We’re excited to announce Sygma as our newest sponsor! Sygma is building the AI assistant for hardware teams - track issues smarter, stay on schedule and on budget, and ship faster.
Interested in partnering? Send us a note at info@hardwarefyi.com
Featured Content:
Artisan Insight is looking for a Mixed Signal Electrical Engineer in San Francisco, CA
It’s the last week to earn $1500 in prizes from SendCutSend! 🏆 Build the best organization tool from sheet metal. Applications close on 8/16.
Interesting Links 🏭
Ashby Plots are material selection charts that display the relationship between two or more material properties (e.g., Tensile Strength vs. Young’s Modulus, Tensile Strength vs. Cost per Unit Volume). These charts are valuable for initial screening of materials and offer a high-level understanding of different material subclasses.
This article explains why the US fell behind in drone technology. American companies struggled to compete with DJI, a Chinese company which paradoxically benefited from both CCP subsidies and US venture capital (prominent investors include Sequoia and Accel Partners). With over 70% of the domestic drone fleet made by DJI, the US. now faces national security risks from the fleet of foreign aircraft, prompting the need to develop a secure domestic drone industry to out-compete Chinese-made drones and maintain technological superiority. The U.S. Coast Guard, for example, calculated that it saved over $6.7 million in the last eighteen months by deploying small UAS instead of helicopters for vessel interception.
TLDR; DJI builds the best drones for small-business applications with the lowest price point due to Shenzhen based labor and components costs. With Skydio as the single exception, there’s few American systems that can match affordability and performance.
A great ~4 min video explaining the three soldering techniques used in electronic manufacturing. Reflow soldering is done by applying solder paste to the board and heating it in a convection oven to melt the solder; wave soldering uses a wave of molten solder to attach components, particularly for through-hole and mixed technology boards; hand soldering is used for components that cannot go through automated processes, such as lithium batteries. Each method requires careful thermal profiling to ensure proper soldering without overheating, and all personnel involved must be trained to IPC standards (IPC-A-610).
A great analogy about CNC Machining: think of CNC machining as the “mother process” as it creates the majority of tooling in other processes like plastics, stamping, extrusions, and more. This article by FiveFlute covers CNC machining fundamentals, common workholding setups, and design tips for DFM. Some of our favorite nuggets of knowledge:
Try to enable the bulk of the material removal to occur during the first operation, when the workholding is most secure and the part in progress is still stiff.
Surface finish requirements slow down cut speeds and have a non-linear impact on machining time.
Larger tolerances, more secure workholding, stiffer parts, softer materials = faster machining.
Want to learn everything you'll ever need to know about CNC machining? We’re hosting an online workshop with Will Burke from FiveFlute on August 28th! Register now and find all the event details here.
Each F-35 jet is composed of over 300,000 parts sourced from over 1650 global suppliers. Lockheed Martin is building these fifth-generation stealth fighters at full-rate production to the tune of 156 aircraft a year (roughly 3 jets built per week). All F-35 forward fuselages, and more than 120 sets of wings per year, are produced in Fort Worth, TX. Thw single site employs more than 3,000 touch laborers, as well as 2,000 production leaders, quality professionals, engineers, and more than 500 material handlers in what is a 24-hour, seven day-a-week operation.
Cherry Auto, an Asian based automaker, cast an entire car underbody using a 13,000-ton dual-injection press. This approach, inspired by Tesla's large-scale casting techniques known as “gigacasting”, drastically reduces the number of parts from about 400 to just 1. Large component casting is one of the hottest trends in automotive manufacturing, particularly for advantages it brings to manufacturers: simplified assembly processes, and reducing the need for complex welding and joining techniques.
Large component casting is an incredible feat of engineering, but it does come with distinct drawbacks for consumers around repairability and a path toward more “disposable cars”. In collisions, it’s much harder to service structural castings compared to traditional underbodies made from stamped parts.
SO2 injection is a form of geoengineering that involves releasing sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere to reflect sunlight and cool the Earth's surface. A start-up called Make Sunsets is filling balloons with SO2 and releasing them into the stratosphere where it’s absorbed (read the full deep-dive from Uncharted Territories). Little is known about intervention at large scale (disruption of weather patterns, changes in rainfall, etc.), and their revenue model is unique: individuals or funds can buy “cooling credits” equivalent to offsetting one ton of CO2 warming for a year. The team has a goal of releasing 5 million tons of SO2 annually, which could be achieved by a fleet of 100 specially designed aircraft, each capable of carrying 25 tons per flight, operating from 10 airfields around the world. The current cost is $28 per gram offset of CO2, but the team has stated plans to reach 27 cents per kilogram by making larger balloons, moving to sulfur, and switching to hydrogen.
Forge Battery has commercialized a novel nanocoating for lithium batteries called Atomic Armor. The coating allows cells to be 20% more energy dense by creating a surface coating which is more resistant to cell degradation. This means cells can charge at a higher voltage and experience more cycles than before. This allows for faster charge times (~10min) with a 10x increase in battery lifespan! Forge is now shipping bulk 300Wh/kg 21700 cells.
Orsted has launched the world's first heavy-lift cargo drone operation at an offshore wind farm, utilizing drones capable of carrying 100 kg payloads over distances of up to 100 km. With such a small payload, typical cargo includes tools and spare parts for the turbines. This allows an entire offshore fleet to be maintained from a single support vessel and avoids hoisting materials directly up the turbine.
Startup News 🚀
Roboze announced a new collaboration with Chip Ganassi Racing (CGR), an auto-racing team competing in the IndyCar Series & other racing series, to become their high performance polymer partner.
Muon Space has raised a $56M Series B to scale their Halo LEO satellite platform, an end-to-end low-earth orbit satellite solution. Muon’s raise follows over $100M in 2025 customer contracts, where Activate Capital and Acme Capital led the round alongside existing investors.
Cala Systems has raised a $5.6 million seed round to develop a heat pump based water heater with software algorithms that can make environmental and demand-based decisions to improve efficiency. By slowing down their compressor during low demand, Cala can improve heat transfer efficiency by ~30% (water heating is responsible for ~20% of US household energy consumption!). The round was led by Clean Energy Venture Group and the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center.
Geely Automotive has released a <$16k all-electric SUV, making it the cheapest EV on the market by a wide margin. Pre-orders are open; however the Galaxy E5 SUV is not yet available globally. Geely is a multinational conglomerate based in China that owns a number of automotive brands such as Volvo and Polestar.
Prices for the car will likely be double the amount if purchased in the US. Current tariff rate on Chinese manufactured EV’s is 100%.
Impulse Space has announced a geostationary orbit (GEO) rideshare program for small satellites, available in 2027 using the company’s Mira transport vehicle that can transport multiple smallsats to their respective orbits. Impulse raised a $45M Series A last month.
H3X has raised a $20M Series A to scale its line of 30kW to 30 MW high power density electric motors. For context, H3X offers a 33kW motor in a 4kg package! The company is targeting marine, aviation, and transport sectors with significant investor support; Infinite Capital led the oversubscribed round.
Open Jobs 💼
Sponsored: Artisan Insight is looking for a Mixed Signal Electrical Engineer in San Francisco, CA
Entry-Level:
Google is looking for a Hardware Reliability Lab Engineer (Early Career) in Mountain View, CA
Analog Devices is looking for a Semi Packaging Engineer in Wilmington, MA
Abbott is looking for a Manufacturing Engineer I in Pleasanton, CA
Mid-Level:
Astra is looking for an Electrical Engineer, Space Products in Alameda, CA
Firefly Aerospace is looking for an Electrical Engineer (Wire Harness) in Cedar Park, TX
Amazon is looking for an Manufacturing Engineer (Environmental Test, Project Kuiper) in Redmond, WA
Cisco is looking for a Hardware Test Engineer in Milpitas, CA
Vecna Robotics is looking for a Mechanical Engineer II in Waltham, MA
Senior to Staff:
Rivian is looking for a Staff Systems Engineer (Electrical Hardware) in Tustin, CA
SpaceX is looking for a Senior Electrical Engineer (Launch Facilities) in Cape Canaveral, FL
Intuitive is looking for a Senior Mechanical Design Engineer in Sunnyvale, CA
Google is looking for a Staff Mechanical Product Design Engineer (Platforms) in Sunnyvale, CA
Internships:
Astranis is looking for an Electrical Integration Engineering Intern in San Francisco, CA
Noah Medical is looking for a Robotics and Controls Engineering Intern in San Carlos, CA
Tesla is looking for a Vehicle Firmware Engineering Intern in Palo Alto, CA
To see the full list of open roles, visit our job board. Want to share an exciting role at your company? Reach out to us at info@hardwarefyi.com.
How to decipher manufacturer markings on miniature circuit breakers (MCB).
Looking to get ahead in your career? We offer interviewing resources for engineers!
For all resources available, check out our home page.
Meet our Sponsors:
Sygma is building the AI assistant for hardware teams - track issues smarter, stay on schedule and on budget, and ship faster.
FlashPCB provides super-fast PCB assembly by running design rule checks on your board, automatically generating a BOM, and final quotes within minutes.
POP Manufacturing offers rapid prototyping and quick-turn services for FDM, PolyJet, full-color 3D printing, and CNC machining.
Summit Interconnect is a manufacturer of advanced technology printed circuit boards focused on complex rigid, flex and rigid-flex PCBs.
Cofactr is an automated electronic component procurement and inventory management platform.
AllSpice.io is the Git for hardware collaboration platform, connecting native engineering design tools to provide revision control, automation and more.
Partsbox controls your electronic components inventory management software. Keeps track of where your parts are stored, manages BOMs and production.
Roboze manufactures high-performance super polymers and composites through advanced 3D printing, creating parts strong like metal.
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