Stemming the covid-19 tide: 3-D printers to the rescue

In December, just before covid-19 stepped on the world stage, Fathom, a 3-D manufacturer-backed by CORE Industrial Partners, had already done a lot of upfront planning.

“Obviously there was going to be a big need in the market,” said Ryan Martin, CEO at Fathom, which made $40 million in revenue last year. “And the biggest reason we understood that is because of the pre-work.”

The pre-work involved a detailed playbook created with the help of its PE partner, CORE. That included over 150 different deliverables and actions that discussed how the company would handle exposure updates, employee data and more.

Fathom is part of PE Hub’s database of portfolio companies that are fighting covid-19 by overhauling operations to sustain, survive and, in some cases, thrive.

Pandemic journey

In the early covid months – when conversations around ventilator shortages had just begun – Fathom signed two large ventilator projects under the Defense Production Act. More publicly, the company got involved with MIT’s E-Vent Emergency Ventilator project and The AeroBreath Project. For the latter, Fathom 3-D printed all $100 AeroBreath prototypes.

More broadly, “we supported the manufacturing of 75,000 ventilators in less than six months,” Martin said.

To increase production and reduce time to market, Fathom then created a new multi-cavity tool to build covid test cartridges, which saw an incredible spike in demand. “Part of the benefit of our manufacturing is that you are able to scale really quickly.”

Similarly, as demands rose, Fathom’s digital manufacturers were producing 100,000 swabs per day, and separately, worked with Midwest manufacturers to roll out masks. “Our existing relationships and deep understanding of the [medical component space] also helped us,” Martin said.

However, the demand seen in the early covid days was not sustained.

“Some of the more traditional suppliers – like Honeywell – they were able to get their supply chains back up; it took them three to six months,” Martin said. In turn, Fathom transitioned back to its core processes of servicing clients in the industrial, auto, defense, aerospace and medical markets.

During the peak of the crisis, CORE managing partner John May said the PE firm offered resources and did a lot of contingency planning – the “What if?” scenarios.

The Chicago-based PE firm closed five deals amid covid-19, including GPI Prototype & Manufacturing Services, an add-on to Fathom. GPI introduced new metal-additive machines and added customers to the platform.

Separately, the firm this morning announced a new platform investment in J&K Ingredients.

The PE firm declined to comment on whether Fathom conducted any layoffs in this year or had additional capital needs.

China insight

For Fathom, their first tête-à-tête with covid’s impact was the shutdown of its facility in China and the revenue dip that followed. “We saw the revenues rebound quickly after they were able safely return to work,” Martin clarified.

“We were able to re-shore orders [back to America] and in some cases we delayed the orders,” Martin said, referring to service requests made pre-pandemic.

Ultimately, recognition of the impact seen early on at Fathom’s facility in China helped CORE come up with a contingency plan.

“As it [virus] began to migrate to Europe and then the US, we decided to have a coordinated effort,” May said. This involved cleaning workstations, as well as creating communication channels to track employee movement inside and outside of work, given that manufacturers were deemed essential.

Looking ahead, CORE plans to conduct all operations from the home environment through the winter, allowing one person to come to the office each day. Employees in all of its seven portfolio companies, however, will have to turn up to work, with each business asserting its own covid safety policies.

For more of PE Hub’s coronavirus coverage, click here

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Action Item: check out the full database of PE-backed companies that have pivoted operations amid covid-19. The information has been supplied by the PE firms, compiled and edited by PE Hub for clarity. 

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