. I don't have much doubt that they are actively engaged in trying to move the company forward. I don't personally look at them as being fraudulent just not yet having a solution that has market appeal. They share a facility with more than 25 other startups so observing the comings and goings of folks going in and out doesn't tell us much. My biggest gripe with the company is their tendency to present half-truths as fact together with their dismal record of projecting future successes. Perhaps all this will change some day but the investment lost all appeal to me several years back.

Thank about it. If this were a real "money in the pocket" full priced arms-length sale do you really believe there would be any confusion? SGLB would be taking out full page advertisements in the NY Times and screaming the news from the housetops. This is simply another give-away or bargain priced demo site that allows SGLB to announce that they have signed yet another "contract". Just a continuation of their smoke and mirrors practices to perpetuate the myth that they have something of value to the marketplace.

Contract "to install". Just another demonstration test site in my opinion. Not a "sale" .

You may recall that SGLB made a big deal about partnering with Navajo Tech six or nine months ago. Their PR read as if they were going to be the primary partner and how this was going to train a whole new cadre of Printrite users. Somehow they missed even being mentioned in this article. One more example of making something out to be a big deal when it truly amounted to nothing. How many times do you need to be lied to and mislead before enough is enough?

From This Morning's Albuquerque Journal:

Optomec helps Navajo Tech move to next level
BY KEVIN ROBINSON-AVILA / JOURNAL STAFF WRITER
Monday, October 7th, 2019 at 12:02am

Navajo Technical University students receive the Optomec LENS MTS 500 HY CA system for use in the advanced manufacturing program. From left to right: Aaron Sansosie, Adriane Tenequer, Lisa Willis, Chad Yazzie, Scott Halliday, Les Notah, and Joshua Toddy. (Courtesy of Optomec)
Students at Navajo Technical University in Crownpoint will soon gain hands-on experience in additive metal manufacturing with an industrial 3D printer supplied by Albuquerque-based Optomec Inc.

Optomec delivered the $700,000 machine in September to the university, which will use the Laser Engineered Net Shaping, or LENS, system as one of its flagship pieces of high-tech equipment at NTU’s new Center for Advanced Manufacturing.

NTU received $4.2 million from the National Science Foundation to help set up the new center, which will officially open for operations and educational programs in November, said NTU Center for Digital Technologies Director Scott Halliday.

“The center will provide support for all phases of additive manufacturing, offering hands-on education, research and workforce development, as well as commercial services that provide employment opportunities for students and program graduates,” Halliday said. “Until now, students had to go elsewhere to study advanced manufacturing. The center will help more students to stay on the Navajo Nation while also generating economic development here to help stem the reservation’s brain drain.”


An Optomec Aerosol Jet print head.
NTU is now the only one of 37 tribal universities in the U.S. to achieve Accreditation Board for Education and Technology, or ABET, certification, which is critical for students to get hired by national labs or industry, said NTU President Elmer Guy.

“With ABET accreditation, students can intern at national labs or at companies like Boeing or Honeywell,” Guy said. “They only accept or hire people from ABET-accredited schools. It puts us at a level that no other tribal college has yet achieved.”

Apart from Optomec’s LENS machine, NSF grant money allowed NTU to purchase a new, $742,000 CT Scanner from Boeing for students and others to scrutinize the inside of metal parts. The center is also equipped with scanning electron and 3D microscopes, a computer numerical mill, and computer aided design software, among other things, Halliday said.

All that equipment is now installed in an existing 5,500-square-foot building where the digital technologies center currently operates.

“That part of the advanced manufacturing center is up and running,” Halliday said. “Training will begin there in November.”

In addition, NTU received a $1 million U.S. Commerce Department grant, with $1.5 million in matching funds from the Navajo Division of Economic Development, to build a 6,000-square-foot metrology and materials testing center that will open next summer. That’s where students and others will assess and handle the metal powders used in industrial 3D printing, backed by extensive training in safety and equipment operation, Halliday said.

They’ll also do metrology inspection there on 3D printed parts to assure size and integrity of finished products.

Taken together, the two buildings will house a complete metal additive manufacturing ecosystem, Halliday said.

“We’ve been doing 3D printing with polymers for about 12 years, but the new center takes us to a whole new level with metal additive manufacturing,” Halliday said. “We’ll have all the infrastructure and skills in place now to support it.”


Optomec’s Aerosol Jet’s stacked die printed interconnects. (Courtesy of Optomec)
It’s the Optomec machine that tips the balance from plastics to 3D metal printing, which is slowly revolutionizing manufacturing in the U.S. and elsewhere. Unlike hobbyist 3D printers and other additive manufacturing equipment used in small-scale commercial operations, the LENS system is designed for high-volume industrial production of metal parts and repair operations.

The machine uses a laser to melt powdered metals into pools. It then uses the melt to draw, or print, computer-designed metal products, building components up one layer at a time.

The Albuquerque company, which launched in 1997 with technology originally designed by Sandia National Laboratories, has become a global player in industrial 3D printing, having entered the industry as a pioneer when it was just beginning.

Apart from the LENS system, Optomec also created an Aersol Jet machine to make printed electronics. That system uses gold, silver and other alloys to make liquid inks, which are sprayed in a mist of fine droplets to form extremely narrow beams, allowing operators to “write” electronics onto a variety of substrates, such as solar or silicon chips.

To date, the company has sold nearly 500 machines, which range from a low of about $200,000 to more than $1 million, depending on customer needs and the bells and whistles attached to units, said Optomec Marketing Director Mike Dean. Some 300 customers have installed LENS and Aerosol Jets across the globe, including huge firms like General Electric and Samsung.

“When we started, a lot of labs and research institutions became customers,” Dean said. “But we’ve transitioned into production-oriented applications in the last few years, which has led to a lot of growth.

The company manufactures all its machines in Albuquerque, where it employs nearly 100 people at a 24,000-square-foot facility in the north I-25 industrial corridor. It also has operations in St. Paul, Minn., South Carolina, Switzerland and Singapore.


Optomec’s LENS 860 Hybrid System for Printed Metals. (Courtesy of Optomec)
Halliday said the Optomec machine offers high-quality production capabilities and versatility for users.

“We can build parts from nothing in forms that we couldn’t do with traditional manufacturing,” Halliday said. “We can also repair broken parts or cracks in parts with it.”

In addition, partnering with Optomec allows NTU to work with a homegrown company that’s “just down the street,” Halliday said.

The university’s new manufacturing center will prepare students for high-tech, modern jobs as industrial 3D printing gains force, said Optomec LENS production manager Tom Cobbs.

“What’s remarkable about (NTU’s) center is how, under one roof, students have access to advanced equipment and cross-discipline training in everything from computer aided design to metal additive processing and machining, metrology and materials testing,” Cobbs said. “(The university) is doing an incredible service for NTU students and the companies they will ultimately work for by preparing them to become valuable assets post-graduation.”

Local firm Optomec supplies industrial 3D printer for program

Contact the writer.

Give the sales guys a break. If you don't offer a product that provides commensuate value to the customer for the price demanded, it's damn hard to sell. That has been the status for a good long time now. Can't blame the sales guys for not being able to sell a pig in a poke!!

They are still there and have been since about 2012 or earlier. They share the space with more than 20 other startups. I'm not sure of the amount of floor space they occupy, but it seems to be enough to meet their needs. Things like receptionists, meeting rooms, etc. are shared with other occupants.

I find it interesting that none, not a single one, of the promoters of how Sigma is going to be inside everything "when the market matures" has ever bothered to attend an annual shareholder's meeting. An airplane ticket and a one night hotel stay should not break the bank of anyone. Driftin, who is one of the more reasoned proponents of Sigma, attended two annual meetings and took the opportunity to ask pointed questions of management. Note that he no longer posts and has either moved on or simply lost interest. I've been to two of the meetings as well and I highly recommend the experience. You may leave with a whole different impression of the folks you have put your trust in all these years. From the sound of things so far it appears that once again there will be no attendees from this Board. what I found when I went was that the handful of attendees on both occassions consisted of locals who were all personal buddies with management and didn't participate in the discussions, nor did they raise any pointed questions. Thre price of attendance is small fraction of what many of you have invested here. I highly recommend the experience.

Good luck to you Chef. You did the right thing. Never any fun to lose money, but better to have some left than none. The shady past you so aptly described continues on. Better to take what money you have left and run. Hope your next investment is a 10 bagger.

Perhaps, but his success rate is the same. He has had more than enough time to prove himself and hye has not.

" But for 99% of that time Sigma was a R&D tech company and not a Product company
Since 11/18 Sigma is now a product company with excellent IP " Blinko, too bad you were not around a year ago, or two years ago, or three years ago.....We got exactly the same story then. What makes them believeable this time around?

Silver: Certainly agree that Cola, despite any skills as a scientist, had no idea how to run a business. I got that message very clearly from watching him in action at the Board meetings I attended. I don't agree however that he was aware of his shortcomings in this regard. My observations of his ego-in-action would tend to dissuade me of that opinion. I believe John Rice put the nail in his coffin and wanted him out of the way because his usefulness was exhausted and the company continued to operate in an R & D mode under his leadership. JMHO.

Projecting stock performance from facial expressions is surely a new science. Don't overlook the potential that sunspots and palm reading might add to your forecasting abilities.

What is predictable is the runup by all the "wishful thinkers" believing that this time is going to be "the time" when all the promises that have been made have been fulfilled. Those who continue to believe that a major sale would not have been announced to the world when it was secured are going to continue to suffer the same disappointment at every earnings call.

If two of Sigmas major collaborators/customers/testers, et.al. (Spartacus and Lazer Zentrum) tell us that the product is "still in development and further research is required to make it commercially viable" how valuable are the patents? This is, and has been, an almost but not quite marketable product. Obviously further development is required to make it attractive to the end-user community. It's pretty obvious why there are no sales. While Sigma is still "developing" others are as well. Seems to me it's still an open question as to who will be the first to appeal to the end-user community.

Hey!! I think you finally hit the nail on the head. There is clearly a conspiracy among 3D Industry Leaders prohibiting a buyout of SGLB. Most likely that's the same reason nobody else has bought it for the past five years. Industry leaders are clearly scheming to keep SGLB independent so that they can share their valuable software with everyone. ........Now if SGLB can only stay solvent. This Board gets more entertaining every time I come back to it.

I certainly would not get my hopes up. Navajo Technical University is somewhat of a joke in New Mexico. It is not a university in any sense of the word and would be more accurately described as a two year tribal vocational school. It offers two year degrees in such topics as secretarial science, drafting, culinary arts, baking and pastry etc. Even in these less challenging curriculum offering their graduation rate is a dismal 20%. The median earnings of graduates ten years following graduation is $16,100 per year. The idea that this influx of new money and technology is going to change things overnight is simply wishful thinking.

Silver. Yes, she clearly has a bright future ahead of her. Always nice to find something we can actually agree upon.

It's always fun to look at the other side of the coin with Silver's posts. I'm not a chart reader so Silver may very well have something with his longer term predictions. I do know a couple of facts for certain, which will tend to dampen the upward movement of the stock. It's a certainty that SGLB will once again report a loss (whether it's less or more of a loss than previous quarters remains to be seen).

The stock price has historically gone up in anticipation of each conference call with the expectation (hope) that some significantly positive news will be announced during the call. SGLB is required by law to announce significant events (positive or negative within a very short window of when they occur. No announcements, therefore no significantly positive news. You also have the drag on the stock price from year end tax selling. All told, Silver's rosy outlook could possibly be spot-on but in my humble opinion significant sales gains resulting in a profitable quarter is the only thing that is going to move the price upward in a sustainable manner. Just my two cents.

No, I'm not attending. Some time ago Driftin indicated that he planned to attend. I don't know whether that has changed or not.

" The Firm has received other compensation from the subject company(s) in the last 12 months for services unrelated to the managing or co-managing of a public offering." Good gee, I wonder what that could have been for?