EQS-News: XTPL is seeing growing benefits from its clients' use of more than 30 DPS devices the company has sold to date

Press release

Wrocław, October 22, 2024

XTPL is seeing growing benefits from its clients' use of more than 30 DPS devices the company has sold to date

XTPL reported the 31st sale of its Delta Printing System (DPS) prototyping device last week. The company began commercializing the DPS business line at the turn of 2021 and the process markedly picked up pace in 2023. The devices are sold to and used by research institutes (71%) and industrial clients (29%) in Europe, North America and Asia. Their day-to-day use of XTPL technology is giving it a worldwide visibility, creating new opportunities for industrial implementation. Currently, XTPL's key projects are in the realm of displays and semiconductors, but XTPL technology is already being tested by its international users in bioelectronics, 6G communications and electronic skin, among other fields and products. The Management Board is seeing more and more positive effects from the use of the technology in key markets worldwide, which is bolstering the company's growth vision: to set a global standard in the manufacture of future generations of advanced electronics.

"The business line of the Delta Printing System prototyping devices has two important roles for us. Short term, it provides a sizeable boost to our financial performance, given the price of the device and the robust margin. Long term, it serves as a demonstrator of our technology, enabling users in Europe, North America and Asia to test XTPL solutions across diverse areas and applications. To achieve tangible benefits from this sort of dispersed embedding of our technology in key markets, a sufficiently large number of devices must be in active use. Now, with over 30 devices sold globally, we are seeing these benefits starting to flow in an ever-increasing stream. New and promising areas we can branch into with our technology, tested by some of the DPS users, are emerging. At the same time, buyers who are not research institutes are considering the possibility of teaming up with us to develop projects intended for industrial implementation, supporting our growing pipeline of these ventures. XTPL's growth vision is to set a global standard in the manufacture of future generations of advanced electronics – DPS devices are the best tool to achieve this goal" says Filip Granek, CEO of XTPL S.A.

XTPL Technology Demonstrator

The Delta Printing System is a stand-alone research, development and prototyping system that enables testing the capabilities of XTPL's proprietary UPD (Ultra Precise Dispensing) technology on various substrates and using XTPL metallic nanoinks (HPM, High-Performance Materials). The system also offers access to third materials, enabling a wider use of inks, including those based on materials other than metallic nanoinks. UPD technology allows extremely small amounts of special materials to be applied to a substrate, e.g. an electronic PCB, with an accuracy of 1 μm (known as micrometer, one millionth of a meter). Precision, compatibility with the widest range of functional ink viscosities, and the possibility of using flexible substrates and complex three-dimensional structures, including step structures, help overcome the barriers to modern methods of advanced electronics manufacture. DPS focuses on offering flexible and open UPD technology for a wide range of applications.

The XTPL solution also aligns with three global megatrends in advanced electronics manufacture: miniaturization and device weight reduction, change of product forms and properties, e.g. flexible electronics and three-dimensionality, as well as sustainability with the use of additive technologies such as UPD to reduce waste generated during the process of manufacturing electronics.

Research institutes account for 71% of the DPS devices sold to date. Innovators, or key opinion leaders, incorporate XTPL technology, through the use of an DPS system, into their work on new solutions for the advanced electronics industry. Innovators are often leading science and technology leaders in their fields. Their decisions to integrate XTPL technology into their groundbreaking research lend credibility to the company's solutions and generate growing interest from broader client groups. Their experiments are often described in detailed scientific publications and their makers report their findings at conferences and trade shows, including those attended by industrial clients looking for new solutions that can improve their global supply chain of advanced electronics. XTPL is currently focusing on applications in the display and semiconductor industries, but thanks to research by scientists from around the world, the XTPL solution is also being tested across areas and products such as the flexible and hybrid electronics industry, bioelectronics including bio-sensors, modern 6G communications and electronic skin. The company is also seeing interest and initial testing of XTPL's proprietary technology in areas such as defense, automotive and medtech.

"We are a Polish deep tech and R&D activities are an integral part of our day-to-day business. As these processes are expensive, time-consuming and involve many people, we can only afford a precisely defined number of them. The growing base of users of Delta Printing System devices, whose research teams around the world are experimenting, independently of us, with the use of XTPL technology, is freeing us from these limitations. We were not aware that our solution could be used in the automotive industry, but one user described such an application in a scientific publication. This is just one of many examples, whose number is growing, with more than 30 devices sold to date. The users of our DPS devices generate new business opportunities for us, because we, the sole owner of the patents and intellectual property, are the only company that can commercialize this technology on a large scale. Our clients and DPS users often act as informal ambassadors of our solutions in global markets. They best recognize the platform nature of our proprietary technology and boldly apply our solution across a growing number of technology and business verticals. We notice this and work on implementing product improvements expected in specific market sectors" Filip Granek adds.

Commercialization and impact on industrial implementation

XTPL has sold 31 Delta Printing System devices to clients in Europe (39%), North America (23%) and Asia (39%). The price of a single device is in the range of approximately EUR 170–200 thousand, depending on the market and type of buyer. The company sells its devices on its own, as well as through an extensive network of international distributors, which currently includes 13 sellers specializing in the sale of devices based on additive technologies, active in the key markets of Europe, North America and Asia. In 2023, XTPL saw an increased demand for DPS devices from China, driven by the post-pandemic recovery and a cash injection into domestic R&D, which XTPL benefited from through its Chinese distributor. This year things went back to normal and the 2024 geographical distribution of sales corresponds much more closely to the sales structure XTPL aims at – approximately 1/3 of products for each of the three major markets.

Having proven the value of its solutions through R&D, XTPL is working to take them "from lab to fab", i.e. from laboratory validation to applied production applications. Key for business scaling are projects aimed at the industrial implementation of XTPL technologies in the production facilities of global advanced electronics leaders. To build such sales opportunities, XTPL sells its devices not only to research institutes (71% of clients) but also to industrial clients (the remaining 29%). In 2024, XTPL intensified its efforts in the North American market. Of the 9 devices ordered this year, 4 are for North American industrial clients. By the end of the year, XTPL will open a Demo Center in Boston, USA, equipped with a laboratory for XTPL technology demonstrations and testing. This will limit the travel of foreign experts to the company's laboratories in Poland and reduce sample shipments through couriers in the initial phase, which significantly lengthen the evaluation process.

"In 2023 we took full advantage of the favorable market conditions shipping the maximum number of devices we could manufacture at the time – 13 DPS systems. Since then, our production capacity has almost tripled and delivery times have shortened from several months to several weeks. This year we have delivered 8 devices to clients, with more on the way, which will increase this number by several units by the end of 2024. Every single sale of a Delta Printing System gives us reason to be happy, but we see this business line mostly in terms of the long-term benefits it generates. These include both new sales opportunities in the area of industrial implementation and application of our technologies in new areas and fields of application, as well as the dissemination of our solutions and the XTPL brand worldwide. This set of hidden benefits, along with the growing number of DPS users, is gradually translating into promising business talks and implementation projects with industry leaders" says Jacek Olszański, CFO of XTPL.

More information about DPS: https://xtpl.com/product/delta-printing-system/

Table 1. DPS devices ordered (sold) and delivered per year

 
XTPL S.A. is a deep-tech company providing ground-breaking precision printing solutions for the global electronics market. The company develops and commercializes products and solutions relying on its globally innovative, Ultra-Precise Dispensing (UPD) platform technology protected by international patent applications. The technology enables ultra-precise deposition of conductive features with a resolution of 1 to 50 μm. The XTPL solution combines ultra-high resolution of printed structures and conductive materials with a very high concentration of metallic nanoparticles and high viscosity. This combination makes the solution unique on a global scale. The Company-designed innovative additive method can be used in the rapidly growing printed electrics sector, notably in areas such as semiconductors, displays, biosensors, advanced integrated circuits or security printing. The XTPL technology can be used for electronic interconnections in advanced integrated circuits, 3D printed electronics, hybrid flexible electronics or IoT, among other areas.

XTPL's goal is to license its technological solutions created for industrial implementation in dedicated application fields. The company may also achieve this goal by sales through distributors or strategic partnerships – in this way the cooperation can be geared to the needs of the future counterparty. Since 2019, XTPL S.A. has been listed on the main market of the Warsaw Stock Exchange, and since 2020 on the Open Market in Frankfurt. To find out more, go to www.xtpl.com

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