There has been no radical innovation in the manufacturing industry for years. It’s an evolutionary rather than a revolutionary industry. As a result, many companies have been excluded from engineering-intensive industries—think aerospace, automotive, and medical—because of large barriers to entry.

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The rise of 3D printing in the past decade, however, has shown the potential of new technologies in manufacturing. By giving engineers the ability to test their prototypes quickly and cheaply, 3D printing has grown to become one of the 21st century’s most disruptive innovations. While 3D printing was the basis of this disruption, online manufacturing—3D printing, CNC machining, injection molding, and sheet metal fabrication powered by artificial intelligence—has quickly become a key player in the Industry 4.0 revolution.

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Beyond prototyping, online manufacturing empowers engineers to manufacture without compromise at all stages of the production process. Consider Kepler Communications , a Canada-based satellite startup. Its founders are four University of […]

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