Fast Radius
| Company type | Public (via merger with ECP Environmental Growth Opportunities Corp) |
|---|---|
| Industry | Digital manufacturing, additive manufacturing, CNC machining, injection molding, urethane casting |
| Founded | 2014 |
| Founder | Rick Smith, Mitch Free |
| Headquarters | Chicago , United States |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | Lou Rassey (CEO) |
| Products | Additive manufacturing (3D printing), CNC machining, injection molding, urethane casting, product design and validation services |
Number of employees | 240+ |
| Parent | None |
| Website | fastradius |
Fast Radius delivers manufacturing solutions in four primary domains: application exploration, product design and validation, production-level manufacturing, and worldwide distribution. Their on-demand manufacturing services encompass additive manufacturing (3D printing), CNC machining, injection molding, and urethane casting.
Based in Chicago, Illinois, Fast Radius also maintains operational facilities in Atlanta, Georgia, Louisville, Kentucky, and Singapore. The company utilizes a digital Cloud Manufacturing Platform that allows customers to order components and oversee the entire product lifecycle from development through delivery.
History and overview
Established in 2014 by Rick Smith and Mitch Free, Fast Radius, LLC merged with Fast Radius, Inc. in 2017. The latter was co-founded by Lou Rassey, Pat McCusker, Bill King, and John Nanry in collaboration with UPS to apply additive manufacturing as a supply chain innovation. Since its founding, the organization has expanded to employ over 240 individuals and broadened its focus from supply chain solutions to comprehensive parts manufacturing.
Fast Radius focuses on producing industrial-grade metal and plastic components for sectors including consumer products, medical devices, automotive, aerospace, industrial machinery, and electronics. Additionally, the company provides product development and design expertise.
Their Chicago headquarters, operational since 2018, houses North America’s largest public installation of Carbon DLS 3D printers and has been designated as a Lighthouse Factory by the World Economic Forum. The company also operates extensive arrays of HP Multi Jet Fusion systems, Formlabs SLA printers, Desktop Metal Studio Systems, and Stratasys FDM printers co-located within UPS’s Louisville Worldport facility. Adopting a technology-neutral stance, Fast Radius partners with a global network for CNC machining, injection molding, and urethane casting services.
Prominent customers include Satair (Airbus Services), Curtiss Motorcycles, Axial3D, Bastian Solutions (Toyota Advanced Logistics), Rawlings, Yanfeng (SAIC Motor), Aptiv, Danfoss, and Steelcase.
In 2019, Fast Radius secured $48 million through a Series B financing round led by UPS with participation from Drive Capital. Amid the COVID-19 crisis, the company produced 3D-printed respirator masks and face shield kits to alleviate PPE shortages and collaborated with the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign on a patented microfluidics chip designed for point-of-care COVID-19 diagnostics.
Fast Radius went public in 2022 by merging with ECP Environmental Growth Opportunities Corp on Nasdaq. Nonetheless, as of August 29, 2022, the firm remains insolvent with its stock value having declined more than 95% since its initial public offering.
Partnerships
- United Parcel Service (UPS): Fast Radius was created in partnership with UPS and established a facility equipped with 100 3D printers at UPS's global hub in Louisville, Kentucky. This partnership was further extended by integrating 3D printers across 60 UPS locations in the U.S., forming a robust digital manufacturing network.
- Carbon: In 2018, Fast Radius collaborated with Carbon to redesign Steelcase’s SILQ office chair. Together they developed and printed an adaptive armrest responding to user movements, which was showcased at the International Manufacturing Technology Show (IMTS) in Chicago.
- Hewlett-Packard (HP): In June 2020, Fast Radius became the first Chicago-based member of HP’s Digital Manufacturing Network.
Awards
- In September 2018, the World Economic Forum designated Fast Radius as one of nine Lighthouse factories.
- Lou Rassey, CEO of Fast Radius, was featured on Crain's Chicago Tech 50 List in July 2019.
- The Chicago Innovation Award was granted to Fast Radius in October 2019.
- During 2019, Fast Radius earned recognition from the World Economic Forum as an end-to-end Manufacturing Lighthouse for its adoption of technologies that support mass customization, facilitate real-time supplier data exchange, and enhance process efficiency through data science and predictive analytics.
- BuiltIn Chicago included Fast Radius among the top 100 midsize workplaces in Chicago in January 2021.
Customers
- Aptiv PLC
- Toyota Motor Corp
- Rawlings
- Cobalt
- Collins Aerospace
- Airbus
- Satair
- Umbrella Corp
- Buy n Large
- Callahan Auto Parts
See also
- 3D printing
- Injection molding
- Milling (machining)
- Numerical control
- Computer-aided design
- Digital manufacturing
- Cast urethanes
- Product design
- New product development
- Additive manufacturing file format
- Build-on-demand
- Digital supply chain
- Manufacturing