A startup called Material Hybrid Manufacturing is trying to use "geometry" rather than chemical formulas to drive the next round of battery revolution. The company was founded in 2023 by Gabe Elias, an engineer who previously worked for the Mercedes-AMG F1 team and Rivian. It has developed a 3D printing process that can directly "print" complete battery systems on various curved surfaces and structures, which is expected to break the constraints of traditional square and cylindrical battery cells on device design.
Earlier this year, Material was awarded a $1.25 million contract from the U.S. Air Force to demonstrate the feasibility of this 3D printed battery technology for defense and aerospace hardware within 18 months, focusing on demonstrating how "deformable batteries" that can bend and conform to structural surfaces can unlock design freedom. On this emerging track, the company is competing with competitors such as Silicon Valley's Sakuú and Germany's Blackstone Technology to seize the opportunity to commercialize printed batteries, especially targeting small system scenarios where "shape determines function."
Material’s proprietary platform, Hybrid3D, is able to print all of a battery’s key components—anode, cathode, separator, and casing—layer-by-layer—without the need for molds or traditional tooling. The system combines the principles of direct-write inkjet printing and fused deposition modeling to sequentially deposit active materials with a layer thickness of 100 to 150 microns, and then inject liquid electrolyte to complete the battery core. The company is also currently developing a solid-state version as a follow-up product form.
Unlike traditional manufacturing models that rely on metal casings, busbars, and massive wiring harnesses, this printing method can "invisibly" integrate the battery into the existing structure. On drones, batteries are expected to be distributed along the wings or arms; on wearable devices, batteries can be curved and spread along the frames of smart glasses, instead of being a fixed-shaped battery module. In an interview with IEEE Spectrum, Elias said that the Hybrid3D process can adapt to almost any geometric shape, while remaining flexible in the battery chemical system. It can switch between NMC 811, NMC 111, lithium iron phosphate (LFP), lithium titanate and other systems by changing input materials and software parameters.
Material’s founding team initially focused on the automotive industry, hoping to create custom-shaped battery packs for electric vehicles. But they soon discovered that the entire vehicle layout space of electric vehicles is relatively generous. For example, a Rivian pickup truck’s 135 kWh battery pack can accommodate more than 7,700 cylindrical cells, so the marginal benefits of shape optimization are limited. In contrast, small drones, individual soldier equipment, and new generation consumer electronics equipment face more stringent space constraints, and batteries often become "passive adapters." As Elias said, various electronic components are constantly embedded, integrated and optimized, but the battery is the only part of the equation that has not evolved simultaneously.
To move from concept to proof of concept, Material partnered with drone manufacturer Performance Drone Works (PDW) to retrofit one of its drones with batteries. While occupying the same volume as the original 48-cell battery pack, the battery printed by Material achieved a 50% increase in energy density and a 35% increase in internal space utilization. According to the team’s calculations, this efficiency improvement is expected to translate into doubling the flight distance, or significantly increasing the payload capacity while maintaining the same range. If the technology is further expanded, the battery may be directly "written" into the body structure or even the motor casing, fundamentally canceling the battery module in the traditional sense.
In military scenarios, the potential value of this technology is particularly obvious: lighter and more ergonomic individual power supply systems, and direct integration of power supplies into helmets to provide support for high-performance optical equipment and communication systems. Elias recalled that when working at Mercedes-AMG, he tried to arrange the battery cells around the F1 driver's seat to optimize aerodynamics and weight distribution, but was ultimately shelved because the mechanical complexity was too high. This experience also contributed to the later additive manufacturing idea of "making the battery a part of the structure."
In his view, this is an inevitable path to continue the concept of "cells directly connected to battery packs" - from making cells into modules, to directly into battery packs, and now to further turning energy storage into structural subsystems rather than independent components. Material’s first commercial-grade printing device has a platform size of 550×350 mm, and the company is already developing larger format printers to support the molding of larger components. This also means that the production model may undergo fundamental changes: in the future, certain products can go directly from CAD models to physical objects, without the need for expensive production line modifications and mold investments.
Elias pointed out that traditional consumer electronics giants are also exploring battery solutions that can fit into the structure. For example, Apple has used a large number of L-shaped and special-shaped batteries on iPhones through conventional processes to squeeze out more space inside the body. He believes that if similar or even more complex geometric shapes can be realized by printing, not only the cost is expected to be significantly reduced, but the scalability will also be stronger, which will be crucial for wearable devices such as smart glasses that want to take into account both appearance and battery life in the future.
For this concept to be truly implemented, Material still needs to continue to polish process stability, especially material rheological properties and layer thickness control. It needs to maintain a high degree of consistency on a scale close to the width of a human hair to ensure yield and performance consistency. Still, the prospects are attractive from an economic perspective: Once mature, 3D-printed batteries are expected to cover a wide price range from single cells to multi-kilowatt-hour battery packs, with current market prices for the latter ranging from approximately $400 to $3,000 per kilowatt-hour.
By reducing parts and simplifying the assembly process, printed batteries are expected to achieve higher profit margins in complex applications such as aerospace and defense that are particularly sensitive to shape and weight, because in these fields, structural integration and flexibility are often more important than pure unit cost. For Material, if Hybrid3D ultimately proves feasible, the shape of the battery will no longer be a constraint on the design, but will become part of the design itself.