MATTERWAVE
Turning sound into structure
We engineer the microstructure of metal as it prints.
MatterWave is an advanced-manufacturing company working where wave physics meets metal additive manufacturing. Our first product, Daedalus, couples precisely controlled phonon energy into the powder bed during laser melting, shaping grain structure as the metal solidifies — so parts reach their target mechanical properties as-built, with far less post-process heat treatment.
Reaching the required properties is the real bottleneck
LPBF builds parts layer by layer under a rapidly moving melt pool. The steep thermal gradients that make it fast also drive columnar grains and residual stress — so as-built parts miss their targets and depend on slow, costly post-processing to recover.
Heat treatment
Stress relief, HIP and solution/aging cycles add days of furnace time and thousands of dollars to every build.
Anisotropy
Columnar grains aligned to the build direction give directional strength and fatigue behavior engineers can't fully trust.
Qualification lag
Scatter in as-built properties turns certification into months of repeat testing before a part can fly or field.
We add energy exactly where structure is decided: the melt pool
Daedalus drives controlled phonon energy into the powder bed, synchronized with the laser layer by layer. Acoustic pressure and cavitation in the liquid metal disrupt directional growth, encouraging fine, equiaxed grains to nucleate as the pool solidifies. That same nucleation control lowers crack susceptibility, reducing the internal cracking that forms during the build — so crack-prone alloys that resist printing today can finally be printed.
The underlying physics is well understood. What Daedalus adds is control of it in real time, at the instant it matters — working with the alloys and feedstock you already run, as a retrofit to machines you already own.
From part geometry to mechanical properties — one controlled loop
Each layer's geometry sets how energy should couple into the bed. We solve that, drive the transducers, and the resulting microstructure determines the properties you measure.
Built for parts that have to perform
MatterWave is a founder-led company building Daedalus in Philadelphia. We focus on the industries where microstructure, fatigue life, and qualification decide whether a metal part can be used at all.
Defense, aerospace, and energy all depend on components that meet spec the first time and hold up in service.
Metal parts that qualify the first time.
Whether you build mission-critical metal parts or invest in advanced manufacturing, we'd like to hear from you.