Additive Manufacturing’s Humble Beginnings at Ford
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.
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A Coatings Primer
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.
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A New Generation of Rebar
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.
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Setbacks are Part of the Engineering Process
Multiple setbacks haven’t stopped engineering student Michelle Delk from embracing opportunity and pursuing a graduate degree.
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Engineering and Design Justice
When it comes to engineering and design, no matter the end goal, be it a device or structure or sweeping plan of action, the idea that engineering is done for the betterment of humanity is a constant, whether it can be tangibly quantified or not.As Sita Syal and Julia Kramer, assistant professors in mechanical engineering at the University of Michigan, recently wrote in their study, “Design and Justice: A Scoping Review in Engineering Design,” there is “a growing priority in the engineering design research community to incorporate justice into design and to do so meaningfully and intentionally.” This paper was recently published in ASME's Journal of Mechanical Design. Both professors joined ASME TechCast to some insights into the interconnections between engineering and social justice, some of the lingering issues, and their hopes for the discourse moving forward.
New Zealand