Keselowski
KAM takes a hybrid approach to manufacturing with a range of additive and subtractive technologies.
Meeting with suited and booted manufacturing leaders is standard practice for any big industry event. But for one particular meeting at the recent RAPID + TCT, there was something a little different – namely the several visitors hovering around the company’s booth hoping to catch a few moments with this approachable CEO, perhaps even an autograph or selfie.
That’s because Brad Keselowski, founder of Keselowski Advanced Manufacturing (KAM), isn’t just the creator of a fast-growing hybrid manufacturing firm but also a successful full-time NASCAR racing driver and, lucky for me, an additive manufacturing (AM) end-user too.
As Keselowski puts it: “I honestly don’t see how you can do this if you’re not an end user.”
Keselowski is fanatical about manufacturing and technology. This was clear during a keynote talk at this year’s Additive Manufacturing User Group Conference, where the CEO spoke openly about his love of AM’s fast-paced nature and the ability to have a “factory in your pocket”. That excitement manifests throughout our conversation, predominantly as Keselowski spins the perfectly engineered wheels of a miniature but incredibly detailed car model he encouraged his engineers to build, just for fun.
That passion, however, is very much grounded in reality.
Operating out of Statesville, North Carolina since 2018, KAM currently runs a 70,000-square-foot facility housing metal AM, precision CNC machining, scanning, inspection technologies, post-processing and a full service metallurgical lab. Some of that inherent end-user confidentiality comes through when asked about what systems the facility houses, with the CEO preferring to talk about ambitions to become “fully vertical”. That said, the company is open about its partnerships with major OEMs including Mazak, tooling company BIG KAISER, and GE Additive.
“Part of being vertical to us is being hybrid, the two go hand-in-hand,” Keselowski told TCT. “Even in the small amount of time I’ve been in this industry, there has been a shift where it was additive against the world to ‘okay, maybe we’re more United Nations’. I think that’s very healthy. I think it was very unhealthy to have a rhetoric that there was going to be a 3D printer in everyone’s house. I think it’s very unhealthy to come out and say a 3D printer is going to replace castings or a 3D printer is replacing CNC subtracting. That rhetoric, thankfully, has died down. I’m very interested in hybrid because I see the strengths of multiple technology disciplines and when they’re applied together we can create the most unique, the most advantageous products on the marketplace.”
Days before my meeting with Keselowski, the company announced additional investments in its hardware line-up with the installation of two metal AM systems running aluminium and Inconel, CMM and tensile strength testing equipment, and a CNC precision saw for additive part removal and subtractive manufacturing. KAM has also commenced construction on a new engineering centre set for completion later this year.
"What might be the best part today might not be the best part tomorrow. You have to act very quickly."
Racing and manufacturing run in the family. Keselowski’s earliest memory of additive comes from his father’s race shop where he spent his teen years looking after the less glamorous tasks of mopping and sweeping floors. One day an engineer brought in a clear plastic prototype for an intake manifold, a part that would typically be cast in metal with a weight of around 20 pounds. This version however was 3D printed and couldn’t have weighed more than a tenth of the original. Holding this new super lightweight part in his hand, Keselowski says he recalls pestering his father to stick the manifold onto the vehicle and race it, but the seasoned engineer quickly stepped in to point out that the part was merely a mock-up and if it were to race, would simply melt.
Keselowski says he didn’t see another additive part until years later when he started racing with Team Penske, a well-known adopter of Stratasys Fortus polymer technology. Here, the team used 3D printing in wind tunnel testing to produce prototypes with fluid passageways and pressure taps. The data from the wind tunnel tests would then be applied to create algorithms which are used to simulate and validate models of the car. But all of this was being done in plastics and Keselowski confesses he’s not a huge fan of plastic FDM, particularly when used as an alternative to carbon fibre. “Hung up on manufacturing” and inspired by a conversation on metal additive with an old friend who was leading his own successful carbon fibre business, Keselowski began exploring the technology. Lightbulbs went off.
“Motorsports cycles are very fast. What might be the best part today might not be the best part tomorrow or might be illegal tomorrow,” Keselowski remarked. “So, you have to act very quickly. The challenge for us is that really leaves us one option, which is CNC subtractive. CNC subtractive is great, don’t get me wrong, we love it. It has its limitations. If we go to castings, castings are too slow. So, what I saw in additive was the ability to cut steps out of the process, specifically the ability to make effectively casting parts, in metal. I thought that was very exciting.”
Brad Keselowski inside the KAM facility in North Carolina.
Brad Keselowski inside the KAM facility in North Carolina.
For motorsport, the manufacturing race is as crucial as the actual race itself. Keselowski speaks of one case where the team had created a fully engineered, fully simulated moving rear suspension for a car set to race one Sunday in Texas. When the car arrived at the track on the Saturday, a surprise weather front moved in which altered the grip level of the track and overall performance of the car. The part was a no go. Quickly, they relayed this back to the team in North Carolina who redesigned the part for the new inputs and loads, manufactured it, performed quality control testing and put the part on an aeroplane back to Texas. In just 22 hours, the team was able to get the new component onto the vehicle and ready to race by 10am the next day. That story, and there are many like them according to Keselowski, is a prime example of what he calls the “feedback loop” which sees a constant synchronicity between engineering, manufacturing, quality control and Keselowski himself as an end-user.
“The faster they go through the loop, the faster I go,” Keselowski said. “In motorsports, we are completely built to do that as fast as possible because it’s so important to our success. What I found being involved in that is that the business landscape, or what I would call the real world outside of motorsports, moves nowhere near that speed. It’s competitive, but not competitive in the same way. So, I had a very entrepreneurial hat on when I was talking to my friend at that time, I said, “what if somebody offered the same culture of speed and quality to the outside, you know, business world.”
Speed alone isn’t the pinnacle of this success story and Keselowski says uniqueness and quality are the key properties he seeks when pursuing new technologies. But as KAM moves forward with its ambitious plans for the future, he says print speeds are still a challenge.
“This room hates hearing it but the reality is we still need to build parts faster,” Keselowski commented. “That’s not to be the negative headline of the day but we need to get the print speeds faster without losing quality.”
Speaking as someone whose entire career, whether on or off the track, has revolved around being the fastest, Keselowski adds:
“I always feel like if you can show me unique capabilities and you can show me quality, I can find the speed.”
