MT Magazine January/February 2026

THE INDUSTRY UPDATES ISSUE

LAMARKABLES

30

Pedal to the Metal How LIFT’s Advanced Metallic Production and Processing Center is reshaping the path

from alloy concept to additive-ready powder BY STEPHEN LAMARCA

SENIOR TECHNOLOGY ANALYST

From replicators on “Star Trek” producing cups of hot chocolate out of seemingly nothing to Mega Man’s Mega Buster arm cannon drawing energy from thin air, science fiction has long imagined a world where

matter bends to our whims – where anything you need simply appears when you need it. That fantasy has floated around for decades in movies, games, and books like “Ender’s Game.” Now, thanks to additive manufacturing (AM) and LIFT’s latest

initiative, the state-of-the-art Advanced Metallic Production and Processing (AMPP) Center, it doesn’t feel quite so far-fetched.

To materialize this, the Detroit-based LIFT, one of the Department of Defense’s manufacturing innovation institutes, is addressing one of the most critical bottlenecks in AM: the matter itself. The Additive Revolution Meets a Supply Chain Roadblock Metal AM has exploded in recent years, inspiring engineers, scientists, and designers to push the boundaries of what’s possible. Complex geometries, lightweight lattice structures, and custom alloys are no longer just thought experiments; they’re on drawing boards everywhere. The catch? Those exotic alloys don’t exist in neat little bags of powder waiting to be fed into a printer. The supply chain for custom materials is limited and slow, if not practically nonexistent. If you do manage to find a supplier, you could be stuck with high minimum order quantities, 12-month lead times, and no guarantees of purity or consistency. Designing with bespoke, hypothetical alloys is akin to speccing custom wheels for a car without appropriately sized tires being available.

Skunk Works Vibes in The Motor City Here’s where things get interesting. LIFT is like the Skunk Works of manufacturing, Lockheed Martin’s secret development team that created some of the most advanced aircraft ever built, including the SR-71 Blackbird and the stealth fighter. Born during World War II, Skunk Works became a symbol of rapid innovation: small teams, minimal bureaucracy, and bold engineering that often broke every rule to achieve what was previously impossible. LIFT channels that same renegade mindset – fast-moving, boundary-pushing, and unafraid to experiment its way into breakthroughs. As a nonprofit public-private partnership manufacturing innovation institute, it brings together industry, academia, and government to accelerate advanced materials and manufacturing process technologies. It not only orchestrates the rapid alloy-to wire-to-powder chain through AMPP, but it also invests heavily in the human

(This is something that happens more frequently than you’d think – not just with exotics like Bugattis but even third-generation Honda Odyssey minivans!)