The extrusion technology with pellet extrusion is really starting to get legs. And we’ve got some new products on that front that we’ll release. And of course, we have upgrades on our metal printing platforms. So it’s clearly, as I described, very broad-based. We have a host of new materials, engineering materials that are being released with those platforms for customer use and those are engineering plastics, particularly high-temperature plastics, and flame retardant, you know, low-emissions plastics, if you will, that move us more heavily into both aerospace and automotive applications, both temperature and flame resistance are extremely important there. So we’re actually pushing hard on UL certification, moving some of these materials through that have never been done before through UL certification.
So many of those hit the market throughout 2024. And then of course continued evolution of our software platforms. So it’s very broad based. It addresses virtually all of our industrial markets. We’ve got some very exciting jetting technology coming out for both small castings like the jewelry market that will hit the market in 2024. Those will phase in. Q1, Q2, Q3 will step up in terms of the product releases. They really start to peak in Q3 as we look at it right now and kind of level off in Q4 at a high level. So historically very high, triple the number in total of printing platforms that we did in ’23 and it addresses markets broadly. The customer interest in those is extremely high. The unfortunate thing right now for us and for the entire industry, I believe, is CapEx spending is down.
So I think you’ll see the emergence of a lot more customers. And then as the economy improves, those will get traction and really drive growth in ’25. So obviously time dependent on the economy, but we’ll launch, at least launch a lot of new products in ’24 that we see as really driving growth in that ’25 to ’27 timeframe. And you never know yet that hopefully the world certainly becomes more peaceful and the economy settled down a bit in ’24. You know, it’s yet to be determined. So we’re certainly not advertising broad-based declines or things of that nature. I just don’t want to be overly optimistic with so many factors in play here as we head toward the end of the year. So we’re just trying to not get out over our skis in terms of growth projections, drive costs as much as we can and be well positioned to either sustain a downturn or be there with a strong balance sheet and investment when the growth does come back.
Danny Eggerichs: Yeah, that makes total sense. Looking forward to seeing all the new stuff this year. I’ll look forward to it.
Jeffrey Graves: Thanks, Danny.
Operator: Thank you. Next question today is coming from Brian Drab from William Blair. Your line is now live.
Jeffrey Graves: Good morning, Brian.
Tyler Hutin: Hey, this is Tyler on for Brian. Hey, sorry, this is Tyler on for Brian. I appreciate you taking my questions.
Jeffrey Graves: Sure, Tyler.
Tyler Hutin: You mentioned new production printers coming up for your metal platform. Could you just elaborate on what makes 3D systems unique in metal solutions? How do you fit in within the competitive landscape? And are you more focused on building that out organically?
Jeffrey Graves: Sure. Let me comment on that. And I would say we’ve got an exciting organic growth program with significant investment as we look forward. And along those lines, we were honored and pleased to receive this contract from the US government for development of the next generation machine. So we have an intermediate-sized platform and a large platform today, our 350 and our 500. We will continue to add power to those systems with more lasers in place. But it’s not just about the number of lasers you have in the system, Tyler. It’s about thermal management of the platform and it’s about fluid flow across the powder bed to make sure you can eliminate smoke, if you will, from the powder bed to make sure you have high integrity parts.
