According to Anna Danielak and her colleagues, there will soon be a before and after PERFI in the hearing aid industry.

“Following the launch of our user-friendly desktop printer, we aim to expand our solution,” she says.

Anna Danielak is co-founder and Chief Product Officer at the Danish startup PERFI, which has just received an investment from Rockstart Emerging tech fund and Allan Junge Hyldal, business angel and former VP in 3Shape. This comes on top of an Innofounder grant from Innovation Fund Dennmark. More funds and resources may be on the way.

PERFI’s ultrafast volumetric printing technology opens new possibilities of a completely decentralized solution for production of earmolds for hearing aids, as well as instant chairside printing of dental objects.

Time is Money

“The hearing aid industry has been benefiting from AM for many years now, with traditional vat photopolymerization being a de-facto production standard of personalized earmolds. Having the custom-made earmold brings the benefits of higher comfort and better audiological outcome, being a more favorable choice of hearing aids specialists,” writes Anna Danielak in an email from China, where she and PERFI just won the Product Category at the Venture Cup China.

“However, the supports and rough surface generated by the layer-by-layer approach require polishing, adding a significant amount of time and complexity to the entire process chain and generating material waste. The layer-by-layer approach is essentially an industrial process. Volumetric printing does not exhibit these limitations. In addition to the ultra-fast speed, it is the very first labor-free and fully user-friendly printing technology,” she adds.

Currently, it takes a long time and costs a lot of money to 3D print personalized products.

A New Way

PERFI has developed a method – Volumetric Additive Manufacturing – where they can print the product in seconds, thereby reducing the production and delivery time of personalized hearing aids from several weeks to 20 minutes. In other words, the customer can wait in the store while the retailer prints the hearing aid in the back room.

PERFI originates from the startup environment at DTU, and the company has since gone through AM Growth at Danish AM Hub. AM Growth is a network for AM startups and scale-ups that have a viable product or are in the latter stages of product development and are interested in support on their commercial journey.

“AM Growth has been significantly contributing to widening our network, strengthening our value proposition, and gaining significant insights into running an additive manufacturing business,” writes Anna Danielak.

She points out that the program has given PERFI the opportunities and tools to break through from the laboratory to the market.

“Since joining the program, our activities and partnerships have skyrocketed, and we are looking forward to working on more projects in the future.”

With Germany in Sight

AM Growth has also acted as a can opener for PERFI in terms of reaching a broader audience with their technology. At the recently concluded AM Summit, PERFI pitched their business idea in a competition. The prize was a presentation of the winner’s concept in front of several investors at the world’s largest trade fair for industrial 3D printing, Formnext, held in Frankfurt in mid-November.

The judges rewarded PERFI with a trip to Germany.

“We are very excited to be chosen to share the stage with other startups and learn about new innovations. For a young company like us, this is a unique opportunity to showcase our solution, get inspired by market trends, and network with potential investors, partners, and customers,” writes Anna Danielak.

Eyes Set on Expansion

What are the goals for PERFI in the coming years?

“Once we have launched our user-friendly desktop printer in the audio sector, we aim to expand our solutions to dental care, followed by consumer goods, biomedicine, and other on-demand customized devices. We will build our competitive advantage through a family of patents in multi-material printing and scaling, as we continue to innovate, develop, and expand our product offerings. We want personalization to be available quickly and efficiently for everyone.”

“However, volumetric printing is a very new technology, and there are still many potential applications to explore, so maybe we will look at creating an entirely new market in the future,” writes Anna Danielak.

3D-print Additive manufacturing AM Growth Formnext Investering Perfi