Additive Snack

Host Fabian Alefeld interviews Dean Bartles, President and CEO of the Manufacturing Technology Deployment Group (behind NCDMM, Advanced Manufacturing International, and America Makes), about manufacturing’s evolution, defense industrial base challenges, and additive manufacturing. Bartles recounts his career from shop-floor machining and industrial engineering to international defense manufacturing programs and 31 years through successive owners culminating in General Dynamics, then leading NCDMM and forming a parent organization to expand technology deployment. They discuss consolidation and contracting barriers that pushed small/medium firms out of defense, productivity gains from automation, reshoring momentum driven by tariffs and new investment, and workforce shortages and training pathways via trades, community colleges, and SME/Tooling U. Bartles highlights AI for process monitoring and adaptive control in laser powder bed fusion, the promise of low-cost desktop FFF for drones, the need for shared data and improved repeatability, and sustainability efforts including the Additive Manufacturing Green Trade Association. 
 
00:00 Welcome and Guest Intro 
 
02:54 Dean Manufacturing Origins 
 
04:18 Global Defense Career Path 
 
06:05 Leading NCDMM and America Makes 
 
10:44 Defense Base Decline and Industry 4.0 
 
18:14 Reshoring and Global Models 
 
22:17 AI Capital and Process Control 
 
35:25 Open Data and Repeatability Challenge 
 
38:24 Defense Adoption and Drone Boom 
 
44:08 Workforce Pathways and Community Colleges 
 
50:04 Sustainability and Greener AM 
 
54:27 Closing ABL Always Be Learning

Fabian Alefeld welcomes back Thomas Pomorski of Ursa Major to discuss developments over the past year across three focus areas: hypersonics, solid rocket motors, and in-space propulsion. Pomorski reports more than nine hypersonic missions flown with the reusable, ~80% 3D-printed Hadley engine and two successful test flights of the storable Draper engine with AFRL, plus progress on Ursa’s LINX solid rocket motor manufacturing approach using additive for tooling and cases to enable flexible “unit cell” scaling. They cover key hypersonics challenges around affordability and manufacturability and why a storable liquid rocket approach can reduce testing complexity. Much of the conversation focuses on AI’s current value in development: rapidly prototyping slicer features and scan strategies, building data-fusion and monitoring tools via EOS APIs, and enabling small teams to operate with much higher productivity, while noting production validation remains challenging.
00:00 Welcome Back Thomas
01:48 Ursa Major Year Update
02:37 Hypersonic Flight Milestones
04:05 Solid Motors and LINX
05:21 Additive Scale Up Tools
06:39 Hypersonic Cost Challenge
11:58 Solid Motor Unit Cells
15:37 Additive Geometry vs Supply
18:01 AI in Additive Workflows
24:33 AI Productivity Multiplier
29:33 Live Claude Slicer Demo
35:13 Prompting Claude Code
36:35 Sharing Team Workflows
38:40 Production AI Readiness
42:20 Slicer Feature Results
44:49 Closed Loop Optimization
46:46 AI Built Web Monitor
52:59 Automation Roadmap
01:00:12 Verifying Hatch Strategy
01:03:07 Advice For Students
01:08:29 Wrap Up And Thanks

Fabian Alefeld hosts Karl Littau, CTO of Sakuu, to discuss why rechargeable battery manufacturing has changed little in decades and how Sakuu is rethinking it with additive approaches. Littau explains conventional thick-film slurry coating and stacked anode/cathode layers, noting heavy use of copper and aluminum and high costs driven largely by bill of materials. He outlines battery basics (anode, cathode, electrolyte) and contrasts lithium-ion with solid-state concepts, where solids replace liquid electrolytes but face commercialization challenges. Sakuu’s initial product targets electrode coating by shifting from wet, solvent-based processes to dry powder-bed methods, enabling powder reclaim/reuse, removing toxic solvents, reducing equipment size (e.g., long drying ovens), and potentially increasing throughput. The conversation also covers future possibilities like multi-material patterning, arbitrary shapes, bipolar designs that reduce metal, and broader impacts on EVs, grid storage, and electrification.
 
00:00 Welcome and Topic
01:32 Why Batteries Need Change
04:13 Cost Drivers Today
07:53 Sakuu Additive Approach
13:09 Battery Basics Explained
18:30 Dry Powder Manufacturing
26:10 Speed and Footprint Gains
28:47 Scaling and Supply Chain
32:27 Future Shapes and Structures
35:42 Solid State Readiness
37:48 Sakuu Origin Story
40:31 Roadmap and Industry Impact
42:34 Electrification Future Vision
49:48 Wrap Up and Thanks

Fabian Alefeld hosts Pan Michaleris, founder of PanOptimization (PanX), and Erik Denlinger, co-founder and chief engineer, to discuss the evolution and role of simulation and finite element analysis (FEA) in additive manufacturing. Pan shares his background as a Penn State professor and entrepreneur (including a prior company acquired by Autodesk) and explains how simulation helps reduce costly trial-and-error builds by predicting distortion, temperature, stress, buckling, cracking, and recoater risks, while moving toward closed-loop manufacturing-to-design workflows and property prediction. Erik outlines PanX’s commercial capabilities - fast thermo-mechanical simulation for very large parts, distortion compensation, and dwell-time optimization - and describes proof-of-concept work on controlling melt quality and hardness via parameter modulation. They cover adoption in aerospace/defense and new space, qualification implications, integration with build-prep workflows (e.g., EOS/Velosis), and cautious, validation-focused views on AI surrogate models.
00:00 Welcome and Episode Preview
01:13 Meet Pan and Erik
01:59 Pan’s Journey to PanX
03:59 Erik’s Origin Story
05:10 FEA History and the Elephant Test
08:32 Why Additive Needs Simulation
10:23 Closing the Design Manufacturing Loop
14:33 PanX Today Core Capabilities
17:30 From Distortion to Material Properties
20:25 Making Simulation Usable for Engineers
27:06 Workflow Integration and Automation
29:44 From Failures to Design
30:41 Who Uses PanX Today
32:41 Simulation for Qualification
35:17 Layerwise Parameter Control
38:51 Why FEA Is Hard
41:38 AI and Surrogate Models
46:53 Future Material Tailoring
48:37 Roadmap Workflow Integration
52:27 Closing Thoughts and Wrap

Host Fabian Alefeld speaks with Japan-based additive manufacturing consultant Peter Rogers about the state of additive manufacturing across Asia Pacific. Rogers contrasts Japan’s advanced but risk-averse manufacturing culture - strong in incremental optimization, with slower certification (notably medical) and limited defense budgets - with faster-moving but smaller markets like Australia/New Zealand, where mining drives demand for rapid, remote part supply. They discuss China’s manufacturing scale and government support, its growing dominance in desktop FDM, and how low-cost Chinese metal PBF machines can win and retain service-bureau business despite Western strengths in quality and productivity. Singapore is highlighted for academia and MRO, while Korea spans shipbuilding, semicon, automotive, and defense. Southeast Asia is still production-focused with limited local R&D, whereas India is rising as an English-speaking engineering and R&D hub for global OEMs. Both see lowering costs and AI enabling broader, consumer-facing AM applications.
00:00 Welcome and Guest Intro
01:49 Peter Rogers Background
03:32 Moving to Japan
05:12 APAC Additive Overview
09:23 China Manufacturing Dynamics
13:27 Reshoring and Kaizen Mindset
18:45 Traditional Skills vs Additive
20:57 Japan Nearing Inflection Point
25:06 Top APAC Applications
29:02 Japan Korea Industry Mix
30:31 China Scale And Funding
33:18 FDM Race To Bottom
34:27 Bambu Ecosystem Advantage
36:53 Metal AM Price Expansion
38:23 Chinese Metal Machines Case
40:30 Competing On Productivity
44:10 Southeast Asia Adoption
47:06 India RnD Powerhouse
49:46 Future Consumer Breakthroughs
52:40 Japan Pushing DED Limits
55:30 AI Lowers Barriers
57:13 Wrap Up And Farewell