2020

• We recieve our 3rd Queen’s Award for Innovation
• We are awarded a UK Faraday grant to develop novel 3D printed solid state batteries and is awarded a TDAP grant to accelerate our novel printing process for printing lithium ion batteries
• We are awarded a £1.875m grant from the Combined Peterborough and Cambridgeshire Authorities to contribute to the construction of a new 45,000 sqft 3D printing Centre of Excellence in Peterborough.
• We create a separate business, Photocentric 3D Inc to serve the 3D printing market in America with dedicated staff.
• Liquid Crystal Magna, Dental and Pro are all listed in Aniwaa’s best large volume 3D resin printers

2018

• We recieve our 2nd Queen’s Award for International Trade in recognition of our substantial 3-year growth in overseas sales
• We launch our new Liquid Crystal Precision 1.5 and Liquid Crystal HR 2 3D printers at Rapid 2018 in Texas
• We win the Manufacturing Innovation Award at Made in the Central & East England Awards
• We are selected as a Commonwealth First Export Champion

2016

• We are awarded The Queen’s Award for Innovation for our imagepac product
• We move into a new 24,000 sqft building in Phoenix, AZ
• We design and manufacture Costa 2 in America, the largest automatic stamp processing machine in the world. It is 120 ft long and processes over 70,000 stamps in a single shift.
• We begin manufacturing custom stencils and ephemera.
• We launch our Liquid Crystal 10 3D printer, the world’s first daylight hardening 3D printer, at TCT, UK
• We are the first company in the world to sell a 3D printer using an LCD screen as its image source. Most experts from the 3D printing industry question the validity of using screens
• We have a vision of where it can lead and start to invest heavily in R&D with a total of 13 scientists now working in 3D printing.

2014

• Photocentric is awarded a UK Govt Innovate grant to develop a novel type of 3D printer based exposing daylight photopolymer using LCD screens.
• We use our knowledge created from our first daylight activated stampmaker resins to make it work with LCD screens.

2012

• Craft is now our core market and we become expert in handling custom designs automatically and efficiently.
• We are now exporting over 70% of our turnover.

2010

• We open Photocentric Inc in Arizona to better supply the largest craft market in the world with domestically manufactured product.
• We design and manufacture the first automatic inline stamp processing machine, called Costa 1. It processes imagepac sachets on a large rotary cycle, faster and more efficiently than ever before. This automation is unique in liquid polymer processing in the word.

2008

• Production of stamps hits new record and we become the largest clear stamp manufacturer in Europe, helped by our development of our largest to date exposure unit, imagebox 10.

2006

• We file patent on the digital exposure of daylight activated photopolymer using LCD screens.
• We make flexographic and lithographic plates using LCD screens.
• What we learn goes on to become the basis of our daylight photopolymer for 3D printing.

2004

• We are a finalist in the HSBC Start-Up Stars competition.
• We automate the manufacture of imagepac by designing our first automatic filling and sealing machine.
• We make a more sophisticated version of imagepac, which we call imagepac xtra. It has an integrated backing sheet (substrate) in the pack. It is harder to manufacture, but soon we learn how to automate the construction of this multi-layered package. Quality and reliability improve as we overcome initial sealing challenges and sales grow both at home and overseas.

2002

• Photocentric Ltd is formed in the summer of 2002 by Paul Holt in a small room in Peterborough. The idea behind the company is to commercialise a patent on pre-packaging photopolymer resin to make the process of making stamps easier and faster.
• A few months later the first imagepac packs of photopolymer are made – they are not perfect, but are at least simple to use! It is the world’s first pre-packaged photopolymer printing plate.
• At first, we make imagepac by folding plastic over on itself, sealing the edges, filling it with photopolymer, rolling the air bubbles out with a rolling pin and sealing the top- all by hand. It is a slow process and difficult to maintain quality.
• We gradually improve it and steadily gain sales with UK business stamp makers, then after exhibiting at Paperworld in Frankfurt, Germany, interest grows quickly from around the world.