3D printing objects with metal has been around for a while, but it’s always been a bit too tricky, pricey, or inaccurate to rival traditional methods on a large scale. With $14 million from Nvidia and Boeing in their pocket, Freeform is looking to shake things up with a new metal additive printing process that promises to revolutionize the game. And yes, there’s an AI twist to it all.

The company’s co-founders, Erik Palitsch (CEO) and TJ Ronacher (president), both have experience at SpaceX, where they worked on Merlin engines and other projects. They saw the potential of 3D printing metal parts but also recognized the shortcomings of the current methods.

According to Palitsch, “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.” The primary roadblocks they spotted were poor quality, slow speed, and high costs associated with metal printing.

Their solution was to offer printing as a service using a closed-loop process in a customized machine that carefully monitors the printing process at an incredibly fast rate. This real-time monitoring, combined with AI technology, enables them to maintain high quality and speed while keeping the business model simple.

“We have high-speed computer vision feedback on our system that runs at microsecond scale, and all that data is being processed on state of the art FPGAs and GPUs,” explained Palitsch. They also developed a machine-learning model fast and smart enough to handle the real-time monitoring required for the process.

By ditching traditional methods and focusing on a more automated approach, Freeform is creating the world’s largest metal additive dataset – a draw for companies like Boeing. The aerospace giant, along with Nvidia, invested a total of $14 million in Freeform, providing them access to essential resources and guidance through the qualification process.

Palitsch revealed they have customers in various sectors including aerospace, automotive, industrial, and energy industries. Although specific details weren’t disclosed, he mentioned they are producing components for rocket engines and Formula 1 cars. With the investment, Freeform plans to expand, develop faster printers, and grow their team to around 55 people within the next year.

Despite the slow transition from theory to reality, Palitsch is proud of the progress they’ve made. “We built, from scratch, the fastest laser melting platform on the planet, and the hardware and software for it. We did things people said you couldn’t do,” he said.