ASME TechCast

Mechanical Engineering’s editorial team gathers for an annual look back at 2025’s top stories, ranging from rededicating the last U.S. coal-fired passenger locomotive in the U.S., to NASA’s Artemis mission, to unique tools engineered to be used in extreme conditions.

The global additive manufacturing industry is currently valued somewhere around $30 billion, depending on which analyst you ask, but many projections expect that value to grow beyond $100 billion as soon as around 2030. But according to Women in 3D Printing, a global organization dedicated to promoting, supporting, and inspiring women who are using Additive Manufacturing technologies, women only make up about 13 percent of the global industry. Jonné Messer joins ASME TechCast to share the story behind how 3D printing got started at Ford, how the company is working to bring new talent into the industry, what challenges additive manufacturing faces in the years ahead, and more.Messer is global additive manufacturing lead at Ford Motor Company, where she’s spent nearly 30 years. She was recently awarded the 2025 TCT Women in 3D Printing Innovator Award, which recognizes women who are leading the charge in developing, enhancing, and innovating within the 3D printing and additive manufacturing world.

Do you ever think much about paint and coatings? Or the fact that pretty much everything in the built environment has some sort of protection on it? Paint and coatings are a $200 billion global industry, according to the American Coatings Association. Engineers are constantly developing new and innovative protections to ensure structures can withstand the elements and even improve a building’s energy savings or carbon footprint.    Paul Lavallee joins ASME TechCast to share some insights into the coatings industry. Lavallee is global market manager of Kynar Coatings at Arkema, where he has spent 27 years in a variety of engineering, manufacturing, research, supply chain, and business roles. He holds a bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a Business Administration Executive Certificate from University of Notre Dame. 

If you see a concrete structure of any kind, be it a building, road, or maybe piece of art, in all likelihood it’s supported by rebar. While there are a few varieties of steel rebar, from the standard steel to epoxy coated, they all suffer from corrosion issues.  Two doctoral graduates from MIT launched a startup called Allium Engineering a few years ago that’s taking aim at that issue by manufacturing steel that's able to resist corrosion through an innovative stainless steel cladding process. The company says this technology can more than triple the lifetime of key infrastructure such as bridges, which would allow for significant cuts to steel and concrete production, two of the largest carbon dioxide emitting industries. To share more about Allium, how the company got started and the technology behind it, Allium’s co-founder and CTO Sam McAlpine stopped by for a chat with ASME TechCast.

Multiple setbacks haven’t stopped engineering student Michelle Delk from embracing opportunity and pursuing a graduate degree.