Lockheed Martin
OEM : Aerospace
Headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, Lockheed Martin is a global security and aerospace company that employs approximately 114,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services.
Assembly Line
Vayu Robotics Emerges from Stealth with $12.7 Million in Seed Funding
Vayu Robotics, an AI company providing high-quality, low-cost robotics solutions, today announced closure of its seed financing round of $12.7 Million led by Khosla Ventures, with participation from Lockheed Martin Ventures, ReMY Investors and others. Vayu is a non-traditional robotics company taking a principles-first approach to solve for cost and ease of deployment through two key technologies: a foundation model for mobility and a disruptive low-cost sensing technology that could replace lidar in many mid-range applications. This round of funding will enable Vayu to scale product development for AI robotics across markets, including last-mile delivery, factory automation and automotive.
South 8 Technologies Secures Strategic Investment from Lockheed Martin Ventures
South 8 Technologies, Inc., the San Diego cleantech company innovating safer and higher performance electrolytes for the next generation of lithium-ion batteries, has closed a strategic investment with Lockheed Martin Ventures, the venture arm of Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT), a global leader in defense and aerospace technology, with participation from current South 8 investors LG Technology Ventures, Foothill Ventures and Anzu Partners.
South 8 is the first company to develop a novel liquefied gas electrolyte technology as a safer, higher performance alternative to standard liquid electrolytes. Known as LiGas®, the liquefied gas electrolyte is simple to incorporate into existing cell production processes, utilizes materials which are all currently manufactured globally at scale and offers simple recyclability at the end of life. LiGas improves safety, increases energy density, achieves all-weather performance, enables fast-charge capability and reduces costs while also being compatible with existing lithium-ion cell production or Gigafactory manufacturing processes and supply chains.
Xaba and Lockheed Martin Collaborate to Test Cognitive Autonomous Robots in Airframe Manufacturing
Xaba, developers of the first AI-driven robotics and CNC machine controller, and Lockheed Martin recently completed a collaboration to evaluate the automation of crucial manufacturing operations using the global aerospace company’s industrial robots integrated with Xaba’s proprietary physics-informed deep artificial neural network model, xCognition.
Xaba and Lockheed Martin identified a use case focused on a typical robotics work cell used in any aerospace factory to test how Xaba’s xCognition “synthetic brain” could empower a commercial robot with greater intelligence and understanding of its body and the task it is about to execute while ensuring required quality and tolerances are achieved.
🖨️ Fortify Secures $12.5 Million in Funding From Investors, Including Lockheed Martin Ventures & RTX Ventures, to Accelerate Growth in Advanced Materials & Additive Manufacturing
Fortify, a leading full-stack materials science and additive manufacturing company, announced today that it has raised $12.5 million in a funding round from investors, including Lockheed Martin Ventures and RTX Ventures, the venture capital arms of Lockheed Martin and Raytheon Technologies, respectively. This strategic investment will enable Fortify to expand its capabilities and accelerate the development of its groundbreaking Digital Composite Manufacturing (DCM) platform.
3D Glass Solutions Closes $30 Million Series C Funding Round
3D Glass Solutions Inc. (3DGS), a leading innovator of glass-based three-dimensional integrated passive solutions for radio frequency (RF), photonic and datacenters today announced the closing of a $30 million Series C financing. The round was led by Walden Catalyst Ventures, with participation from existing investors, including Intel Capital and Lockheed Martin Ventures, as well as new investments from Applied Ventures, LLC, Cambium Capital, and Mesh Cooperative Ventures.
3DGS will use this funding to increase its US based manufacturing capacity for high-volume production of superior performance 3D integrated passives and substrate products. Lip-Bu Tan, chair of Walden International and founding managing partner of Walden Catalyst Ventures, will join 3DGS’ Board of Directors.
Automating Production of the F-35
🖨️✈️ Lockheed Martin 3D Prints F-35 Simulator Cockpits
After years of hard work, the F-35 Training & Logistics team recently celebrated the shipment of the first two 3D printed cockpits, that were delivered to MCAS Cherry Point in 2022. Printing an additive cockpit is an intricate process that is performed at the Orlando, Florida, Rotary and Mission Systems site. The entire process takes about two months, but you can watch the print in less than a minute in the below time-lapse video.
This effort can reduce the total lead time to obtain conventional parts by 75%. It also reduces the total part count of conventional metal parts by 70%. This significantly simplifies the manufacturability of the FMS and allows the team to rapidly increase the speed at which simulators can be delivered to the warfighter.
Lockheed Martin Ventures Invests in On-Demand Manufacturing Pioneer Machina Labs
Machina Labs today announced the completion of an investment by Lockheed Martin Ventures (LMV), the venture arm of Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE: LMT), a global security and aerospace company. Machina Labs combines AI and robotics to rapidly manufacture advanced sheet metal products. This latest funding brings the total raised by Machina Labs to $21.8M. The investment will be used to accelerate company growth to meet customer demand, and to expand R&D into additional processes and metallurgical offerings.
Lockheed Martin, Microsoft announce landmark agreement on classified cloud, advanced technologies for Department of Defense
Lockheed Martin is the first defense industrial base member to use Microsoft’s newest National Industrial Security Program (NISP) framework for air-gapped clouds after a year-long pilot. Work on developing the classified and unclassified cloud environments is already underway, with expectations for the project to be operational in 2023.
Microsoft’s first-of-its-kind technology will allow Lockheed Martin to dynamically scale IT demands under authorized guidance and directly operate mission workloads inside Azure Government Secret, including highly restricted special programs.
CloudNC raises $45m to deliver autonomous manufacturing
CloudNC, the company developing advanced software that enables factories to autonomously manufacture precision parts, today announced it has raised $45 million in a Series B round led by Autodesk, with Lockheed Martin and British Patient Capital participating alongside returning investors Atomico and Episode 1 Ventures. The company will use the additional capital to further develop its SaaS offering and roll out at-scale through integrations with CAD/CAM packages such as Autodesk’s platforms, and to expand its unique full-stack manufacturing capability in Essex, United Kingdom.
CloudNC’s technology already provides a significant degree of autonomy. A user can upload a 3D model of any part and, with one click, the software autonomously determines the tools needed, how they will be used and drafts the code to tell a CNC machine how to make it. This software assistance allows factories to be more efficient while upskilling the workforce, since more junior employees are able to operate the machines.
Aerospace, Defense and Industry 4.0
“Designing for manufacturability, modeling the production environment, and then producing our products with a minimum of duplicated effort—this can give us the breakthroughs in speed and affordability that the A&D environment needs in a time of limited budgets and rapidly changing threats,” explains Daughters. “These technologies are an essential component to our ‘digital thread’ across the product life cycle. They give us the ability to simulate tradeoffs between capability, manufacturability, complexity, materials and cost before transitioning to the physical world.”
“In a nutshell, I4.0 involves leveraging technology to better serve the world,” says Matt Medley, industry director for A&D manufacturing at IFS, a multinational enterprise software company. “More than just collecting and processing mounds of data via sensors and the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), I4.0 is turning data into actionable intelligence to not only drive efficiency and grow profits, but to also help companies be good stewards of our natural resources and local communities. Aerospace and defense companies whose enterprise software can keep pace with developments like additive manufacturing, AI, digital twins, and virtual and augmented reality (V/AR) are the ones that will thrive in an increasingly digital 4.0 era.”