2024 Canadians to Watch

CHOSEN BECAUSE:

After selling his commercial printing company in 2011, Ottawa-born Kevin Nicholds applied his Queen’s University MBA and business experience to his next venture.

It should, he reasoned, have strong business fundamentals, be well situated in a product’s value chain and have a source of recurring revenue. There must be potential for growth and, importantly, it must attract great people to the team.

The result was Equispheres Inc., which produces aluminum powders for applications in 3D printing, also known as additive manufacturing. Equispheres researchers were able to solve a clumping problem that previously made aluminum difficult to work with, thereby reducing cost and speeding production.

Since its 2015 founding, Equispheres has attracted international clients in the automotive and aerospace industries that view 3D printing as the future for producing metal parts.

“Sometimes people kid me about moving from 2D printing to 3D printing,” said Nicholds.

Privately held Equispheres attracted fresh investment from global parts supplier Martinrea International. The Ontario company recently injected US $6 million (Cdn $8 million) after an initial 2023 investment, and works with Equispheres to adapt its technology to build parts.
Nicholds, 54, sees potential for the technology in other applications but building the business remains his focus.

IN HIS OWN WORDS:

It’s really no exaggeration to say we’re really the kind of the key enabler to additive manufacturing becoming a mainstream industrial process.