Ex-SpaceX engineers land $14M to scale new method for 3D printing metal
3D printing objects using metal is a well-established technique
3D printing objects using metal is a well-established technique, but it tends to be too complex, expensive, or imprecise to match traditional methods at scale. Armed with $14 million from Nvidia and Boeing, Freeform aims to change that by building a new metal additive printing process that it says changes the game — and yes, there’s an AI angle, too.
Co-founders Erik Palitsch (CEO) and TJ Ronacher (president) both worked at SpaceX, where they were principal architect and lead analyst, respectively, of the Merlin engines and other programs. While there, they saw the potential of 3D printing parts using metal, but also experienced the method’s shortcomings firsthand.
“We saw the potential of metal printing; it has the potential to transform basically any industry that makes metal things. But adoption has been slow and success has been marginal at best,” said Palitsch. “Why is it not practical to use at scale? Fundamentally, because of three things: crappy and inconsistent quality; speed — commercial printers are very slow; and cost — the price for these printers is astronomical.”
They concluded that if they could operationalize the process to provide a printing service rather than sell a printer, they could crack the whole thing wide open. So they joined up with Tasso Lappas, former CTO of Velo3D, to start Freeform.
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