👋 Happy Saturday! This week’s edition covers a newly granted patent that outlines an approach to link generative CAD with real component libraries, a guide to bending and forming sheet metal, and a video on four ways to fabricate stainless steel spheres—including the odd case of explosive forming.
Interesting Patent: Generative CAD Meets Part Libraries
There’s been a wave of AI-for-CAD tools over the past year, most of which, for mechanical design, fall into two camps: ones that generate mesh-based models (STLs, surface shells, approximations) and ones that generate parametric/B-rep CAD (true CAD solids with features and constraints) with varying levels of fidelity.
A Cambridge-based startup, Leo AI, was recently granted a patent (US12265764B2) that outlines an approach to link generative CAD with real component libraries. The claimed novelty is the embedding step where the system generates a rough assembly from input (text, sketches, CAD snippets), encodes one or more “ideal” placeholder components as embeddings, searches a vector database for the closest match, and swaps in the known part. That database could be an organization’s PLM, a vendor catalog, or a standard parts library that grounds the generative design in components that actually exist.
The scope is intentionally broad, but at its core it just formalizes something engineers already do: sketch out conceptual geometry, then swap in catalog or company-standard parts. Their pitch deck suggested a release this month, but it’s unclear if the feature has actually shipped.
Interesting Guide: Sheet Metal Bending & Forming Techniques
Some notes we pulled together on sheet bending covering bend radii, allowances, and the common forming techniques used in production processes. Globally, sheet metal represents ~35–40% of the metalworking market, with automotive as the largest user where most vehicle structures and exterior panels are stamped from sheet.
From an engineer’s perspective: if you can machine it, you can probably make it in sheet metal. This thread of manufacturing opinions takes it a step further: Having to CNC something is a failure on your part as an engineer to make it out of sheet metal.
And the more you know: explosive forming a steel sphere is technically a forming process too (though only in very specific cases).
Event Calendar:
9/25 – Analysis for Advanced Aircraft Design Workshop (Online)
Live walkthrough of aircraft sizing, CFD, and performance analysis in a single workflow.
A get-together for engineers, founders, and procurement folks to trade notes and talk shop.
Interesting Video: How to Manufacture a Steel Sphere
There’s four primary methods to manufacture hollow stainless steel spheres (the same kind you’ll see in plazas, museums, or outside office towers):
- Spin Forming: A rotating blank is incrementally deformed against forming tools into a hemispherical profile. Two halves are then joined by a circumferential weld.
- Deep Drawing: A hydraulic press forces a blank into a hemispherical die. Same two-half weld.
- Water Pressure Hydroforming: Flat or pre-curved segments are welded into a polygonal shell. High-pressure water expands the assembly into a true sphere,
- Explosive Hydroforming: Same polygon shell, but instead of a pump, the cavity is filled with water and a small explosive charge that forms the final shape in a single operation.
Manufacturing & Startup News
More leftovers from our weekly research:
- EchoStar terminated its $1.3B contract with MDA Space to build a LEO satellite constellation, a week after announcing SpaceX would purchase its spectrum instead. MDA’s stock fell 20%, though it keeps a $4.6B order backlog and will be compensated for termination costs.
- Hardt Hyperloop set a speed record of 85 km/h (under vacuum) at the European Hyperloop Center in the Netherlands, while also showing off lane switching capabilities. Founded by SpaceX Hyperloop alums, the team is nearing the limits of its 420m track and plans a 3–5 km upgrade for higher speeds.
- Eco Wave Power has launched the first US onshore wave energy converter at the Port of Los Angeles, using modular floaters that capture vertical ocean motion, drive hydraulic pumps, and discharge through an accumulator to a generator.
- Anglo American is merging with Teck Resources in a $50B deal to form a copper producer focused on mining for electrification supply chains.
- PBS Aerospace opened a new $20M facility in Roswell, Georgia, to mass-produce small turbojet engines for drones and missiles, targeting thousands of units annually by 2026.
- Seagate Space raised investment from DraperU Ventures to deploy offshore launch platforms for sea-based rocket operations. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.