(LIVERMORE, CA.)— Livermore already knows how to turn grapes into wine and lasers into fusion energy. Its next specialty may be turning metal powder into rocket parts.
Whether it does depends on if the business arrives to fill a nearly 289,000-square-foot factory on the eastern edge of the San Francisco Bay Area.
Velo3D, a publicly traded maker of industrial metal 3-D-printing systems, opened Forge 1 on July 15 at 711 Challenger St. The facility has about 270,000 square feet of production space, ceilings more than 36 feet high and room for more than 40 large-format printing systems. The company says it could eventually accommodate more than 100.
That is roughly five football fields—enough space to make the average desktop 3-D printer feel professionally inadequate. It is also a sizable bet by the Fremont-based company that demand for complex, high-value metal parts will grow fast enough to justify the added capacity.
Operations are expected to begin in phases as equipment is installed and qualified. Velo3D’s Fremont headquarters will remain the center of its research, development and customer-qualification work, while Forge 1 is intended to handle machine assembly, production printing, post-processing, inspection and quality assurance.
Metal additive manufacturing is the industrial counterpart to the plastic printers found in schools and workshops. Lasers fuse thin layers of metal powder, including titanium, aluminum and heat-resistant alloys, into components that can be difficult or wasteful to produce by cutting material from a solid block.
The technology is most useful where parts are complex, production runs are small and failure is expensive. Rocket engines, defense systems and energy equipment can contain components whose geometry would be difficult to manufacture by traditional methods.
“Forge 1 is much more than a new production facility,” Chief Executive Arun Jeldi said in a statement. He described the campus as part of an effort to strengthen domestic supply chains for critical aerospace and defense programs.
For Livermore, however, the most important product may be paychecks.
Velo3D hasn’t disclosed how many people the facility will employ or how quickly it expects to hire them. The work is likely to require a mix of manufacturing technicians, machinists, quality inspectors, facilities workers and engineers. Velo3D says it recruits hardware, software and manufacturing engineers, along with technicians and quality-control specialists, though its current public job listings remain largely focused on Fremont. Forge 1 has the physical capacity of a major industrial operation, but the hiring plans remain more blueprint than payroll.
City officials are embracing the project anyway. Mayor John Marchand, who attended the ribbon-cutting with county and state officials, said in a statement that the facility reflects the kind of investment turning Livermore into “a destination for advanced industry.”
The city has some of the infrastructure to support that ambition. Las Positas College offers training in welding, engineering technology and CNC machining, as well as an additive-manufacturing workshop covering metal printing, heat treatment and precision measurement. Sandia National Laboratories has donated industrial CNC machinery and coordinate-measuring equipment to the college, citing manufacturers’ need for workers trained in inspection and quality control — skills that matter especially in aerospace and defense, where a part must not only be produced but also documented, measured and certified.
A formal partnership between Velo3D and Las Positas could create a direct route from the classroom to the factory floor. No such agreement has been announced, leaving the workforce pipeline a possibility rather than an operating program.
Livermore’s appeal also extends beyond available industrial space. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory operates a 14,000-square-foot Advanced Manufacturing Laboratory nearby, intended to help move technologies from successful prototypes toward production at scale. Fusion company Inertia opened a 50,000-square-foot Livermore headquarters on July 10, where it plans to develop mass-production methods for fusion-fuel targets. Forge 1 adds the factory-scale piece to a region already rich in scientists, engineers and difficult-to-explain dinner conversations.
That is a different model from the industrial centers of the past. Livermore is unlikely to become a city of smokestacks, assembly lines and thousands of workers arriving for the same shift. Its opportunity lies in specialized production tied to laboratories, government contracts and industries with demanding technical requirements.
Success will still depend on Velo3D’s ability to turn capacity into revenue. The company ended the first quarter with $16.6 million in cash, down from $39 million at the start of the year, and raised about $50 million before expenses through an April stock offering. Its recent results also offered signs of improvement: revenue increased 48% from a year earlier, margins improved and the company secured a $9.8 million contract with the Defense Logistics Agency. Still, a building with space for more than 100 machines is valuable only if enough machines are installed and enough orders arrive to keep them running.
The same uncertainty applies to Livermore’s broader ambitions. One large facility doesn’t make an industrial hub, but it can become the anchor around which suppliers, training programs and additional employers gather. The verdict will come from four numbers Velo3D hasn’t yet provided: machines installed, production orders secured, local workers hired, and students trained.
Until then, Forge 1 is an impressive signal. Livermore may still be wine country, but the newest vintage comes in titanium.
To add to or correct any information in this report, please contact Tracy.t@lead4earth.org.
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