On 22nd October 2024, Freeform, a metal 3D printing company, announced landing a $14M investment from AE Industrial Partners, LP, and NVIDIA’s NVentures. According to Freeform’s official LinkedIn page, this investment is a crucial step in scaling AI-driven metal 3D printing technology.
Developed by two former SpaceX engineers, Erik Palitsh (CEO) and TJ Ronacher (President), Freeform aims to set up a new frontier in manufacturing. With metal 3D printing technology, Freeform is taking a giant leap in industries like aerospace, energy, defense, and automotive.
In a recent conversation, Freeform CEO Erik Palitsh stated, “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.”
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In the upcoming project, Freeform’s objective is to utilize NVIDIA’s accelerated computing capabilities to build the world’s first AI-supported, autonomous metal 3D printing factory. This system will integrate process control, machine learning, and advanced sensing to manage manufacturing processes in real time.
By developing a hardware-accelerated computing platform with machine learning, Freeform has created a factory architecture that learns by building projects. The company’s AI-powered functionality makes it a strong contender in the manufacturing industry, providing it an advantage over other big names.
With the technological demands of the 21st century, Freeform is adopting new techniques to revolutionize the manufacturing sector where manual intervention still exists.