Eric Heikkenen is a mechanical engineer and founder. He specializes in large-scale metal additive manufacturing and advanced welding-based deposition processes. He earned his PhD from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, where his research focused on additive manufacturing, process control, and process–structure– property relationships in metallic systems. Eric has hands-on experience spanning additive friction stir deposition, arc directed energy deposition, laser directed energy deposition, laser powder bed fusion, and electron beam powder bed fusion. His experience includes a combination of experimental work and data-driven process optimization. His recent work focuses on developing low-cost, closed-loop metal additive manufacturing platforms to make advanced manufacturing systems more accessible, adaptive, and reliable.
Represented Organization
NXT MFG
Key Innovation
Large-scale metal additive manufacturing has the potential to transform domestic manufacturing by enabling rapid, on-demand production of large, complex metal components. Despite this promise, adoption remains limited because of prohibitively high system costs and the need for specialized, multidisciplinary expertise for successful operation. This project introduces a new additive manufacturing architecture that addresses both barriers simultaneously by pairing commoditized hardware with intelligent, automation-driven software. The core technology is coaxial wire-feed plasma additive manufacturing, which is a unique deposition architecture that aligns the heat source and filler wire along a single axis to eliminate the kinematic constraints of side-fed wire systems while retaining the cleanliness and thermal efficiency benefits of plasma welding. This hardware is augmented by an integrated digital framework, including thermally informed toolpath generation and adaptive closed-loop control using in situ process data. Together, these elements form a cohesive platform that reduces cost, abstracts complexity, and enables a scalable path toward widespread industrial adoption and the restoration of advanced domestic manufacturing capability.
ORNL Principal Investigator
- Michael Sebok - R&D Associate, Manufacturing Robotics and Control, Manufacturing Science Division, Energy Science and Technology Directorate