The US manufacturing industry needs a major overhaul and companies like Machina Labs are helping drive that change. Today’s Pathfinder episode features Ed Mehr, cofounder and CEO of Machina Labs, a startup integrating the latest advancements in robotics and AI to construct next-generation factories. Mehr's prior experience at Relativity includes overseeing the development of Stargate, which was the world’s largest 3D printer at the time.

Machina is focused on creating flexible manufacturing systems, where design and material changes can be made seamlessly without the need for extensive hardware alterations. This flexibility is primarily enabled by advanced robotics and AI, encapsulating Mehr's vision of an agile, responsive manufacturing environment. Machina’s flagship product, the "Robotic Craftsman," epitomizes this concept, combining the dexterity of human craftsmen with sophisticated machine learning algorithms.

The conversation today delves into the challenges of traditional manufacturing and explores the impact of Machina’s innovations on the space industry. In addition, Ed and Mo discuss:

Machina’s origin story
The state of the US manufacturing industry
Common startup mistakes when building factories
Elon’s manufacturing algorithm

And much more…

This episode is brought to you by SpiderOak, a US-based software company that builds space cybersecurity products and solutions for civilian, military, and commercial space operations. Learn more at https://spideroak.com/

• Chapters •

00:00 - Intro & SpiderOak Ad

02:02 - What is Machina Labs?

03:07 - The Falcon 9 issue

05:26 - Key product offerings

08:05 - Origin of roboforming

09:16 - Machina’s roboforming

14:24 - Importance of manufacturing in the US

18:06 - Keynote of the business

20:10 - Industries of focus

24:57 - The business model

28:28 - SpiderOak Ad Break

29:15 - Measuring the market size

31:44 - The Machina team

33:12 - Partnership with Nvidia

34:49 - Common manufacturing mistakes

37:48 - Machina’s competition

41:23 - Machina Labs's place in the market 20 years from now

44:02 - Evolution of aerospace manufacturing in the next decade

45:37 - Favorite new manufacturing technologies

• Show notes •

Machina Lab's website — https://machinalabs.ai/

Machina Lab's socials — https://twitter.com/MachinaLabs_

Mo's socials — https://twitter.com/itsmoislam

Payload’s socials — https://twitter.com/payloadspace / https://www.linkedin.com/company/payloadspace

Pathfinder archive — Watch: https://www.youtube.com/@payloadspace Pathfinder archive — Listen: https://pod.payloadspace.com/episodes

• About us •

Pathfinder is brought to you by Payload, a modern space media brand built from the ground up for a new age of space exploration and commercialization. We deliver need-to-know news and insights daily to 15,000+ commercial, civil, and military space leaders. Payload is read by decision-makers at every leading new space company, along with c-suite leaders at all of the aerospace & defense primes. We’re also read on Capitol Hill, in the Pentagon, and at space agencies around the world. Payload began as a weekly email sent to a few friends and coworkers.

Today, we’re a team distributed across four time zones and two continents, publishing three media properties across multiple platforms: 1) Payload, our flagship daily newsletter, sends M-F @ 9am Eastern (https://newsletter.payloadspace.com/) 2) Pathfinder publishes weekly on Tuesday mornings (pod.payloadspace.com) 3) Polaris, our weekly policy publication, hits inboxes Tuesday (https://polaris.payloadspace.com/) 4) Parallax, our weekly space science briefing, hits inboxes Thursday (https://parallax.payloadspace.com/)

Robot Craftsmen, with Ed Mehr (Machina Labs)

Valley of Depth