A 3D Printing Factory: A3D Printer Isn't Cool. You Know What's Cool?

SpaceX veterans aim to realize the potential of a technology whose big promises have never quite come through

- By Joshua Brustein

Since it first began to receive mainstream attention about 15 years ago, 3D printing has had a magical air to it, holding out the promise of turning every home into a miniature manufacturing hub while simultaneously upending the way industrial-scale factories operate. But 3D printers—which create objects by layering materials according to a plan sent by a computer—have gained a reputation for being unwieldy, expensive, and slow. The utopian dream of the printers becoming a household appliance as ubiquitous as the personal computer has largely faded.

There has been more progress on industrial uses, though there, too, major players have fallen into a multiyear funk. Venture capitalists continue to dedicate significant resources to startups promising innovations to fix the technology’s underlying flaws. One particularly radical approach comes from Freeform Future Corp., a five-year-old startup based in Los Angeles. The company has raised $45 million so far from investors including Founders Fund, Threshold Ventures, and Valor Equity Partners.

Instead of trying to build a single machine that can print three-dimensional objects, Freeform is looking to turn entire buildings into automated 3D-printing factories that would use dozens of lasers to create rocket engine chambers or car parts from metal powder. The company, which has never before discussed its approach publicly, says the technique could allow it to make metal parts 25 to 50 times faster than is possible with current methods and at a fraction of the cost.