Machina and nTop are proving that low-cost metal drone structures can be designed parametrically and manufactured without tooling, faster, cheaper, and ready for production.
Defense programs need low-cost, rapidly producible metal structures. Machina and nTop are closing that gap. nTop's parametric design software lets engineers explore hundreds of configurations without the geometry breaking. Machina's factory turns those designs into production-grade metal assemblies in days, with no dies, no molds, and no retooling between iterations.
The result is a pipeline where design changes don't stop production, and production doesn't constrain design. The bottleneck isn't design talent, it's the time and cost required to get from a design file to a finished metal part.
The Demonstrator
On display at nTop Summit 2026 is a subscale demonstrator of a Class 3 UAV airframe, designed in nTop and manufactured by Machina. It represents a full digital thread: from parametric model to production assembly, with no tooling investment at any stage.
The subscale drone structure is a laser-welded assembly, made of AA 5052 aluminum. A full-scale flyable proof of concept is in development.
Partners in Design
nTop provides the geometry infrastructure. Implicit parametric modeling generates designs that are structurally sound, simulation-ready, and manufacturable from the first iteration, not as an afterthought
Machina is the Factory. Machina's factory produces complex metal structures end to end, integrating forming, scanning, trimming, welding, heat treatment, and finishing into a single production system. Production-grade assemblies, in days.
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