Exclusive: Metal-ceramic specialist Intalus expanding
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Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios
Intalus, an advanced materials company, is growing its production footprint with financing from Rochefort, a firm licensed under the Small Business Administration and the Pentagon's Office of Strategic Capital.
Why it matters: "We're turning myths about American manufacturing on their head," Steve Place, the company's head of corporate strategy, told Axios.
- "We can still make world-class manufacturing technology in this country."
Zoom in: The financing, which the company declined to put a specific number on, will fund facilities and machines that:
- Use heat and pressure to close internal voids and reduce defects in metal parts;
- Infuse components with ceramic-metal material that improves heat, wear and corrosion resistance.
Zoom out: These processes, dubbed HIP+ and TPI, are relevant for turbines and reactors in submarines, aerospace engineering, and munitions and energetics production.
- "What the future looks like is net-new capabilities," Place said. "We regularly talk to companies building the future that are limited by current manufacturing technology."
Follow the money: Intalus has raised more than $30 million thus far. Backers include Scout Ventures and Lockheed Martin Ventures.
What's next: The company has plans for six "major locations across the country," chief executive and co-founder Gene Skiba told Axios.
- "We need to scale and think differently," he said. "How do we actually provide improved capabilities to the engineers, so we can make better products?"
Go deeper: Why American reindustrialization feels like "jazz and rock and roll"
