Relentless The Future of Metal Manufacturing | Machina Labs
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Feb 5, 2026 
Ed Mehr, Co-founder and CEO of Machina, builds robotic systems that form custom sheet-metal parts fast. He discusses the robot-driven design-to-robot pipeline and the scan/adjust feedback loop. He recounts early prototyping struggles and how robotics plus AI unlocked flexible, low-volume manufacturing. He also covers factory scaling, capital strategies, and scrappy startup resourcefulness.
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Software + Real-Time Control Closes The Loop
- Machina combines offline planning with real-time robot feedback to turn a CAD into an accurate physical part.
- Robots read sensors every 4ms and adjust online, then re-scan the result to close the loop.
25 Trials For The First SpaceX Shroud
- Early SpaceX shroud trials took ~25 attempts to get close to the target shape and revealed tearing, buckling, and surface defects.
- Over time Machina improved tools and processes to average four to five trials per part and aim for zero-shot via data-driven models.
Die-less Forming Replaces Costly Tooling
- Traditional formed sheet metal relies on expensive, static dies that create huge upfront cost and lead times.
- Machina's dual-robot, die-less forming deforms and shapes a sheet incrementally under software control, delivering parts within hours of design.