SpaceX's 3D printer supplier and metal 3D printing technology developer Velo3D recently successfully raised $ 28 million in funding, and currently raises a total of $ 138 million (nearly 1 billion yuan).
Velo3D has developed very rapidly. In the short span of six years since 2014, Velo3D has become a supplier of leading companies in the aerospace industry. Velo3D has opened up a path to develop equipment and software solutions for the pain points of metal 3D printing towards industrialization.
New up channel, with rocket orders rising
In the past fifteen months, Velo3D has booked $ 29 million in bookings and $ 15 million in revenue. Velo3D successfully won one of the most technically demanding contracts in the manufacturing industry to provide 3D printers to SpaceX, one of the most successful private rocket companies in the world.
Quality control and assurance functions are two functions that are critical to Velo3D's largest customer SpaceX.
According to Benny Buller, founder and CEO of Velo3D, Velo3D's 3D printers are very simple to increase industrial scale production. Users can choose to purchase customized 3D printers and obtain design software licenses, or they can pay for printers and software through a bundled service.
The new funds will be used to expand Velo3D's product portfolio to include more alloys, enhanced hardware and software features, and machine options. With new cash, Velo3D is expected to achieve continued profitability in the middle of 2022.
Velo3D has a very easy-to-use design software tool, and has very in-depth quality control and assurance components. The two key functions of quality control and assurance are crucial to Velo3D's largest customer SpaceX.
According to Benny Buller, SpaceX has begun to use Velo3D for specific component production. When manufacturing using existing technology, Velo3D has encountered great problems. Although SpaceX has been using 3D printing technology to produce engines, when they design next-generation engines Sometimes, some parts cannot be produced. Over time, more and more parts are transferred to the Velo3D system for production.
At present, the established companies in the field of 3D printing have a history of more than 30 years, but how did Velo3D, which was founded in 2014, suddenly emerge? This requires us to understand the requirements for the feasibility of metal additive manufacturing in production? In summary, the following conditions must be met for 3D printing to enter the field of large-scale production:
-Must be predictable: you cannot spend hours or days to go through trial and error in order to make the first qualified part.
-Must be faster: priority is given to reducing build time, which is why multi-laser 3D printing equipment is increasingly used in production.
-Must be accurate: At higher speeds and more complex parts, better process control is needed to consistently produce high-quality parts while reducing post-processing or rework.
-Must be stable: In production environments, lasers are almost always on to provide the necessary flux. These lasers need to be reliable and easy to maintain.
Facing production needs, Velo3D has developed a new intelligent molten powder bed metal additive manufacturing system. The design purpose of the system is to be used for production work, starting from the simulation of the part processing process to generate the processing strategy, and then, through various process control, to ensure the stability and consistency of quality in the processing of multiple parts.
To ensure the normal operation of the machine, the integrity of the parts and the traceability of the construction process, the Assure quality control system developed by Velo3D is faced with the requirements of efficiency, quality consistency and processing stability in the production field, ensuring the quality of parts required for mass production. It can detect process anomalies, mark them, and display the required corrective measures to avoid repeated errors.
Through real-time monitoring based on multi-sensors and machine algorithms, Assure provides unprecedented traceability of part quality and marks them immediately when an anomaly occurs. This reduces differences and provides comprehensive documentation to quickly track the verification of 3D printed parts.
By monitoring the integrity of the 3D printing construction process through the Assure system, verifying the bulk material density, observing the ongoing printing process and verifying the system calibration across multiple production runs, Assure provides the basis for industrialization.
VELO 3D's Assure quality assurance and control system has intuitive charts that enable users to view and interpret the large amounts of data collected during the construction process. According to VELO 3D, this information can help engineers verify the quality of each step in the build process and enable them to make quick decisions when problems arise. Ensuring can help reduce production variances, increase output, and avoid anomalies to ensure consistent additive manufacturing results.
The current largest customer SpaceX acquired by VELO 3D once again opened up space for the growth of Velo3D. Regarding the innovative role of 3D printing in the rocket manufacturing industry, SpaceX chief designer and CEO Musk has a brilliant point of view: through 3D printing, it is possible to manufacture rugged and high-performance with a small part of the cost and time of traditional manufacturing methods Engine parts. Through 3D printing to create high-performance rocket parts, SpaceX is pushing the limits of additive manufacturing, with a view to making the Falcon 9 rocket, Dragon spacecraft and Starship rocket more reliable, powerful and efficient than ever before.
SpaceX has always been committed to bringing humans to Mars and is focused on making reusable launch systems. SpaceX's Raptor engine is designed to be reused 1,000 times. According to SpaceX, the manufacturing process includes many 3D printed parts, which can reduce costs and make the production of lighter parts possible. The 3D printed components include propellant valve bodies, turbo pump parts and ejector system parts.
3D printing can greatly reduce production costs and increase the thrust-to-weight ratio of the engine, because it can produce lighter parts that traditional methods cannot achieve.
Another additional advantage of 3D printing engine components is that it can increase the speed of design changes. Compared with weeks or even months, it enables the R & D team to quickly complete multiple design iterations, thereby obtaining two levels of design and manufacturing. Breakthrough.
3D printing technology has become the "top beam" of rocket manufacturing, and related applications and the international aerospace industry have set off a 3D printing technology competition in terms of low-cost, recyclable rockets.