Our Story: Quality Casting Company
Overview
We revolutionize quality castings through our proprietary LAMP™ (Large Area Maskless Photopolymerization) ceramic 3D printing technology. Our Digital Foundry™ technology eliminates all the up-front investment and lead time for tooling and replaces the seven most expensive and time-consuming steps in traditional investment casting with just a single 3D printing step. Whether you need short-run production for R&D and prototyping or high-volume production for aerospace, defense, or industrial applications, our DirectPour™ process takes your CAD model directly to a cast metal part — no patterns, no wax, no wait.
Awards
Validated by Government. Proven in Production.
| Award / Credential | Year |
|---|---|
| DARPA DMT — $6.3M LAMP™ Technology Development | 2007–2012 |
| America Makes Silver Member | 2023 |
| America Makes IMPACT 1.0 Award — $1.8M AFRL Program | 2023 |
| ARPA-E OPEN 2021 (with GE Vernova) — $3.3M Grant | 2022 |
| ITAR Registered (Active) | July 2024 |
| Defense Industrial Base Consortium Member | May 2024 |
| Cornerstone OTA Member | September 2024 |
| America Makes IMPACT 2.0 — $500K Casting Challenge | 2025 |
Timeline
Company Founding and Early Innovation (2008–2012)
Technology Milestones and Recognition (2013–2018)
Interactive Timeline
Key Milestones — Hover to Explore
DARPA awards Georgia Tech $6.3M to develop digital investment casting technology for turbine airfoils using LAMP™ ceramic 3D printing. The foundation of our entire platform is established.
The first LAMP™ alpha prototype machine becomes operational. First nickel superalloy turbine blade castings produced using 3D-printed ceramic shells — a world first.
Rapid Precision Castings is founded by Dr. Suman Das and Dr. John Halloran. First single-crystal turbine blade castings produced in SC180 alloy using 3D-printed ceramic shells.
A Digital Foundry can respond quickly to part design changes or begin casting new parts in as little as ten days. We move into our 12,000 sq. ft. Atlanta facility and begin commercial operations, backed by seed investment and exclusive IP licenses from three universities.
Selected as a Hermes Award finalist at Hannover Messe — the first U.S. company in history to earn this distinction. Dr. Suman Das receives recognition from President Obama and Chancellor Merkel for breakthrough manufacturing innovation.
Khosla Ventures leads our Series A investment round. We undertake full vertical integration, evolving into the Digital Foundry™ platform that delivers end-to-end investment casting services from CAD to finished metal part.
Castings made in over half a dozen alloys are poured in foundries across the U.S., meeting all required criteria for acceptability as published by the Investment Casting Institute. Qualified alloys now include Aluminum A356, Stainless Steel 304, 316, 17-4PH, and Inconel 625.
We partner with Oak Ridge National Laboratory to win the Department of Energy's HPC4EI High Performance Computing Grant — advancing LAMP™ process modeling for next-generation ceramic additive manufacturing.
Received $1.8M under the America Makes IMPACT 1.0 program — part of an $11.7M initiative funded by the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense and the Air Force Research Laboratory to revolutionize manufacturing productivity through additive capabilities.
ITAR Registration activated (July 2024). Defense Industrial Base Consortium membership confirmed (May 2024). Cornerstone OTA membership established (September 2024) — solidifying our role as a trusted partner in the U.S. defense industrial base.
The active pipeline includes turbine engine and rocket engine castings development programs, Digital Foundry installations at Tinker and Robins Air Force Bases, and a $15M strategic partnership with Eaton for a Digital Foundry installation in the UK.