Additive manufacturing has spent the past decade trying to prove itself worthy of a rocket engine. When a small startup out of Colorado decided to build its very first rocket engine almost entirely out of 3D printed parts, a lot of people in the industry assumed it wouldn't hold up.Eleven years later, that company is Ursa Major, and the engine — Hadley — has flown more than ten hypersonic missions. It comes back. It gets inspected. It flies again. That track record is now the foundation for a rapidly expanding portfolio: Draper, a storable version of that same engine that just powered a supersonic flight demonstration for the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory in January; a solid rocket motor program built around a manufacturing approach the company calls Lynx, designed to print motors of wildly different sizes on the same equipment instead of building a new production line every time the requirement changes; and a fast-growing customer list that now includes Stratolaunch and Sirius Technologies. Along the way, Ursa Major closed a $100 million Series E funding round, broke ground on a new solid rocket motor test site in Colorado, expanded its 3D printing fleet with EOS, and helped found an alliance aimed at rebuilding America's additive manufacturing supply chain for defense.Behind all of that is a surprisingly small team. Our guest today, Tom Pomorski, is Ursa Major's Director of Additive Manufacturing, and he joined the company five years ago to build its in-house additive program essentially from nothing — a handful of machines and a couple of engineers in Youngstown, Ohio. Today that program runs nine metal printers and fourteen people, and Pomorski has watched it grow alongside some of the most demanding flight qualification work happening anywhere in the industry right now.In this conversation, Tom takes us inside how that program actually works — why Ursa Major's entire design process was built around additive manufacturing from day one rather than bolted on afterward, and why he thinks the industry's trust problem with 3D printing has always been more about education than about the parts themselves. We get into the details of Ursa Major's partnership with EOS, including how the company helped unlock custom scan-path software that's now available industry-wide, and what Tom calls physics-based qualification — an approach designed to validate a process once and apply it broadly, rather than requalifying every single part from scratch. We also talk about where artificial intelligence is already showing up on Ursa Major's shop floor, the materials driving their solid rocket motor and liquid engine programs, and Tom's candid take on what it would actually take—in terms of cost, openness, and machine architecture—for metal additive manufacturing to scale the way plastic printing did.It's a rare, detailed look inside how one of the most closely watched propulsion companies in the country actually builds its engines. Here's my conversation with Tom Pomorski, Director of Additive Manufacturing at Ursa Major.

Additive manufacturing has spent the past decade trying to prove itself worthy of a rocket engine. When a small startup out of Colorado decided to build its very first rocket engine almost entirely out of 3D printed parts, a lot of people in the industry assumed it wouldn't hold up. Eleven years later, that company is Ursa Major, and the engine — Hadley — has flown more than ten hypersonic missions. It comes back. It gets inspected. It flies again. That track record is now the foundation for a rapidly expanding portfolio: Draper, a storable version of that same engine that just powered a supersonic flight demonstration for the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory in January; a solid rocket motor program built around a manufacturing approach the company calls Lynx, designed to print motors of wildly different sizes on the same equipment instead of building a new production line every time the requirement changes; and a fast-growing customer list that now includes Stratolaunch and Sirius Technologies. Along the way, Ursa Major closed a $100 million Series E funding round, broke ground on a new solid rocket motor test site in Colorado, expanded its 3D printing fleet with EOS, and helped found an alliance aimed at rebuilding America's additive manufacturing supply chain for defense. Behind all of that is a surprisingly small team. Our guest today, Tom Pomorski, is Ursa Major's Director of Additive Manufacturing, and he joined the company five years ago to build its in-house additive program essentially from nothing — a handful of machines and a couple of engineers in Youngstown, Ohio. Today that program runs nine metal printers and fourteen people, and Pomorski has watched it grow alongside some of the most demanding flight qualification work happening anywhere in the industry right now. In this conversation, Tom takes us inside how that program actually works — why Ursa Major's entire design process was built around additive manufacturing from day one rather than bolted on afterward, and why he thinks the industry's trust problem with 3D printing has always been more about education than about the parts themselves. We get into the details of Ursa Major's partnership with EOS, including how the company helped unlock custom scan-path software that's now available industry-wide, and what Tom calls physics-based qualification — an approach designed to validate a process once and apply it broadly, rather than requalifying every single part from scratch. We also talk about where artificial intelligence is already showing up on Ursa Major's shop floor, the materials driving their solid rocket motor and liquid engine programs, and Tom's candid take on what it would actually take—in terms of cost, openness, and machine architecture—for metal additive manufacturing to scale the way plastic printing did. It's a rare, detailed look inside how one of the most closely watched propulsion companies in the country actually builds its engines. Here's my conversation with Tom Pomorski, Director of Additive Manufacturing at Ursa Major.

Ursa Major is taking AM hypersonic, one layer at a time

In this Q&A session, 3dpbm's CEO and SmarTech Analyst Davide Sher interviews Smartech Publishing's VP of Research Scott Dunham on the results of the latest report and market forecast on additive manufacturing in dentistry. Now in its fifth edition, the new <a href="https://smartechpublishing.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2ce95308d163db5c5dd2bcc7d&id=a8cf59d85b&e=50f5c2397c">2019 Additive Manufacturing in Dentistry report</a> projects that the total market for additive manufacturing in dentistry will surpass $2.7 billion (USD) in 2019 (hardware, services, materials and software).  The report also says that by 2022 500 million dental devices and restorations will be produced annually via additive manufacturing. 
 
Scott Dunham answers 10 questions focusing on the Dental AM segment overview, report specifics (hardware, material, application, services and software metrics) and investment/business opportunities. Reach us at info@3dpbm.com to learn more.

In this Q&A session, 3dpbm's CEO and SmarTech Analyst Davide Sher interviews Smartech Publishing's VP of Research Scott Dunham on the results of the latest report and market forecast on additive manufacturing in dentistry. Now in its fifth edition, the new 2019 Additive Manufacturing in Dentistry report projects that the total market for additive manufacturing in dentistry will surpass $2.7 billion (USD) in 2019 (hardware, services, materials and software). The report also says that by 2022 500 million dental devices and restorations will be produced annually via additive manufacturing. Scott Dunham answers 10 questions focusing on the Dental AM segment overview, report specifics (hardware, material, application, services and software metrics) and investment/business opportunities. Reach us at info@3dpbm.com to learn more.

In this Q&amp;A session, 3dpbm's CEO and SmarTech Analyst Davide Sher interviews Smartech Publishing's VP of Research Scott Dunham on the results of the latest report and market forecast on additive manufacturing in dentistry. Now in its fifth edition, the new <a href="https://smartechpublishing.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2ce95308d163db5c5dd2bcc7d&amp;id=a8cf59d85b&amp;e=50f5c2397c" rel="noopener noreferrer">2019 Additive Manufacturing in Dentistry&nbsp;report</a> projects that&nbsp;the total market for additive manufacturing in dentistry will surpass $2.7 billion (USD) in 2019 (hardware, services, materials and software).&nbsp; The report also says that by 2022 500 million dental devices and restorations will be produced annually via additive manufacturing. 
 
Scott Dunham answers 10 questions focusing on the Dental AM segment overview, report specifics (hardware, material, application, services and software metrics) and investment/business opportunities. Reach us at info@3dpbm.com to learn more.

Q&A with SmarTech Publishing's Scott Dunham on the latest Dental AM market forecast

In this episode we exclusively speak with one of the forefathers of 3D printing on how far the technology has come and much farther it can go.

In this episode we exclusively speak with one of the forefathers of 3D printing on how far the technology has come and much farther it can go.

XJet's Haim Levi on the history and the future of 3D Printing

Additive manufacturing is changing the world. We're here to get you ready. 

Welcome to the VoxelMatters Podcast, where we shine a light on the people, the technologies, and the big ideas driving the world of additive manufacturing forward. 

Hosted by Davide Sher, co-founder and CEO of VoxelMatters, journalist and market analyst. 

VoxelMatters is a media, marketing and market research company specializing in the global additive manufacturing industry.

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Additive manufacturing is changing the world. We're here to get you ready. Welcome to the VoxelMatters Podcast, where we shine a light on the people, the technologies, and the big ideas driving the world of additive manufacturing forward. Hosted by Davide Sher, co-founder and CEO of VoxelMatters, journalist and market analyst. VoxelMatters is a media, marketing and market research company specializing in the global additive manufacturing industry.

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