TORRANCE, California — June 19, 2026 : Divergent Technologies has unveiled the Monolith One, a large-scale industrial metal 3D printer designed for high-volume aerospace, defense, and automotive manufacturing. The company also announced plans to significantly expand its production footprint through a new manufacturing facility in Long Beach, California.
The Monolith One represents a shift in additive manufacturing from traditional prototyping and limited production runs toward continuous, software-driven mass production of mission-critical hardware. The announcement comes as the U.S. defense sector seeks to strengthen domestic manufacturing capacity and improve supply chain resilience amid growing demand for missiles, drones, and other defense systems.
Designed for High-Volume Production
Unlike conventional metal 3D printers primarily used for prototyping or small-batch manufacturing, the Monolith One is engineered for continuous industrial-scale production. The system uses laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) technology, a process in which high-powered lasers selectively melt and fuse layers of metal powder to create complex components.
The machine was developed internally by Divergent over a period of 28 months under the leadership of Chief Technology Officer Brian Erhartic. The printer is not available for commercial sale or licensing and serves exclusively as a core component of the company's Divergent Adaptive Production System (DAPS), which combines AI-driven design tools, additive manufacturing, robotics, and automated assembly.
Standing more than eight meters (26 feet) tall and measuring approximately six meters wide, the Monolith One is among the largest industrial metal additive manufacturing systems developed in the United States.
Key Specifications
- Laser Power: 24 kilowatts total through twelve 2-kilowatt lasers
- Build Volume: 700 × 700 × 835 mm
- Materials: Aluminum, titanium, steel, and nickel-based alloys
- Thermal Control: Active build-plate heating and cooling up to 200°C
- Gas Flow System: 1,700 cubic meters per hour to support extended operation
- Manufacturing Capability: Designed for continuous, high-throughput production of large and complex metal structures
According to Divergent, the Monolith One delivers approximately double the production output of existing competing systems while maintaining part quality and process stability through advanced beam-shaping technology.
Long Beach Manufacturing Expansion
To support deployment of the new system, Divergent is establishing a 430,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Long Beach, California.
The company currently operates six Monolith One printers at its headquarters in Torrance. Over the next 24 months, Divergent plans to install 64 additional Monolith One systems at the Long Beach facility.
Once fully operational, the combined manufacturing network is expected to increase annual production capacity by approximately eight times compared with current levels.
The expansion is projected to create more than 1,000 direct jobs and significantly reduce manufacturing timelines for complex metal structures. Components that traditionally require months of casting, machining, and assembly could be produced within weeks or even days using the new production system.
Expected Production Capacity
At full operational capacity, Divergent expects the facility to produce:
- More than 30,000 missile airframes in the 500-pound class annually
- More than 60,000 warhead casings in the 100-pound class annually
- Hundreds of thousands of additional critical metal components each year
- Automotive structures, including subframes and suspension systems
The facility will support both defense and commercial manufacturing programs.
Supporting Defense Supply Chains
The introduction of the Monolith One comes at a time when defense manufacturers are facing increasing pressure to expand production of missiles, munitions, and autonomous systems. Traditional manufacturing methods often require dedicated tooling, lengthy setup times, and complex supplier networks, which can slow production.
Divergent's software-defined manufacturing approach allows production lines to switch between different products by updating digital design files rather than reconfiguring extensive tooling and manufacturing equipment. This flexibility can enable rapid production changes based on operational requirements.
The company is already supplying components to major defense contractors. Divergent currently produces Tomahawk cruise missile midbody components under contract with RTX and is working with Lockheed Martin on structures for autonomous drone programs.
Advancing Software-Defined Manufacturing
By integrating computational design, large-scale additive manufacturing, robotics, and automated assembly within a single production ecosystem, Divergent aims to industrialize additive manufacturing for large-volume production.
The company believes the Monolith One and its broader DAPS platform can help accelerate manufacturing of complex aerospace and defense components that are difficult, time-consuming, or costly to produce using conventional methods.
With the addition of the Long Beach facility and deployment of dozens of new Monolith One systems, Divergent is positioning software-defined manufacturing as a key element of future U.S. industrial and defense production capabilities.
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