Material Jetting Companies

Material Jetting (MJT) is Material Jetting — droplets of photopolymer are jetted and UV-cured; enables full-color, multi-material parts with micron accuracy. AMPulse tracks 15 companies using Material Jetting as a core technology, ranked below by total funding raised.

Typical materials: photopolymer resins, rubber-like, rigid, full-color. Common applications: anatomical models, consumer prototypes, molds and patterns.

Market structure

Material Jetting (MJT) deposits droplets of photopolymer resin via inkjet printheads and cures each layer with UV light, enabling true full-color, multi-material parts with layer thicknesses as low as 14μm. The process is the most capable AM technology for combining rigid, flexible, transparent, and pigmented materials in a single build — critical for anatomical models, consumer product prototypes, and design verification where visual realism matters. MJT trades cost (resin price + waste) and part durability (photopolymers age under UV) for fidelity. The dominant commercial application is medical surgical planning: hospitals and medical device companies use multi-material MJT to create patient-specific anatomical models that combine bone, soft tissue, and vasculature in surgically realistic forms.

Key players

Stratasys dominates the high end with the J-series (J55, J735, J826, J850 Pro) and the Connex line (legacy Objet, acquired in 2012). The PolyJet trademark is essentially synonymous with industrial MJT. Mimaki (Japan) competes with the UJF series, particularly strong in graphic and design applications where full-color matters. Photocentric uses MJT-adjacent LCD technology. 3D Systems' MJP (MultiJet Printing) line is positioned more toward dental/jewelry casting patterns than full-color. The barrier to entry is high — MJT requires inkjet printhead engineering plus photochemistry plus precision motion, a combination only a few companies have integrated successfully.

Recent dynamics

Three trends are notable. First, medical adoption is accelerating: Stratasys has explicitly targeted radiologists and surgical planners, with formal FDA guidance on patient-specific anatomical models lowering regulatory friction. Second, mass-customization in consumer products (eyewear, footwear inserts, cosmetic packaging prototypes) is a steady but underappreciated growth segment. Third, the dental aligner market — historically dominated by SLA — has barely touched MJT due to material cost concerns; this could change if Stratasys develops more cost-competitive aligner-grade resins.

Forward outlook

MJT's growth is tied to two distinct adoption curves: medical surgical planning (steady, regulatory-friction-limited) and consumer product prototyping (cyclical with industrial design budgets). The technology is unlikely to expand beyond high-fidelity prototyping into pure production due to per-part economics, but its niche is durable. Material innovation — particularly biocompatible and engineering-thermoset photopolymers — will determine whether MJT can address production-grade applications.