Kraetonics, an Florida-based developer of software tools for additive manufacturing, has secured a $2 million contract from the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) to develop software and manufacturing technologies for next-generation frequency selective surfaces (FSSs).
The two-year contract will see Kraetonics’ flagship OmniSlice slicing software used to enable the fast design and 3D printing of structures containing the advanced FSS technology, which the company says can be delivered "in a matter of hours" versus weeks.
FSSs are patterned metallic surfaces used in defence platforms to block, redirect, absorb or otherwise control electromagnetic signals. Kraetonics has secured an exclusive license from the University of Texas at El Paso for advanced algorithms capable of wrapping these patterns across irregular and doubly curved surfaces without distorting the metal elements, preserving their electromagnetic performance.
“This is an extraordinary capability we are developing for the Air Force,” said Dr. Raymond C. Rumpf, Kraetonics’s chief technology officer, who is leading the project. “It should be impossible to perfectly wrap repeated patterns over curved surfaces, but the algorithms we are using can do it. Combined with OmniSlice, products can be moved from idea to finished hardware in mere hours.”
The project began on August 8th 2025 and will conclude on September 10th 2027.
