Sigma Labs Inc (SASI)

[TedJ]

My assessment of Trumpf potential.

Sigma PR:

On November 30, 2015, we announced that a company in Germany has entered into an evaluation period for our proprietary PrintRite3D® products. As part of the agreement this customer, which wishes to remain anonymous at the present time, purchased a non-exclusive license to test the Company's PrintRite3D® applications in certain of its laser-based powder bed metal machines – some of which were on display at the recent Formnext show in Frankfurt, Germany.

7/28/16 S-1:

2/13/17 S-1A2:

Sigma PR:

Jan. 19, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sigma Labs, Inc. (OTCQB:SGLB) (“Sigma Labs” or the “Company”), a provider of quality assurance software under the PrintRite3D® brand, today announced that it has entered into a long term non-exclusive commercial agreement with a leading European provider of cutting-edge products for additive manufacturing (“AM”) to join Sigma Labs’ previously-announced OEM Partner Program. Under the multi-year agreement – anticipated to be worth up to $6 million over its duration – this undisclosed OEM will embed and resell Sigma’s PrintRite3D® software within its AM equipment. Additional terms were not disclosed.

On Trumpf website in early 2018:

Preview: Melt Pool Monitoring
In order to have an even better overview of the LMF process of the TruPrint machine and to be able to &optimally evaluate the component quality, in the future, for the TruPrint 5000, you will also receive the product melt pool monitoring in addition to the powder bed monitoring. With melt pool monitoring, the weld pool of the laser metal fusion process is monitored using sensors. These& figures can be automatically compared to the reference build job to monitor process stability.”

Note that Trumpf brands all of their AM products with similar names; TruPrint 5000, TruTops Monitor, TruTops Fab, TruLaser Cell Series 7000, TruLaser Station 5005, etc. But they have not “branded” the melt pool monitoring system on their website. Possibly because it may not be their “product” to brand?

Trumpf PR:

Ditzingen, August 30, 2018 – TRUMPF is set to present its automated 3D printing solutions at Frankfurt's Formnext fair in a showcase featuring the TruPrint 5000 system. The high-tech company's experts will also demonstrate how powder bed and melt pool monitoring enables quality inspection on the fly during printing. This marks a major stride towards TRUMPF's goal of fully automated, 3D print-driven production, enhancing its skill-set in mass additive manufacturing.

So an undisclosed German company bought a PrintRite system for testing in 2016 and Sigma listed Trumpf as a paying customer as of June 2016 in a company S-1 filing (that might have been an oops on Sigma’s part). In a later filing, the list was updated and Trumpf was replaced with “Undisclosed”.

In early 2017, an undisclosed European company joined the OEM program and signed a 7 year commercial agreement to embed and resell PrintRite in their machines.

In early 2018, Trumpf indicates on their website that melt pool monitoring will be available in the future on the TruPrint 5000 printer but provides little detail about the monitoring system. And now Trumpf will showcase the TruPrint 5000 at Formnext in November with melt pool monitoring.

It will be interesting to see what Trumpf rolls out at Formnext2018.