--- title: "At Stoke Space, MetalFab rules" url: https://www.voxelmatters.com/at-stoke-space-metalfab-rules/ date: 2026-07-30 modified: 2026-07-30 lang: en author: "Tess Boissonneault" description: "At its 168,000-square-foot headquarters in Kent, Washington, space launch company Stoke Space is building something at the cutting edge of its field, the fully reusable Nova rocket. While rockets launched..." categories: - "3D Printer Hardware" - "Aerospace AM" - "AM for Space" - "Metal Additive Manufacturing" - "Sponsored" tags: - "future" image: https://www.voxelmatters.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Additive-Industries-July-2026-eBook-02-640x359.jpg word_count: 1220 --- # At Stoke Space, MetalFab rules At its 168,000-square-foot headquarters in Kent, Washington, space launch company Stoke Space is building something at the cutting edge of its field, the fully reusable Nova rocket. While rockets launched into space have traditionally been designed to be expendable  (i.e. built to be used once and then burn up or crash land in the ocean), Stoke Space is among a limited number of companies pioneering reusable launch vehicles. These have the potential not only to shift the economy of rocket launches (through greater cost amortization) but also to explore new missions where payloads are returned to Earth. ![Additive Industries MetalFab metal 3D printers at Stoke Space](https://www.voxelmatters.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Additive-Industries-July-2026-eBook-03-340x252.jpg) It should go without saying that it takes an incredible amount of skill and resources to develop a fully reusable rocket, where every component and assembly is not only optimized for launch efficiency but also for durability and to facilitate maintenance. At Stoke Space, the implementation of industrial metal additive manufacturing has been central to its groundbreaking work on the Nova. In particular, [Additive Industries](https://www.voxelmatters.directory/company/additive-industries/)’ metal AM solutions have been an integral part of the Nova rocket’s development and production. ## The MetalFab 420K Stoke Space has been an enthusiastic adopter of Additive Industries’ technology and for years has used its [MetalFab G2 series, a metal powder bed fusion system with a modular configuration](https://www.voxelmatters.com/swissto12-purchases-four-metalfabg2s-from-additive-industries/). In the past year or so, the company has significantly expanded its investment in metal AM, [initially by becoming the first beta user of the MetalFab 420K in May 2025 and then by subsequently placing an order for five MetalFab 420K production systems](https://www.voxelmatters.com/stoke-space-adds-five-metalfab-420k-systems-for-reusable-launch-vehicle-production/). ![Additive Industries MetalFab metal 3D printers at Stoke Space](https://www.voxelmatters.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Additive-Industries-July-2026-eBook-05-340x209.jpg) For the space launch firm, the MetalFab 420K meets the sector’s rigorous requirements—in terms of quality, throughput, and automation—and is enabling the production of various critical components for its reusable Nova launch vehicle.  The 3D printer itself is an automated, modular system equipped with four 1kW full-field lasers, variable beam diameter, increased gas flow rate, and automated calibration and in-process controls. These features (and others) have enabled the rocket manufacturer to maximize its 3D printed output and establish a continuous yet reliable production workflow.  As Niels Cruts, Head of Technology at Additive Industries, explains: “Many features have been introduced to the MetalFab 420K which have allowed Stoke Space to make further improvements to their AM processes. The key ones being the introduction of four 1kW lasers, which allow them to push process productivity further, particularly important for the challenging materials being processed for space hardware applications; and the commanded spot size functionality which allows them to use a calibrated beam diameter of 100-500µm on demand as an additional process parameter.” In addition to the powerful four-laser configuration and variable spot size introduced in the MetalFab 420K, Cruts also cites the benefits that improved automatic laser calibration and gas flow offer. “We now provide in-process laser-to-laser alignment calibrations throughout a build job, further enhancing part quality. Further to this, and to enable the higher laser powers and scan speeds to be unlocked, the gas flow has been optimized with >2.5x increase in flow coupled with <10% velocity variance across the bed. Finally a new filter design and enhanced oxygen humidity controls have been introduced all aimed at coping with increased process productivity and throughput.” [All these technical improvements have resulted in a system that, for Stoke Space, delivers consistent throughput](https://www.voxelmatters.com/dyndrite-lpbf-pro-supports-additive-industries-metalfab-systems/), high-quality parts, and significant uptime improvements. “Our expectations are for a machine that is extremely reliable and predictable and that is capable of producing defect-free material without any fuss,” explained Derek Schmuland, Senior AM engineer at Stoke Space. ## Maximized uptime As we said, the integration of the MetalFab 420K at its facility has enabled Stoke Space to reach new levels of productivity. Much of this is owed to increased uptime and utilization rates, which have reached well over 90%.  “There are two key reasons they achieve this high uptime,” Cruts says. “First, the machines have proven themselves over many years to be extremely reliable and consistent in this industry, backed up by our end-to-end commitment to support customers. Second, [the automation procedures in-built into all MetalFab system architecture allows them to operate with minimal shifts and resources](https://www.voxelmatters.com/k3d-expands-metalfab-fleet-to-six-systems-across-two-netherlands-sites/), with job changeover time reduced significantly and automated.” ![Additive Industries MetalFab metal 3D printers at Stoke Space](https://www.voxelmatters.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Additive-Industries-July-2026-eBook-01-340x189.jpg) On the ground this means that Stoke Space can continue to print parts overnight and throughout the weekend without the need for any nighttime or weekend crews. “It requires significantly less man hours to run and we’re able to get a lot more productivity out of the machines and out of our department with less people,” said Parker Reynolds, AM engineer at Stoke Space. “[The technology is] so drama free that I forget the printers are there half the time. I hit go on a print and come back a couple days later and there are parts there waiting for me, or it’s already printing another batch without any oversight from myself or my team.” Contributing to these high usability rates is a fully integrated and automated powder management system, which minimizes the risk of exposure of metal powder particles to humans, oxygen, and moisture, ensuring safety and material quality are maintained. Cruts draws particular attention to Additive Industries’ Powder Load Tool (PLT), which loads metal powder directly from the atomization source, ships it under inert conditions, and automatically loads it into MetalFab systems.  ## AM supporting aerospace Ultimately, Additive Industries’ AM solutions are vital to the development of Stoke Space’s reusable rocket technology. While we don’t know exactly what parts of the two-stage Nova launch vehicle are manufactured using 3D printing, it’s safe to say that the technology is used for several critical structures and enables Stoke Space to rapidly iterate, test, and tweak its designs—even those made from demanding, high-temp alloys. Andrew Hawkins, Additive Industries’ Head of Product Management, says: “Metal AM enables space launch companies to develop and iterate product designs at a much faster rate than conventional manufacturing, whilst optimizing their products to a far greater degree. This gives opportunities to improve efficiency and create novel designs, while also achieving a simplified supply chain. Combined with this is the potential to develop and process advanced materials that can be hard to process conventionally.” ![Additive Industries MetalFab metal 3D printers at Stoke Space](https://www.voxelmatters.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Additive-Industries-July-2026-eBook-04-340x193.jpg) For Additive Industries, the aerospace sector represents a foundational adopter segment. That is, not only has Stoke Space been the first to install its MetalFab 420K system, the company says that space and aerospace firms account for over 50% of its total MetalFab installed base.   The symbiotic relationship between metal AM and aerospace will only continue to evolve, with improvements to the former unlocking innovations in the latter. As Hawkins concludes: “At Additive Industries we feel we have made great advancements with our technology over the past decade, to the point where it is proven in industry as a viable industrial manufacturing process. Our focus now is on continuing to prove, enhance, and improve this position to continue driving reliability and uptime, to ensure it works economically at scale.  “Whilst we continue to develop and fine tune our system, introduce new materials, better process parameters and improved process monitoring technologies, we also focus on how we support our customers to make industrial AM work, end to end, ensuring we are always providing this best platform for production economics and qualification readiness and with built in application expertise and support.” [***This article first appeared in the VoxelMatters Aerospace AM Focus 2026 eBook – click here to read more.***](https://www.voxelmatters.com/voxelmatters-aerospace-am-focus-2026-ebook/)