Manufacturing Tech Campus Opens on Chicago’s Goose Island

Fast Radius, Inc. has opened its newest manufacturing technology campus on Goose Island in Chicago, including a microfactory and software technology center.

In 2018, the World Economic Forum (WEF) recognized Fast Radius’ first Chicago microfactory as one of the nine best factories in the world, implementing technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution at scale—from design to manufacturing to fulfillment. The Goose Island facility replicates the microfactory operating model.

The facility will offer CNC machining and industrial additive manufacturing (3D printing), including Carbon Digital Light Synthesis and HP Multi Jet Fusion technology. The microfactory will produce component parts for companies across industries, including automotive, electric vehicles, medical and healthcare devices, and consumer goods.

The Goose Island campus also includes space for software development, manufacturing technology development, a customer experience center and general offices. The location will expand Fast Radius’ manufacturing technologies, software capabilities and capacity available through the cloud manufacturing platform.

Fast Radius has built a cloud manufacturing platform that integrates a suite of software products and a network of factories. The company’s software and services help customers to design component parts, optimize them for production, make them when and where they’re needed, providing transparency through the production lifecycle and supply chain.

All Fast Radius microfactories and the company’s network of suppliers are connected into our cloud manufacturing platform. Customers are able to collaborate on part designs and gather real-time intelligence. They are then able to make and fulfill parts where and when they want, increasing the sustainability of their work and eliminating wasteful logistics steps along the way.

Fast Radius’ microfactory network—including a microfactory in UPS’ Worldport facility in Louisville, KY—has served more than 2,000 global customers. Customers like Rawlings, Aptiv and Satair are already using Fast Radius’ microfactories and Cloud Manufacturing Platform for cost-effective production and management of industrial-grade parts.

“There’s an ever-increasing need for innovative and sustainable manufacturing and supply chain solutions, and our Goose Island campus is designed to help meet those needs,” says Lou Rassey, co-founder and CEO of Fast Radius. 

Fast Radius has chosen to locate the new factory in close proximity to the MxD headquarters on Goose Island. 

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.