NASCAR racer Brad Keselowski is now at the head of a new metal hybrid manufacturing facility, Keselowski Advanced Manufacturing (KAM), in Statesville, N.C.
KAM on Thursday announced partnerships with several groups including ALSCO, GE Additive, and Mazak Corp. and said it has already secured customers. It offers a “combination of diverse metal manufacturing technologies.”
Keselowski says he has invested more than $10 million in the project. KAM so far employs 30 people, and expects to eventually staff up to 100 people based in a 70,000 square-foot facility.
The long-term goal is to scale up hybrid manufacturing capabilities at a production level and partner with a variety of other groups. Capabilities of the facility include additive metal manufacturing with direct metal laser melting (GE Concept Laser M2 Multi-laser Machines), CNC machining (Mazak and GF machines) design and engineering, powder an analysis, mechanical testing, post processing, and quality assurance and scanning. KAM expects to target aerospace, military, and oil and gas customers.
“The capabilities of new technologies are limited only by our imaginations and willingness to act,” said Keselowski in a press release. “Until now, much of this advanced manufacturing technology was considered too complex and too expensive for production level applications. By combining additive manufacturing with subtractive capabilities, the goal of KAM is to lead the way for the next industrial revolution by making these technologies more accessible.”
Keselowski was the 2012 Nascar Sprint Cup Champion, and says his interest in hybrid manufacturing came from his familiarity with racing cars, where additive manufacturing has long been used to prototype and test high-speed designs.
