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On a roll: Shift from 2D to 3D printing sector pays off for industry veteran Nicholds

August 27, 2024
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Kevin Nicholds’ transition from 2D printing executive to 3D printing trailblazer is something he never could have envisioned when he began his business career more than three decades ago. “It’s quite a journey,” the founder and CEO of Equispheres told Techopia in an interview on Tuesday. “It’s been 10 years since I wrote the business plan for the company, which is hard to imagine. It’s turned out to be what I had hoped.” Launched in 2015, Equispheres makes a unique aluminum powder used in sophisticated 3D printers that make components for machinery such as cars, airplanes and satellites. The substance is perfectly uniform and spherical, the company says, preventing it from clumping and making it the ideal substance for manufacturing lightweight but sturdy metal parts. Now at 65 employees and growing, the Stittsville-based firm and its tiny, perfectly round products are on a roll. Earlier this year, Equispheres secured a $20-million series-B funding round led by Canadian auto parts giant Martinrea International. The company, which now has two reactors that manufacture its fine metal powder, is purchasing six more and expanding its production plant on Palladium Drive by 50 per cent to 30,000 square feet. “It’s a big inflection (point) for us,” said Nicholds, adding the firm expects to hire at least another 15 employees over the next 12 months amid surging demand for its products. While Nicholds can’t name any of Equispheres’ customers, he says its powder is used to make components found in many cars now on the road. The company is also attracting attention from aircraft and aerospace manufacturers, another potentially lucrative client base. Equispheres’ rise has coincided with the pandemic and other global events such as the war in Ukraine that have exposed the fragility of international supply chains, Nicholds explained. As 3D metal printers become more efficient and technologically advanced, automakers, aerospace firms and the like are seeing the value of using "additive manufacturing" to produce components in-house on a “just-in-time” basis, Nicholds said. Some projections suggest the market for products like Equispheres’ powder could be worth $1 billion annually by the end of the decade, he added. “People are looking to build parts locally much more rapidly,” Nicholds said. “You can’t have something that takes weeks or months to deliver.” Equispheres says its powder allows customers to produce components nine times faster and 80 per cent cheaper than if they use competitors’ powder. While the 3D metal printing industry has “taken longer to get going than people might have hoped,” Nicholds believes Equispheres is primed to take a leading role as additive manufacturing shifts “from something that is niche to something that is mainstream.” Running Equispheres has also marked an evolution for the company's founder. Growing up in a family of legendary Ottawa entrepreneurs, Nicholds practically had printer’s ink running through his veins. His grandfather, Gerry Nicholds, ran the Dominion Loose Leaf Company, which later became Dollco Printing. Under the ownership of his father Barry and uncle Brian – better known as “Hap” – Dollco became one of the city’s biggest printing firms. Kevin joined the family business in 1991, leading the company and earning an MBA from Queen’s University along the way. The Nicholds family eventually sold Dollco in 2011. A few years later, Kevin turned his attention to a whole new kind of printing – a move that appears to be paying off. “It’s just getting started,” he said of Equispheres’ growth, pointing to Martinrea’s recent investment as evidence of the firm’s standing in the market. “There’s quite a bit of (seed) funding in Canada and quite a bit of later-stage funding, but we’re at that stage where I think a lot of companies go to the U.S. for financing,” Nicholds explained. “To have a company like Martinrea support us at this stage is fantastic. They’re leaders in the automotive space; they understand what we do. “I think what it does is it gives us the right kind of partner. From an operational point of view, I think they have a lot we can learn from.” Meanwhile, Nicholds himself is also attracting notice from the industry. Automotive News Canada, a major industry trade publication, recently named him one of its 2024 Canadians to Watch. “I think that’s related to the Martinrea investment, and I’m very appreciative of it,” Nicholds said. “It kind of brought us a bit more on the radar.”