northbrook-illinois
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Ecentria Built a Million-Product Gear Machine. Most Shoppers Never See Its Name.
Behind OpticsPlanet, CampSaver and a shelf of specialist brands sits a Chicago-area company that treats retail like a software-and-logistics problem. Its bet is simple: expertise still matters when the catalog passes one million products.
Impossible Objects, Inc.
Impossible Objects is a Northbrook, Illinois manufacturer of industrial 3D printers built around its proprietary CBAM (Composite-Based Additive Manufacturing) process. Instead of melting plastic filament, CBAM stacks long-fiber sheets of carbon fiber or fiberglass, inkjet-prints each layer with a fluid, bonds them with high-performance polymer powders like PEEK and nylon, then compresses and heats the stack into a solid composite part. The result is parts the company says are stronger, more dimensionally accurate, and printed up to 15x faster than competing methods - aimed at aerospace, defense, automotive, and electronics customers that need composite parts at production volume.