Star Trek Replicators? How Additive Manufacturing is Changing the Industry
Blake Teipel, Cofounder and CEO of Essentium, explains how additive manufacturing has matured from hobbyist 3D printing to an industrial solution for agile, mid-range production, particularly in aerospace sustainment. He details Essentium's 'Flash Fuse' technology, which uses electromagnetic energy to create isotropic, strong parts from conductive plastics, solving a decades-old strength issue. Teipel discusses the company's pivot to government and aviation clients during the pandemic, the challenges of team composition and knowledge retention, and the critical need for better software tools to enable next-generation design.