"We broke all the boundaries by creating a system with a new architecture and outstanding capabilities," said Richard Balanson, 3D Systems president and chief operating officer. "We believe the SLA 7000 system sets a new industry standard for performance by being an order of magnitude faster than its nearest competitor."

The SLA 7000 is ideal for concept modeling, rapid prototyping, tooling and near production applications in a wide variety of industries, including automotive, aerospace, consumer products, consumer electronics, toys, entertainment, and medical imaging.

"Past process improvements were in the range of 10 to 25 percent, so 400 percent is tremendous," said Steve Deak, manager of rapid prototyping at Hasbro, Inc., and also one of the first purchasers of the new system. "We believe the SLA 7000's speed and surface finish improvements will permit Hasbro to shorten product development lead times and reduce project costs. We're looking forward to reduced cost of ownership through lower operating and maintenance expenses."

According to Charles Wilson, 3D Systems vice president of worldwide sales and marketing, "The SLA 7000 system--integrated with our new 3D Lightyear software and high-speed resin--means better, faster, cheaper parts to meet our customers time-to-market and time-to-volume demands. And it brings us one step closer to our ultimate goal of developing an SLA that will take us into final production."

New Design Benefits Customers
Equipped to build ultra-thin .001 inch (.025 millimeter) layers, the SLA 7000 system produces parts with excellent surface finish. This is a critically important feature for rapid tooling and other applications that require extreme part precision and high surface resolution. This fine layer thickness also reduces the need for hand finishing of parts.

The SLA 7000 system's high throughput and efficiency is due in part to a dual-spot, high-power laser. A totally self-contained, maintenance-free cooling system creates greater system stability by tightly controlling the temperature of the laser. Combined with a revolutionary build process, the system allows the customer to tailor build speed and surface finish to meet application needs.

The SLA 7000 has a maximum build area of 20 x 20 x 23.62 inches (508 x 508 x 600 mm), which allows customers to produce a significantly large part, or multiple smaller parts simultaneously.

With a U.S. list price of $799,995, the SLA 7000 offers three times the price performance of the SLA 5000, the current industry leader. The SLA 7000 will begin shipping worldwide in March 1999.

New Windows NT Software Platform
The SLA 7000 includes the company's new highly-integrated 3D Lightyear part preparation software, designed for the Windows NT operating environment, plus companion NT-based Buildstation 5.0 software to control the mechanical functions of the machine.

Easy-to-use 3D Lightyear software provides significant performance improvements over Maestro, 3D Systems' comparable Unix-based software. 3D Lightyear verifies files up to 150 times faster, renders parts up to 6 times faster, and prepares files more than twice as fast. "The net effect is that the SLA 7000 system stays productive and continuously builds parts, instead of waiting for file preparation and transfers," said Balanson.

The new Windows NT part preparation software will operate with all SLA devices, including the SLA 190, SLA 250, SLA 350, SLA 500, SLA 3500 and SLA 5000 systems.

New Generation Solid Imaging Materials
Developed by Ciba Specialty Chemicals Corporation in conjunction with 3D Systems, the new SL 7510 high-speed, multi-purpose stereolithography resin is an integral component in the SLA 7000 process. SL 7510 resin features fast photospeed and improved mechanical properties.

SL 7510 is the latest development in a 10-year joint effort by 3D Systems and Ciba Specialty Chemicals to develop advanced photopolymers for stereolithography. 3D Systems is the exclusive worldwide distributor of Ciba's photopolymer products produced under this development partnership.

"This integrated combination of hardware, software and materials gives 3D Systems the broadest family of solutions in the marketplace today," concluded Balanson.

About 3D Systems
3D Systems provides solid imaging products and services that let users move quickly from three-dimensional designs to finished parts, at a significantly lower cost and higher quality than more traditional methods. The company's systems - through its patented stereolithography and 3D printing technologies - fabricate solid objects from digital input, substantially cutting the time and costs of bringing new products to market. 3D Systems was founded in 1986 and is recognized as the world leader in solid imaging.

To obtain additional information about the SLA 7000 and other 3D Systems products and services, call (888) 337-9786 (toll-free) and request extension 700. For investor information, please call the 3D Systems shareholder communications service at (800) 757-1799.

3D Systems, 3D Lightyear, and SLA are trademarks of 3D Systems, Inc. Windows NT is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation.

About the SLA 7000
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