BURLINGTON, Massachusetts, February 24, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Z Corporation, maker of breakthrough 3D printing, rapid prototyping and 3D scanning technologies, today announced it has reached several milestones reflecting the value Z Corporation solutions offers to its customers.

The first milestone is record sales of consumables, the build materials used to print 3D models. In Q4 2010, Z Corp. sold more consumables than in any previous quarter in the company's 16-year history. Customers ordered and received over 7 million cubic inches of materials from Z Corp. in 2010. Based on an average size model such as a coffee cup, this would be the equivalent of printing 25,000 new design ideas every week.

"I'm thrilled by these results," said John M. Kawola, Z Corp. CEO. "As we read the industry reports, it appears increasingly likely that more models are being printed on ZPrinters than any other 3D printing technology, making our customers the most productive in the world. It's important to us that our customers are experiencing the productivity they hoped for. The more models they produce, the more ideas they communicate and the more value they create."

Independent industry analyst Todd Grimm supported that stance. "Z Corp.'s findings are consistent with findings in my '3D Printer Benchmark' (http://www.tagrimm.com/benchmark-2010/index.html) report last June that the ZPrinter had the highest speed, more than double the throughput, and the lowest average materials and part cost with respect to comparable 3D printers."

The use of 3D printers in the product design process is becoming increasingly prevalent across a wide range of industries. For over 10 years, Z Corporation has provided its line of ZPrinters to mechanical engineers, industrial designers, architects and educators. The ZPrinter's combination of speed, high throughput and low operating cost enables these users to maximize the number of 3D printed models that can be produced and thus effectively used to communicate ideas, check form and fit and accelerate the design process.

Other milestones pointing to a strong 2011 include:

6,000th ZPrinter(R) - The company shipped its 6,000th ZPrinter in Q4. Z Corp. introduced the first ZPrinter 3D printer in 1996 and has sustained growth by continuously setting benchmarks for 3D printer speed, quality, affordability, color and office friendliness.

Revenue growth - The company saw strong revenue growth in 2010 with increasing momentum in the second half of the year.

New products - The company introduced three rapid prototyping systems in 2010, the ZBuilder(TM) (http://www.zcorp.com/en/Press-Room/New-ZBuilder-Ultra-Rapid-Prototype-Ma...) Ultra for creating functional plastic prototypes, and two value-priced 3D printers (http://www.zcorp.com/en/Press-Room/Z-Corp--Introduces-Two-Value-Priced-3...), the ZPrinter 150 and the ZPrinter 250. The company also introduced ZScan(R) 5.0 software (http://www.zcorp.com/en/Press-Room/Z-Corporation-Releases-New-ZScan-5-0-...) expanding the functionality of its ZScanner(R) 3D laser scanners.

Top-tier customers - Organizations such as Airbus Operations GmbH, Foster + Partners, GE Energy, Hyundai-Kia Motors, Israeli Defense Forces, Newell Rubbermaid, SHoP Architects, Sketchers, Stanley Black & Decker, Inc., and educational institutions such as Helwan University, The American University UAE, RMIT University School of Architecture and Design recently invested in Z Corp. technology.