I've been following Titomic for a while, know the story and technology plus am in the Additive Manufacturing / 3D print space part time myself.
Its a great technology born out of kinetic energy which sprays small titanium particles at extremely high velocity to create a shape. And yes most of you are right in indicating its a spray - in fact thats where the idea came from initially and CSIRO developed it further.
I must admit when I saw the technology presented in March/April last year I was impressed, but what struck me was that it is a very limiting process, very large and extremely noisy equipment needed and no automated control over its final shape. What is impressive is that is has a very high deposition rate when compared to other 3D printing processes, 100-200 times more in fact - BUT it doesn't work off CAD (computer aided drawings) to actually build the shape. It needs a "substrate" build to whats called a "near-net shape" of whats to be the final product, i.e. a surface in which to apply the kinetic particles, or "spray". After this is done, it was demonstrated, that the "substrate" part is then removed by melting it away. This was demonstrated on a bike frame and that's the area they were targeting.
So I'm quite gobsmacked that now they're promoting aerospace applications!?? While this might have it's place or an application for parts, it could be quite a complex area to get into for the technology, mainly due to the reasons I point out above. I would think they would be setting up a manufacturing facility, not selling the equipment - I guess that may be pretty obvious.
It also puzzles me that they only launched last year (to my knowledge) and haven't produced anything yet - although some sources say they have, I know they haven't commercially because theres no production facility. So how do they have the ability to do an IPO on the ASX??
I don't want to knock them because it will have its place, but it seems to be a very limited in what it could manufacture on its own accord. It will definitely need supporting processes and services. A colleague of mine (ex CSIRO, PhD) closer to the action has suggested the technology "has a long way to go" in terms of commercialization, but I guess that's what the funds may be used for(??)
There are a couple of other 3D printing technology companies also ready to emerge as well, so watch the space closely (although the ones I know may or may not IPO)
I'm very keen to obtain an IM/Prospectus as I'm very curious to find out what their business model is. The 3D space is hot and going to be for a while, so IMO its still worth a few dollars in the IPO...but I'd be careful in the long term!
