The right partnerships enable all parties involved to accentuate their strengths more effectively than would be possible if each partner was working alone. Digital manufacturing software provider Dyndrite, which specializes in solutions for metal powder bed fusion (PBF) systems, has done a masterful job at developing the right partnerships over the years, helping maximize the technical potential for the company as well as the original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), powder suppliers, and contract manufacturers that it partners with.

Their newest partnership fits this same mold: the software firm has signed a multi-year deal to develop the Dyndrite LPBF Pro software for AM materials, processes, parts qualification, and serial production with AM propulsion specialist Ursa Major. According to the companies, the partnership agreement follows six months of testing by Ursa Major, which demonstrated that Dyndrite outperformed Ursa Major’s previous AM software platform.

Ursa Major will proceed with Dyndrite LPBF Pro “as the core software of its additive strategy.” According to Ursa Major’s Chief Operating Officer, Nick Doucette, “Additive is one of the core pillars of Ursa Major. …We view everything through [that lens].”

The new partners note that Draper engines are the first Ursa Major product line that will have Dyndrite LPBF Pro incorporated into its workflow. This provides a serious test for what the rocket engine manufacturer can do with Dyndrite right out of the gate, as Ursa Major recently received a $28.6 million contract from the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) to develop the Draper in anticipation of its first flight test in 2027.

Image courtesy of Ursa Major

In a press release about Dyndrite’s multi-year agreement with Ursa Major, the CEO of Dyndrite, Harshil Goel, said, “Ursa Major is pushing the boundaries of propulsion, and we’re proud to be part of that mission. They’re not just adopting new software, they’re replacing legacy workflows with a programmable, automation-ready approach to [AM]. That’s exactly why we built LPBF Pro, to give advanced manufacturers like Ursa Major the power to move fast, scale smart, and control every part of their process.”

The Director of Additive Manufacturing at Ursa Major, Thomas Pomorski, said, “Collaboration with Dyndrite has enabled Ursa Major to build advanced parameter strategies that were out of reach just a year ago. Their software tools are helping us scale complex AM hardware across machines and platforms, unlocking a new vision for propulsion manufacturing. Together, we are innovating through technical barriers to deliver next-generation defense and hypersonic propulsion hardware that can be manufactured at scale with unprecedented speed.”

Image courtesy of Dyndrite

In addition to the philosophical fit between the two brands, this is also a logical partnership from an ecosystem standpoint. Dyndrite and Ursa Major are both EOS collaborators, for instance, and both have worked with metal powder supplier Elementum 3D. Along those lines, it seems noteworthy that Ursa Major and Elementum 3D are both part of the Air Force Enterprise-Wide Agile Acquisition Contract (EWAAC) portal, a decade-long, $46 billion contract aiming to streamline the Air Force acquisition process for emerging critical technologies.

Moreover, Dyndrite is also a strategic partner of Nikon SLM Solutions, which works closely with Divergent, also in the EWAAC portal. Presumably, all this gives Dyndrite a good shot at becoming part of the EWAAC portal in its own right, a status which I think should become more and more important as the Pentagon continues its long buildup of AM capabilities.

In any case, Dyndrite is clearly a favorite in the “AM for defense applications sphere,” which, in turn, sets the company up nicely for increased adoption by AM-centric enterprises in other strategic sectors. Going forward, the AM industry as a whole is in desperate need of more standardized software solutions, and Dyndrite looks like a realistic candidate to play a big role in that story. It will be interesting to see if the company can eventually leverage its design and process management wheelhouse into a foundation for integrating with other essential areas of the AM software space, like digital inventory.