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3D SYSTEMS CORPORATION (DDD) Business, 2008

3D SYSTEMS CORPORATION Business

The company's own words from the Business item of each annual report, in the filing's order.

  • 2008: Section General; Text 3D Systems Corporation (“3D Systems” or the “Company”) is a holding company that operates through subsidiaries in the United States, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region. We design, develop, manufacture, market and service 3-D printing, rapid manufacturing, and prototyping systems and related products and materials that enable complex three-dimensional objects to be produced directly from computer data without tooling, greatly reducing the time and cost required to produce prototypes or customized production parts.; Document 10-K.
  • 2008: Section Products and Services; Text Our principal technology platforms include our stereolithography or SLA® equipment, our selective laser sintering or SLS® equipment, and our 3-D printing equipment, which include our multi-jet and layer-deposition equipment and our film transfer imaging (“FTI”) equipment. These systems use patented and proprietary stereolithography, selective laser sintering and various 3-D printing and film transfer imaging methods and; Document 10-K.
  • 2008: Section Systems Solutions; Text SLA® systems and related equipment; Document 10-K.
  • 2008: Section Software; Text As part of our comprehensive and integrated systems solutions, we offer embedded proprietary part-preparation software. This software is designed to enhance the interface between our customers’ digital data and our systems. Digital data, such as a three-dimensional CAD-produced digital image, is converted within our proprietary software so that, depending on the specific software, the image can be viewed, rotated and scaled, and model structures can be added. The software then generates the information that is used by the SLA® or SLS® system or by the 3-D printer to create solid objects. From time to time, we also work with third parties to develop complementary software for our systems.; Document 10-K.

Business, as filed

The company's own words from the Business item of each annual report, verbatim and in the filing's order, split at the filing's own headings. Nothing is summarised or reworded. Tables and images are not shown; the document has them.

Fiscal yearSectionTextDocument
2008General

3D Systems Corporation (“3D Systems” or the “Company”) is a holding company that operates through subsidiaries in the United States, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region. We design, develop, manufacture, market and service 3-D printing, rapid manufacturing, and prototyping systems and related products and materials that enable complex three-dimensional objects to be produced directly from computer data without tooling, greatly reducing the time and cost required to produce prototypes or customized production parts.

Our customers use our proprietary systems to produce physical objects from digital data using commonly available computer-aided design software, often referred to as CAD software, or other digital-media devices such as engineering scanners and MRI or CT medical scanners. Our systems’ ability to produce functional parts from digital art enables customers to create detailed prototypes or production-quality parts quickly and effectively without a significant investment in expensive tooling, greatly reducing the time and cost required to produce prototypes or to customize production parts.

Our systems use additive part-production processes for applications that require rapid design iterations, prototyping and manufacturing. We believe that our systems enable our customers to develop better quality, higher functionality new products faster and more economically than other more traditional methods.

Our product development efforts are focused on expanding our portfolio of 3-D printing and rapid manufacturing solutions, which we believe represent significant growth opportunities for our business. We also believe that our core rapid prototyping business continues to provide us with significant growth opportunities. In recent years, we have worked to develop new systems and materials and have enhanced our overall technology to rejuvenate and reshape our core business while developing new products that address our 3-D printing and rapid manufacturing growth initiatives. With respect to the uses of our systems:

• In rapid manufacturing applications, our systems are used to manufacture end-use parts that have the appearance and characteristics of high-quality injection-molded parts. Customers who adopt our rapid manufacturing solutions avoid the significant costs of complex set-ups and changeovers and eliminate the costs and lead-times associated with conventional tooling methods or hand labor. Rapid manufacturing enables our customers to produce optimized designs since they can design for function, unconstrained by normal design-for-manufacture considerations. • In 3-D printing applications, our systems are used to produce three-dimensional shapes, primarily for visualizing and communicating concepts, various design applications and other applications, including supply-chain management, functional modeling, architecture, art, surgical modeling, medical end use applications such as hearing aids and dental uses, and entertainment. • In rapid prototyping applications, our systems are used to generate quickly and efficiently product-concept models, functional prototypes to test form, fit and function, master patterns and expendable patterns for investment casting that are often used as a cost-effective means of evaluating product designs and short run production.

Our products offer our customers an integrated systems’ solution consisting of equipment and embedded software, integrated consumable materials and customer service. Our extensive solutions’ portfolio is based on four distinct and proprietary technology platforms, discussed in greater detail below, that enable us to offer our customers a way to transform the manner in which they design, develop and manufacture their products.

10-K
2008Products and Services

Our principal technology platforms include our stereolithography or SLA® equipment, our selective laser sintering or SLS® equipment, and our 3-D printing equipment, which include our multi-jet and layer-deposition equipment and our film transfer imaging (“FTI”) equipment. These systems use patented and proprietary stereolithography, selective laser sintering and various 3-D printing and film transfer imaging methods and

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processes that take digital data input from CAD software or three-dimensional scanning and sculpting devices to fabricate physical objects from our proprietary family of engineered plastic, metal and composite materials.

We blend, market and distribute a wide range of proprietary consumable, engineered plastics, composites and materials that we market to produce physical parts from digital art using our systems. We augment and complement our own portfolio of engineered materials with materials that we purchase from third parties under private-label and distribution arrangements.

We provide to our customers a comprehensive suite of proprietary software tools that are embedded within our systems and pre-sale as well as post-sale field services, ranging from applications’ development to installation, warranty and maintenance services.

10-K
2008Systems Solutions

SLA® systems and related equipment

Stereolithography, or SLA®, systems convert our engineered materials and composites into solid cross-sections, layer by layer, until the desired fully fused objects are completely produced. Our SLA® systems are capable of making multiple distinct objects at the same time and are designed to produce highly accurate objects in a wide range of sizes and shapes and material performance characteristics.

Stereolithography parts are known for their durability, fine feature detail, resolution and surface quality. Product designers, engineers and marketers in many large manufacturing companies throughout the world use our SLA® systems for a wide variety of applications, ranging from short production runs of end-use products, to producing prototype parts for automotive, aerospace and various consumer and electronic applications.

Our SLA® systems are capable of rapidly producing tools, fixtures, jigs and end-use parts, including parts for dental, hearing aid, jewelry and motor-sport applications. They are also designed for uses such as building functional models that enable users to share ideas and evaluate concepts, performing form, fit and function testing on working-assemblies and building master patterns for metal casting.

Our family of SLA® systems offers a wide range of capabilities, including size, speed, accuracy, throughput and surface finish in different formats and price points. We have devoted substantial efforts to introducing new systems with new capabilities. In 2008, we introduced our new iProtm family of SLA® systems. These systems include our iProtm 8000 and iProtm 9000. The iProtm 8000 system is a completely new mid-range SLA® system. Our new iProtm 9000 SLA® Center, is a new professional stereolithography system for the production of ultra high-definition “Pro-Parts” from our integrated portfolio of proprietary Accura® Plastics. Our iProtm SLA® Centers are designed to quickly and economically produce durable plastic parts with unprecedented surface smoothness, feature resolution, edge definition and tolerances that rival the accuracy of CNC-machined plastic parts. The iProtm systems are our most advanced, flexible, high-capacity stereolithography systems that are designed to enable customers to mass customize and produce high-quality, end-use parts, patterns, wind tunnel models, fixtures and tools consistently and economically using our proprietary and other stereolithography materials. In 2008 we continued to offer the Vipertm Pro SLA® and the Viper Sitm SLA® systems. The Vipertm Pro SLA® system is an advanced, flexible, high-capacity stereolithography system that is designed to enable customers to mass customize and produce high-quality, end-use parts, patterns, wind tunnel models, fixtures and tools consistently and economically, using our proprietary and other stereolithography materials. The Viper Sitm SLA® system operates in a similar fashion as the iProtm systems but has a smaller build area and a lower build throughput rate and is capable of building smaller fine-featured parts.

SLS® systems and related equipment

Our selective laser sintering, or SLS®, additive manufacturing systems convert our proprietary engineered materials and composites by melting and fusing, or sintering, these materials into solid cross-sections, layer-by-layer, to produce finished parts. SLS® systems can create parts from a variety of proprietary engineered plastic and metal powders and are capable of processing multiple parts in a single build session.

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The combination of materials’ flexibility, part functionality and high throughput of our SLS® technology makes it well suited for rapid manufacturing of durable parts for applications in various industries, including aerospace, automotive, packaging machinery and motor sports applications.

Customer uses of our SLS® systems include functional test models and end-use parts, which enable our customers to create customized parts economically without tooling. Early in 2008 we added two direct metal sintering systems to our portfolio through a private label arrangement that we entered into with a third-party supplier. These new systems are capable of producing fully-dense direct metal parts from a variety of metal powders, including stainless steel, cobalt, titanium and tool steel.

Our family of SLS® systems includes the sProtm SLS® system and the Sinterstation® Pro SLS® system, automated selective laser sintering manufacturing systems that are designed to enable our customers to mass customize and produce high-quality end-use parts, patterns, fixtures and tools consistently and economically from our proprietary engineered plastics, on-site and on-demand. We also produce and sell our Sinterstation® HiQtm SLS® and the Sinterstation® HiQtm high-speed or HS SLS® manufacturing-capable systems. We also offer our direct-metals line of selective laser sintering systems mentioned above.

3-D printing systems

Our expanding line of 3-D printers is ideal for use in engineering design environments for product development, marketing communication groups, rapid manufacturing such as jewelry and dental laboratory direct casting applications and within engineering schools and other educational institutions. Our range of 3-D printers includes our multi-jet and layer-deposition equipment as well as our new Film Transfer Imaging (“FTI”)-based equipment that we developed over the last several years and announced in 2007.

All of our 3-D printers accept digital input from either a three-dimensional CAD station or a scanned 3-D image, converting this input data one slice thickness at a time, to create a solid part one layer at a time. These printers offer superior finished surfaces, no geometry limitations, plug-and-play installation, point-and-print functionality and best-in-class part resolution in a variety of price points and materials.

Our portfolio of multi-jet printers consists of several models, including our ProJettm systems that we introduced early in 2008 to replace our family of InVision® systems. All of our printers are designed to produce high-definition, functional and durable models for form, fit and function analysis, including certain models that are capable of ultra-fine resolution for precision dental and jewelry applications. We plan to begin shipping our new large format 3-D printer, the ProJettm 5000, during the third quarter of 2009.

Early in 2007, we announced that we had developed a new desktop modeling FTI technology and that we planned to introduce several models based on this new technology starting with a general purpose desktop system that we branded as the V-Flash® Desktop Modeler. Throughout 2007 and 2008 we continued to refine this technology. This Modeler is the first product based on our new Film Transfer Imaging technology platform, and it is designed to build three-dimensional models within hours in a home or an office, enabling designers, engineers, hobbyists and students to imagine, design and build their ideas at their desks. During the second quarter of 2009, we expect to commence commercial shipment of our long-awaited V-Flash® Desktop Modeler, our first sub-ten thousand dollar desktop modeler. As discussed above, we believe that, in addition to our focus on and pursuit of rapid manufacturing opportunities, 3-D printing provides us with a significant opportunity for growth.

10-K
2008Software

As part of our comprehensive and integrated systems solutions, we offer embedded proprietary part-preparation software. This software is designed to enhance the interface between our customers’ digital data and our systems. Digital data, such as a three-dimensional CAD-produced digital image, is converted within our proprietary software so that, depending on the specific software, the image can be viewed, rotated and scaled, and model structures can be added. The software then generates the information that is used by the SLA® or SLS® system or by the 3-D printer to create solid objects. From time to time, we also work with third parties to develop complementary software for our systems.

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10-K
2008Materials

As part of our integrated systems approach to business, we blend, market, sell and distribute consumable, engineered plastic and metal materials and composites under several proprietary brand names for use in all of our systems. We market our stereolithography materials under the Accura® brand, our selective laser sintering materials under the DuraForm®, CastFormtm and LaserFormtm brands, and materials for our 3-D printers under the VisiJet® brand.

Many of our systems have built-in electronic intelligence that communicates vital processing and quality statistics in real time with the systems. For these systems, we furnish materials that are designed for use in those systems and that are packaged in smart cartridges designed to enhance system functionality, up-time, materials shelf life and overall system reliability, with the objective of providing our customers with a built-in quality management system.

We work closely with our customers to optimize the performance of our materials in their applications. Our expertise in materials formulation, combined with our process, software and equipment-design strengths, enable us to help our customers select the material that best meets their needs and to obtain optimal results from the material. We also work with third parties to develop different types and varieties of materials designed to meet the needs of our customers.

Stereolithography engineered materials and composites

Our family of proprietary stereolithography materials and composites offers a variety of plastic-like performance characteristics and attributes designed to mimic specific engineered thermoplastic materials. When used in our SLA® systems, our proprietary liquid materials turn into a solid surface one layer at a time, and through an additive building process all of the layers bond and fuse together to make a solid part.

Our portfolio of Accura® stereolithography materials includes general-purpose as well as specialized materials and composites that offer our customers the opportunity to choose the material that is best suited for the parts and models that they intend to produce. To further complement and expand the range of materials we offer to our customers, we also distribute SLA® materials under recognized third-party brand names.

In 2008, we introduced Accura® ClearVuetm Plastic, another integrated stereolithography material with excellent transparency, outstanding durability and enhanced yields and manufacturability. These materials are used primarily for the production of plastic-like jigs, fixtures and functional parts for a variety of automotive, consumer, electronics durable goods and aerospace applications. We also began to sell our Accura® materials in Japan, expanding our portfolio of proven, dependable Accura® materials in that geographic region.

Laser sintering materials and composites

Our family of proprietary selective laser sintering materials and composites includes a range of rigid plastic, elastomeric and metal materials as well as various composites of these ingredients. Because of the built-in versatility of our selective laser sintering systems, the same systems can be used to process multiple materials.

Our expanding family of DuraForm® materials includes CastFormtm and LaserFormtm proprietary SLS® materials. In 2008, we announced the availability of DuraForm® PP 100 Plastic, a new sintering material with the toughness and durability of molded polypropylene, through our Pro Parts Marketplace and Preferred Service Providers.

Our SLS® materials are used to create functional end-use parts, prototypes and durable patterns as well as assembly jigs and fixtures. They are also used to produce flexible, rubber-like parts such as shoe soles, gaskets and seals, patterns for investment-casting, functional tooling such as injection molding tool inserts and end-use parts used in customized rapid manufacturing applications. Examples of rapid manufacturing parts produced by our customers using our SLS® systems include air ducts for aircraft and engine cowling parts for unmanned aerial vehicles. Product designers and developers from major automotive, aerospace and consumer products companies use DuraForm® parts extensively as functional test models, even in harsh test environment

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conditions. Aerospace and medical companies also use our SLS® systems to produce end-use parts directly, which enables them to create customized parts economically without tooling. Parts made from DuraForm® and LaserFormtm materials are cost-effective and can compete favorably with traditional manufacturing methods, especially where part complexity is high. Competing alternatives to our technology generally involve, among other things, costs for tooling and minimum run quantities of the parts produced.

3-D printing materials

Our family of VisiJet® 3-D printing materials includes part-building materials and compatible disposable support materials that are used in the modeling process and facilitate an easy melted away support removal process. These materials are sold to our customers packaged in proprietary smart cartridges that are used to produce parts in our 3-D printers. Our family of proprietary VisiJet® materials is ideal for study models and form, fit and function engineering studies. We also have specialty VisiJet® materials for direct casting applications, specifically for jewelry custom manufacturing and various dental applications, including wax-ups for crown and bridge work. In 2008 we launched a new family of VisiJet® wax materials and special dissolvable support materials for direct casting applications such as custom jewelry manufacturing and casting and micro casting applications.

10-K
2008Customer Services

We provide a variety of comprehensive customer services and local application and field support on a worldwide basis for all of our stereolithography and selective laser sintering systems. For our 3-D printing systems, we provide these services and field support either directly or through a network of authorized resellers or other sources. We are continuing to build a reseller channel for our line of 3-D printers and to train our resellers to perform installations and service for those printers. We have also entered into arrangements with selected outside service providers to augment our service capabilities with respect to each of our lines of equipment.

The services and field support that we provide include installation of new systems at the customer’s site, system warranties, several annual maintenance agreement options and a wide variety of hardware upgrades, software updates and upgrades and performance enhancement packages to our customers. We also provide services to assist our customers and resellers in developing new applications for our technologies, to facilitate the use of our technology for the customer’s applications, to train customers on the use of newly acquired systems and to maintain our systems at the customer’s site.

New SLS®, SLA® and 3-D printer systems are sold with on-site maintenance support that generally covers a warranty period ranging from 90 days to one year. We offer service contracts that enable our customers to continue maintenance coverage beyond the initial warranty period. These service contracts are offered with various levels of support and are priced accordingly. We employ customer-support sales engineers in North America, several countries in Europe and in parts of the Asia-Pacific region to support our worldwide customer base. As a key element of warranty and service contract maintenance, our sales engineers provide regularly scheduled preventive maintenance visits to customer sites. We also provide training to our distributors and resellers to enable them to perform these services.

We distribute spare parts on a worldwide basis to our customers, primarily from locations in the U.S. and Europe.

We also offer upgrade kits for certain of our systems that we sell to existing customers to enable them to take advantage of new or enhanced system capabilities. However, we have discontinued upgrade support for certain of our older legacy systems.

In 2007, in partnership with York Technical College, we opened a new training center called 3D Systems University, located adjacent to our Rock Hill facility. The facility operates as part of York Technical College to train our employees, customers, students and others in the use of our systems and technologies. Through this relationship with York Technical College, we outsource a large portion of training in the use and operation of our systems that we previously performed.

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10-K
2008Global Operations

We operate in North America and in seven countries in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region, and distribute our products in those countries as well as in other parts of the world. Sales of our products and services outside of the U.S. accounted for more than 50% of our consolidated revenue in each year in the three-year period ended December 31, 2008. In fact, revenue in countries outside of the U.S. accounted for 60.6%, 58.2%, and 56.5% of consolidated revenue in the years ended December 31, 2008, 2007 and 2006, respectively.

In maintaining foreign operations, our business is exposed to risks inherent in such operations, including those of currency fluctuations. Information on currency exchange risk appears in Part II, Item 7A, “Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures about Market Risk” and Item 8, “Financial Statements and Supplementary Data,” of this Annual Report on Form 10-K, which information is incorporated herein by reference.

Financial information about geographic areas, including revenue and long-lived assets, appears in Note 21 to the Consolidated Financial Statements in Part II, Item 8, “Financial Statements and Supplementary Data,” of this Annual Report on Form 10-K, which information is incorporated herein by reference.

10-K
2008Marketing and Customers

We sell SLA® and SLS® systems and our related materials and services through our direct sales organization, which is supported by our dedicated sales, service and application engineers worldwide. In certain areas of the world where we do not operate directly, we have appointed sales agents, resellers and distributors who are authorized to sell on our behalf our SLA® and SLS® systems and the materials used in them. Certain of those agents, resellers and distributors also provide service to customers in those geographic areas.

Our 3-D printers and our related materials and services are sold worldwide directly and through a network of authorized distributors and resellers who are managed and directed by a dedicated team of channel sales managers.

Our sales and marketing strategy focuses on an integrated systems approach that is directed to providing equipment, materials and services to meet a wide range of customer needs, including traditional prototyping, 3-D printing and rapid manufacturing. Our sales organization is responsible for the sale of our products on a worldwide basis and for the management and coordination of our growing network of authorized 3-D printing resellers and certain of our other systems. Our direct sales force consists of sales persons who work throughout North America, Europe and parts of the Asia-Pacific region. Our application engineers provide professional services through pre-sales support and assist existing customers so that they can take advantage of our latest materials and techniques to improve part quality and machine productivity. This group also leverages our customer contacts to help identify new application opportunities that utilize our proprietary processes. As of December 31, 2008, our worldwide sales, application and service staff consisted of 141 employees.

Our customers include major companies in a broad range of industries, including manufacturers of automotive, aerospace, computer, electronic, defense, education, consumer, medical and dental products. Purchasers of our systems include original equipment manufacturers or OEMs, government agencies and universities that generally use our systems for research activities, and independent service bureaus that provide rapid prototyping and manufacturing services to their customers for a fee. No single customer accounted for more than 10 percent of our consolidated revenue in the year ended December 31, 2008.

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2008Production and Supplies

We have outsourced our equipment assembly and refurbishment activities to several selected design and engineering companies and suppliers. These suppliers also carry out quality control procedures on our systems prior to their shipment to customers. As part of these activities, these suppliers have responsibility for procuring the components and sub-assemblies that are used in our systems. This has reduced our need to procure or maintain inventories of raw materials, work-in-process and spare parts related to our equipment assembly and maintenance activities. We purchase finished systems from these suppliers pursuant to forecasts

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and customer orders that we supply to them. While the outsource suppliers of our systems have responsibility for the supply chain of the components for the systems they assemble, the components, parts and sub-assemblies that are used in our systems are generally available from several potential suppliers.

We produce certain materials at our facilities in Marly, Switzerland and Rock Hill, South Carolina. We also have arrangements with third parties who blend to our specifications certain of the materials that we sell under our own brand names, and as discussed above we purchase other materials from third parties for resale to our customers.

Our equipment assembly and blending activities and certain of our research and development activities are subject to compliance with applicable federal, state and local provisions regulating the storage, use and discharge of materials into the environment. We believe that we are in compliance with such regulations as currently in effect in all material respects and that continued compliance with them will not have a material adverse effect on our capital expenditures, results of operations or consolidated financial position.

10-K
2008Research and Development

We maintain an ongoing program of research and development to develop new systems and materials to enhance our product lines as well as to improve and expand the capabilities of our systems and related software and materials. This includes all significant technology platform developments for SLA®, SLS®, 3-D printing and FTI systems and materials. Our development efforts are augmented by development arrangements with research institutions, customers, suppliers of material and hardware and the assembly and design firms that we have engaged to assemble our systems. We also engage third-party engineering companies and specialty materials companies in specific development projects from time to time.

Research and development expenses were $15.2 million, $14.4 million and $14.1 million in 2008, 2007 and 2006, respectively.

In 2008, we have not capitalized any internally developed software costs. In 2007 and 2006, we capitalized $0.4 million and $0.1 million, respectively, of internally developed software costs associated with the V-Flash® Desktop Modeler. We did not recognize any revenue from the V-Flash® Desktop Modeler in any year. See Note 2 to the Consolidated Financial Statements.

10-K
2008Intellectual Property

At December 31, 2008, we held 406 patents worldwide. At that date, we also had 166 pending patent applications worldwide.

The principal issued patents covering our stereolithography processes will expire at varying times through 2022. The principal issued patents covering our selective laser sintering processes will expire at varying times through 2024. The principal issued patents covering our multi-jet 3-D printing processes expire at varying times through 2024. We have also filed a number of patent applications covering inventions contained in our recently introduced systems for each of our technology platforms.

We are also a party to various licenses that have had the effect of broadening the range of the patents, patent applications and other intellectual property available to us.

We believe that, while our patents and licenses provide us with a competitive advantage, our success depends primarily on our marketing, business development and applications know-how and on our ongoing research and development efforts. Accordingly, we believe the expiration of any of the patents, patent applications or licenses discussed above would not be material to our business or financial position.

10-K
2008Competition

Competition for most of our 3-D printing, prototyping and rapid manufacturing systems is based primarily on process know-how, product application know-how and the ability to provide a full range of products and services to meet customer needs. Competition is also based upon innovations in 3-D printing, rapid prototyping and rapid manufacturing systems and materials. Accordingly, our ongoing research and development programs

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are intended to enable us to maintain technological leadership. Certain of the companies producing competing products or providing competing services are well established and may have greater financial resources.

Our principal competitors are companies that manufacture machines that make, or that use machines to make, models, prototypes, molds and small-volume to medium-volume manufacturing parts. These include suppliers of computer numerically controlled machines and machining centers, commonly known as CNC, suppliers of plastics’ molding equipment, including injection-molding equipment, suppliers of traditional machining, milling and grinding equipment, and businesses that use such equipment to produce models, prototypes, molds and small-volume to medium-volume manufacturing parts. These conventional machining, plastic molding and metal casting techniques continue to be the most common methods by which plastic and metal parts, models, functional prototypes and metal tool inserts are manufactured.

Our competitors also include other suppliers of stereolithography, laser sintering and 3-D printing systems and materials as well as suppliers of alternative additive manufacturing solutions such as suppliers of Fused Deposition Modeling or FDM technology and suppliers of vacuum casting equipment. Numerous suppliers of these products operate both internationally and regionally, and many of them have well-recognized product lines that compete with us in a wide range of our product applications.

We have also entered into licensing or cross-licensing arrangements with various companies in the United States and in other countries that enable those companies to utilize our technology in their products or that enable us to use their technologies in our products. Under certain of these licenses, we are entitled to receive, or we are obligated to pay, royalties for the sale of licensed products in the U.S. or in other countries. The amount of such royalties was not material to our results of operations or consolidated financial position for the three-year period ended December 31, 2008.

A number of companies currently sell materials that either complement or compete with those we sell, and there are a wide number of suppliers of services for the equipment that we sell.

We expect future competition to arise both from the development of new technologies or techniques not encompassed by the patents that we own or license, from the conventional machining, plastic molding and metal casting techniques discussed above, and through improvements to existing technologies, such as CNC and rotational molding.

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2008Employees

At December 31, 2008, we had 331 full-time employees. None of these employees is covered by collective bargaining agreements although some of our employees outside of the U.S. are subject to local statutory employment arrangements. We believe that our relations with our employees are satisfactory.

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2008Available Information

Our website address is www.3dsystems.com. The information contained on our website is neither a part of, nor incorporated by reference into, this Annual Report on Form 10-K. We make available free of charge through our website our Annual Reports on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K and amendments to those reports, as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file them with, or furnish them to, the SEC.

Several of our corporate governance materials, including our Code of Conduct, Code of Ethics for Senior Financial Executives and Directors, Corporate Governance Guidelines, the current charters of each of the standing committees of the Board of Directors and our corporate charter documents and By-Laws, are also available on our website.

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