Manufacturing is one of the hottest venture categories this year, but there are still many innovative materials and processes that have yet to be scaled up. One example is thermosetting composite materials. This material is widely used in aerospace and defense because of its high temperature resistance and light weight, but it typically comes with long lead times and high prices for customers.
Raven Space Systems, a Kansas City, Missouri-based startup, announced it has developed a new process that enables scalable 3D printing of commercially available, off-the-shelf thermoset composite parts for the first time.
“We're basically making the entire field of 3D printing available at production scale,” Raven co-founder and CEO Blake Herren said in a recent interview. “We are taking these off-the-shelf materials, proven for both structural and thermal protection applications, and 3D printing them for the first time to automate the manufacturing of near-net shapes.”
Raven accomplishes this using a patented technology called microwave-assisted deposition (MAD) 3D printing. While thermoset composites typically require hours or even days in an oven to cure, the MAD process essentially works by adding material during the printing process, similar to laser-based metal additive printing. harden.
Parts made using Raven's Mad 3D printing process. Image credit: Raven Space Systems
Herren and co-founder Ryan Cowdrey began working on the technology as graduate students at the University of Oklahoma. Around the time of their graduation, they secured a nearly $1 million grant through the Small Business Innovation and Research Program to develop their MAD 3D printing concept from whiteboard to prototype. Since 2020, Raven has received approximately $4.5 million in non-dilutive contracts from the Air Force, NASA, the National Science Foundation and other awards.
To take its technology to the next level, the startup also just closed a $2 million pre-seed round led by Backswing Ventures with participation from 46 Venture Capital, Mana Ventures, What If Ventures, and Cape Fear Ventures. is.
The new capital will go toward the company's first full-scale manufacturing line, including a high-volume 3D printer, mixing system, and machining. By the second quarter of next year, Raven aims to move out of its 3,000-square-foot facility into a larger factory that is certified for aerospace production. There, you start with smaller components, scale up from there, and start manufacturing components for your customers.
Raven's go-to-market strategy was initially to provide thermal protection components for solid rocket motors and hypersonic ships, Herren said, because the two co-founders saw demand from the Department of Defense. said.
“We are not the world superpower that we once were,” he said. “There's a huge need out there. Supply chains, bottleneck issues, everyone has burning issues with these insulation and structural materials.”
These industries “are running out of suppliers,” he said. Many of the suppliers that do exist work in outdated factories using decades-old methods. Herren said the scaling up of the new 3D printing process will occur in parallel with the construction of the next generation factory to reduce lead times to days rather than months or a year or more.
“I think the industrial base needs to bring software and robotics into the factories in order to solve these supply chain problems and frankly compete globally,” he said.
Beyond hypersonics and rockets, the company has also been in conversations with autonomous system providers, satellite manufacturers and space propulsion companies. Earlier this week, the company partnered with reentry capsule developer SpaceWorks to create a 3D-printed reentry vehicle aeroshell (which encapsulates and heats a spacecraft) to help the Department of Defense test hypersonic technology. announced that it will develop a structure that provides protection.
Herren acknowledges that the technology is still in its infancy and there are still technical challenges in scaling it to print larger structures, but says, “Once fully developed, it could be used to print large-scale composite materials. “I see it changing the way it's manufactured.”
“It will take some capital and time to scale up to a very large system where we can use this. But for now, we are using designs provided by customers and actually solving supply chain problems. Develop the most efficient production line possible.