The Blueprint for Hardware Success: micro factory's Journey to Automation

Anyone who has used a resin-based 3D printer knows that the process is not as straightforward as it is made out to be. It requires multiple manual steps after printing, which often create a mess and pose health risks due to exposure to potentially harmful chemicals and fumes. Furthermore, these manual steps pose a risk of process variation, making applications for regulated markets nearly impossible.

micro factory is tackling these issues head-on by combining the printing and post-processing steps:

by integrating printing, washing, and curing into one single and fully automated machine, a customer-centric and safe process is created eliminating hassle, improving safety, and keeping costs low. 

The team was founded by three students from the University of Applied Sciences Munich. They evolved from university tinkerers to deep tech founders, with the support of Munich’s thriving start-up ecosystem every step of the way.

Like many start-ups, micro factory began with a real-world problem: most resin-based 3D printers are messy and overly complicated. 

Surprisingly, no one outside the industrial sector had seriously attempted to integrate the entire resin printing process into one accessible, all-in-one machine. The team recognised this as a technical challenge and a business opportunity.

Early support from the Strascheg Center for Entrepreneurship (SCE) at Munich University of Applied Sciences (HM) was instrumental to the team's initial success. After completing the SCE Startup Certificate programme and winning first prize and €5,000 at the Strascheg Award, the team secured an additional €7,500 from the Kickstart@HM grant. This enabled them to build their first prototype at the c.lab, the makerspace unit of HM.

This initial prototype successfully demonstrated their vision and immediately attracted interest from potential users, thus validating the need for a cleaner, more efficient solution.

Further support came from the Additive Manufacturing Lab, whose expertise in the field helped the team finalise their application for the EXIST-Gründungsstipendium, a German government start-up scholarship. This funding provided them with the resources necessary to focus on product development and customer validation for the following 12 months. 

The professional 3D printing market is both vast and segmented. For Micro Factory, identifying the right entry point was crucial. Potential use cases ranged from dental clinics to engineering laboratories and automotive prototyping departments.

With guidance from the Additive Manufacturing Lab, the team identified sectors where the need for customisation and simplified workflows was most urgent and yielded the highest potential: Dental laboratories. Although this direction has yet to be validated, the team started executing it.

From idea to execution with XPLORE

Without execution, great ideas fall flat. Through UnternehmerTUM’s XPLORE Market Pioneer programme, Micro Factory further developed a go-to-market strategy and a pricing model, while maintaining ongoing conversations with early users and strategic partners. Rather than pitching assumptions, they tested the most promising opportunities in the real world.

Scaling up from the prototype stage presented a new set of challenges. Complex engineering issues such as fluid separation during printing, evaporation control during washing and isolating the UV-curing phase required innovative solutions and a dedicated workspace. 

The solution: The team lived and worked at the c.lab, refining their design at the UnternehmerTUM Makerspace in the Munich Urban Colab. The result is a system that is now protected by one granted patent and three pending patents.

Additional funding for building these prototypes was provided by the UnternehmerTUM Funding for Innovators Prototyping Grant, a non-dilutive grant for deep tech start-ups which often makes the difference in getting to the next stage. 

A critical step in the journey of every start-up is the transition from prototype to the production of a sellable product. 

In preparation for manufacturing, the team participated in the TUM Asia Venture Programme, travelling to Beijing and Shenzhen. Visits to Tsinghua University to learn more about the Chinese start-up ecosystem, as well as visits to local manufacturers and suppliers, provided them with first-hand insight into supply chains, production processes and strategic scaling.  

At the same time, the team joined XPRENEURS, UnternehmerTUM’s growth-focused incubator, to prepare for follow-on funding — vital for hardware start-ups with higher capital needs and complex cost structures. Within the programme, they also met valuable mentors such as Ferdie Bruijnen, former VP of 3D Systems Corporation, who supported the team in many invaluable ways.

Scaling the business

As micro factory transitions from early adopters to broader markets — a phase often referred to as 'crossing the chasm' — credibility becomes paramount. One strategic step to build credibility is to partner with the Polytechnic of Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU) to scientifically validate the system's performance and safety. This directly addresses customer concerns around reliability and reproducibility. As part of this collaboration, the system's in-machine post-curing characteristics have been examined as part of a thesis. A subsequent thesis including post-curing and cleaning is already in the planning stage.  

In "The Power Law" Sebastian Mallaby attributes Silicon Valley’s rise to a combination of talent, capital and risk-taking. The case of Micro Factory demonstrates that Munich offers the same ingredients: Top universities with diverse talent, strong funding and support structures, and a deep culture of applied innovation.

This enables a seamless hardware journey across institutions and programmes, lowering the barriers for founders to create impactful deep tech start-ups.

From helping fellow students in the Creative Lab to inspecting supply chains in Shenzhen and developing a patented hardware platform, micro factory is a great proof that world-class innovation can still be developed and scaled in Germany.