Keep pulling the thread on Ed Mair.
Machina's robotic process can form sheet metal without the need for traditional manufacturing dies.
Machina announced a collaborative project with Toyota to enable customers to design unique, personalized cars.
Machina's long-term goal is to build AI models that enable its robots to form parts accurately on the first attempt (zero-shot) without any iteration.
The U.S. Department of Defense was an early customer of Machina, using its technology to rapidly manufacture repair parts for existing weapons systems and aircraft.
Machina's strategic customers, including Toyota, Lockheed Martin, and Yamaha, are also investors in the company.
Machina's CEO, Ed Mair, predicts the company is approximately four to five years away from launching a public platform for on-demand manufacturing of complex metal parts.
Machina made a strategic decision to focus its business model on selling finished metal assemblies that it manufactures in-house, rather than selling its robotic systems or individual parts.
As part of its business model shift, Machina decided to stop selling its manufacturing cells, which were priced at $3 to $3.5 million each.
Machina's team designed, manufactured, and assembled a full-body truck, reducing the design from 50 panels to 13, in a three-month timeframe.
A full set of manufacturing dies for one of Tesla's early vehicles cost $120 million.
Machina's robots analyze sensor data and make real-time adjustments every four milliseconds during the metal forming process.
An early project for Machina was manufacturing a rocket engine shroud for SpaceX, which required 25 trials to produce correctly.