Machina has been awarded a qualification contract from Lockheed Martin in help of the JASSM program. | Credit score: Machina Labs
Superior manufacturing and robotics pioneer Machina Labs has secured a landmark qualification contract from Lockheed Martin to help the Joint Air-to-Floor Standoff Missile, or JASSM, program, marking the primary time a part constructed utilizing the corporate’s robotic “RoboForming” know-how has superior to qualification for a U.S. protection missile system.
“The protection industrial base is underneath stress to scale sooner than legacy manufacturing permits,” stated Edward Mehr, co-founder and CEO of Machina. “Missile applications aren’t constrained by design. They’re constrained by manufacturing. Machina’s manufacturing unit is constructed to deal with that constraint, forming and assembling complicated metallic buildings instantly from digital design with dramatically shorter lead instances.”
Mehr was on a latest episode of The Robotic Report podcast, the place he defined the expansion and evolution of the corporate. On the episode, he famous that Machina is uniquely configured to help protection shoppers.
Save the date for RoboBusiness 2026Machina system varieties precision components
The corporate was a 2023 RBR50 Robotics Innovation Award winner for its novel use of business robots to pound metallic into exact shapes. The robots type complicated components from unique supplies similar to titanium.
Machina’s workcells include two industrial robots organized on reverse sides of a vertical sheet of uncooked materials. By means of coordinated interactions on reverse sides of the fabric, the robots type a component, identical to a blacksmith would. The newest model of the workcells contains the aptitude to drill holes into components in addition to laser minimize or engrave.
In contrast to a stamp-and-die manufacturing line, which is dear to create and arrange, a Machina workcell can produce high-quality components in lot sizes as small as one unit. The workcell is appropriate for low-volume manufacturing or for components which have a brief lead time, the corporate stated.
Machina Labs Manufacturing facility 3 shall be devoted to the manufacturing of protection programs. | Credit score: Machina Labs
New manufacturing facility devoted to protection shoppers
Machina doesn’t promote its metal-forming workcells. As a substitute, the corporate serves as a contract producer, fulfilling its shoppers’ manufacturing wants. To that finish, the corporate is opening a brand new facility, Machine Manufacturing facility 3, to completely serve the wants of Lockheed Martin and different protection contractors.
The contract shall be supported by Machina Manufacturing facility 3, the corporate’s first large-scale Clever manufacturing unit presently underneath growth. The 200,000-sq.-ft. (18,580.6 sq. m) facility is designed to deal with as much as 50 RoboCraftsman cells and help high-rate manufacturing of mission-critical metallic buildings for protection applications, together with JASSM.
By integrating forming, machining, welding, and meeting underneath one roof, Machina stated its new facility will compress manufacturing timelines from months to days.
“Lockheed Martin Ventures invested in Machina for its highly effective mixture of velocity, flexibility, and scalability, and our groups have labored intently to transition key capabilities to manufacturing,” stated Chris Moran, vice chairman and common supervisor at Lockheed Martin Ventures. “Machina’s work advances capability, reduces danger, and helps guarantee we will ship mission-critical capabilities at scale. We congratulate Machina on this milestone as a provider, which additional strengthens an progressive and resilient American protection industrial base.”
The submit Lockheed Martin faucets Machina’s robots for mission-critical missile components appeared first on The Robotic Report.
