On this Additive Insight episode, we're joined by Essentium co-founder and CEO Blake Teipel. Essentium came into the 3D printing industry primarily as a filament manufacturer, before moving into polymer extrusion hardware with the High Speed Extrusion series. Having expanded into hardware, the company picked up several contracts with the US Department of Defense, where it has generated most of its revenue in recent years, and was recently acquired by Nexa3D. In between, Essentium was one of several AM firms that decided to partner with a SPAC to list on the stock market, but the deal fell through in early 2022. As we sat down at last year’s Formnext event, Teipel explained in detail why the company moved into hardware, why the SPAC deal fell through, and why the Nexa3D merger makes sense.