Founder and President Slade Gardner is charging ahead with a high-flying startup that's 3D printing metal parts for defense, aerospace, and other industries. Big Metal Additive sprung from Gardner's 20-year career with "big aerospace" -- including stints with Lockheed Martin's famed "Skunk Works" and the company's Denver-based Space Systems group. when he left Lockheed to launch Big Metal Additive in 2016. "I knew we were going to address the deficiencies of additive industrial manufacturing," says Gardner. The challenges were "size, surface finish, dimensional tolerance, and the software flow path required to take a CAD model to a final part."



After two years of R&D, Big Metal Additive took possession of its first proprietary machine, says Gardner, "built to our specifications" by Diversified Machine Systems in Colorado Springs. He says the build table's size -- about 6 feet by 12 feet -- was based on the size of a chassis for a Porsche 911. Big Metal Additive now is producing parts for clients in the automotive, heavy transportation, construction, aerospace, and space industries, as well as the U.S. Department of Defense. Most contracts are covered by nondisclosure agreements. Gardner says he expected prototyping work and industrial jobs from day one, but aerospace work has exceeded expectations.



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