Answer extracted from the Inspiring Industry Podcast podcast — listen to the full episode below.
How did SPEE3D develop its metal 3D printing technology and what problem was it designed to solve?
Byron Kennedy and Steve Committery discovered a manual spray process used by the US military for repairs around 2015–2016, then automated and enhanced it with software to create SPEE3D. The result was a metal 3D printing technology 100 to 1,000 times faster and dramatically more affordable than traditional metal additive manufacturing—solving the industry's critical problem that production-level metal 3D printing was too slow and expensive to be economically viable.
From military repair process to scalable manufacturing technology
Kennedy and Committery recognized that the manual military spray technique contained genuine potential, but it lacked the sophistication needed for real production environments. They understood that traditional metal 3D printing solutions were fundamentally uneconomical: the technology worked in principle, but the speed and cost barriers made it impractical for manufacturing at scale.
The pair took the core military process and engineered it into an automated system with embedded software intelligence. This wasn't simply a matter of making the existing technique faster—it was about rethinking the entire value proposition. As Kennedy explains in the podcast, the transformation enabled manufacturers to eliminate moulds entirely and bypass the need for massive, capital-intensive factories.
Why speed and cost matter in real manufacturing
In manufacturing, downtime doesn't just mean delay—it means catastrophic financial loss. Consider a mining operation: if a critical part fails and cannot be replaced immediately, the cost can reach $1 million per day. SPEE3D's approach directly addresses this nightmare scenario. By enabling on-site production of replacement parts in hours rather than weeks, the technology transforms manufacturing resilience.
The fundamental insight Kennedy and Committery had was that manufacturing power should be decentralized and controllable by the end user. Traditional production requires centralized factories, long supply chains, and extensive capital investment. SPEE3D's solution inverts this model: a four-ton printer roughly the size of a small car can be deployed anywhere parts are needed.
"You can eliminate that mould. You don't need that mould. And suddenly you don't need a big factory and you don't need a lot of capital intensive equipment to be able to manufacture parts anymore."
Byron Kennedy — Co-founder of SPEE3D. Kennedy co-founded SPEE3D alongside Steve Committery after the pair sold their previous electric motor company to a large U.S. manufacturing firm and spent 10 years working in traditional manufacturing. Their direct experience with production constraints and supply chain fragility informed SPEE3D's core design philosophy of distributed, rapid on-site manufacturing.
The economic reality for Kennedy and Committery was clear: in modern manufacturing, the competitive advantage belongs to organizations that can control their own production destiny, not those dependent on distant suppliers and complex logistics networks.
See also
What international collaboration does CIPP engage in regarding payroll standards?
CIPP works with the American Payroll Association, the Canadian National Payroll Institute, and organizations in South Africa and Australia to align payroll standards internationally.
What are the challenges payroll teams face with software compliance and testing?
Employers must ensure their payroll software is properly tested and embedded with all legislation changes, as new tax regimes, national insurance bands, and regulatory updates create ongoing compliance challenges.
What career progression routes does CIPP offer to payroll professionals?
CIPP offers chartered membership and career designations supporting progression from student and junior member levels through to full member based on qualification, experience, and professional development.
Key takeaways
- SPEE3D's technology emerged from automating a manual US military spray repair process discovered around 2015–2016, adding software intelligence to create a production-grade system.
- The technology addresses a critical market gap: traditional metal 3D printing is too slow and expensive for manufacturing environments where speed and cost directly affect profitability.
- Manufacturing resilience is transformed when critical parts can be produced on-site in hours, preventing catastrophic downtime costs that can reach $1 million per day in operations like mining.
- SPEE3D eliminates the need for capital-intensive centralized factories and complex supply chains by enabling distributed production at the point of need.