Freeform, a cutting-edge metal 3D printing company founded by accomplished SpaceX leaders and engineers, announced that it has come out of its stealth mode and is now deploying software-defined, autonomous printing factories all over the world, bringing on-demand production to mainstream industries and paving the way for the future of innovation.
Freeform’s advanced printing technology eliminates traditional manufacturing barriers, allowing manufacturers in any industry to quickly transition from concept to volume production.
Freeform’s Autonomous Printing Factories
Manufacturing constraints and a heavy reliance on human labour have historically slowed the pace of innovation and resulted in lengthy and costly efforts to scale production. While 3D printing promised to overcome these challenges, printing at scale has yet to be realised – incumbent technology is too slow, the cost and effort of owning and operating machines is too high, and even the best systems on the market today are incapable of consistently producing high-quality parts quickly.
These issues are addressed by Freeform’s autonomous printing factories and manufacturing-as-a-service business model. By leveraging advanced sensing, real-time controls, and data-driven learning in a scalable factory architecture, its proprietary technology stack brings the scalability of software to physical production. As a result, the company is able to produce digitally verified, high-quality parts at previously unheard-of speeds and costs. This ground-breaking approach enables all industries to innovate more quickly by leveraging additive manufacturing to produce parts on a large scale.
“While at SpaceX, I leveraged metal 3D printing to accelerate the development of numerous rocket engines. We were innovating in ways that were not possible before and accelerating our trajectory toward the future; however, we ultimately realized that it was impossible to print at production scale using even the best current technologies. We founded Freeform to solve this problem and to make this transformative technology available to all industries, giving anyone the ability to rapidly take an idea and produce it at scale.
– Erik Palitsch, Co-Founder and CEO of Freeform
Palitsch added, “We’re bringing the best talent on the planet together to disrupt the manufacturing industry, and with our recent fundraise, we’re excited to scale production capacity to make printing at scale available to all industries.”
Helping customers to innovate and get products to market faster
Freeform is already assisting customers in innovating and bringing products to market more quickly. Embark Trucks, a leading developer of autonomous technology for the trucking industry.
According to Brandon Connors, Head of Programs and Manufacturing, “As Embark brings autonomous trucking technology to market, we need the ability to seamlessly scale up from prototype to production. That means sourcing commercial-grade metal parts on short timelines, consistently and at a practical cost. Freeform’s printing service enables us to meet our manufacturing needs, improves supply chain reliability, and gives us the ability to change designs without impacting delivery time, so that we can accelerate the deployment of our technology.”
Furthermore, Freeform allows customers to easily scale from initial designs to high-volume production. Freeform also collaborates with Ursa Major, an American aerospace company that produces rocket engine parts.
“Freeform offers us the ability to scale up from prototype to production. Freeform’s printing service gives us the ability to change designs rapidly without impacting production cost or delivery time. We are able to get consistent, high-quality metal parts in days instead of weeks.”
– Nick Doucette, Chief Operations Officer at Ursa Major
Freeform has gone from initial concept to deploying its first production-scale printing factory in just a few years, and has paying customers in the advanced energy, automotive, aerospace, and industrial sectors.
To date, Freeform has raised $45 million in funding from leading Silicon Valley investors. Freeform’s world-class team includes industry leaders from SpaceX, Velo3D, Carbon, Tesla, and Apple, all of whom have successfully navigated the challenges of disruption.
