PRINT THE PLANET

Divergent offers a next generation digital manufacturing platform in Southern California, creating everything from rockets to rocket-fast supercars

- David Nusbaum

Digital manufacturing and factories-as-a-service may sound like a futuristic dream, but for Lukas Czinger, president and chief executive officer of Torrance-based Divergent Technologies Inc., a decade of technological development has the 500-person strong company primed to scale its platform that utilizes 3D printing for automotive and aerospace parts.

"One factory, any product - faster, better and cheaper," said Czinger. "Our factory-as-a-service model combines flexibility and extreme speed with a per unit cost that is actually more attractive, or at cost parity, with the industrial high-rate casting traditional version. We take a complex set of requirements and engineer that system very quickly to produce the first unit within weeks."

Cost savings and improved manufacturing have drawn strong interest from the U.S. government, which has sought to award defense contracts to a new wave of domestic startups that have potential to build fleets of drones and other advanced weapons. Warfare has changed, and modern conflicts have led to billions of dollars of investment. Southern California companies secured more than $17 billion in venture funding last year, with a majority going to the hard tech sector, according to data from PitchBook.

At Divergent, manufacturing is offered as a service model, which allows aerospace contractors and automotive manufacturers to develop products without the high upfront infrastructure costs associated with traditional methods. Divergent does not license its technology or software. It offers manufacturing on a per unit basis with a low initiation fee.

The company expanded into the aerospace and defense sector three years ago and now has contracts with more than 15 prime contractors including Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and General Atomics, as well as mid-sized companies and startups. It also operates as a tier-one supplier for more than ten vehicle models including Aston Martin, McLaren and Bugatti.