Bert Liu

It's not press print.

Spent some time on a metal AM floor recently. What stuck:

• The laser is one piece. The real work is the whole build strategy, before and after the print.
• It earns its place when the geometry does something a machined part can't.
• The tradeoffs are real: build time, surface finish, distortion, post-processing.
• The question isn't "can we print this." It's "can we print it, control distortion, get it off the plate, and make the economics work."

Metal AM isn't replacing CNC, casting, or molding. It's what you reach for when those hit a wall.

Working through manufacturing or supply-chain decisions in Taiwan? Get in touch.

A capability deck tells you a factory can make your part. It does not tell you they made yours right.

When you are scaling a high-value order from the other side of the world, the riskiest stretch usually is not choosing the supplier. It is the gap between the PO and the delivery — when the part is actually being built, decisions are being made, and no one from the customer’s side is in the room.

That is the part I care about most, so I spend time on the floor.

It starts before any machine runs: the sheet itself. Right gauge, right finish, right material, no quiet substitution that nobody flags until it shows up as a field failure.

One thing I enjoy about Computex is getting to ask dumb questions.

Looking at this Delta micro fan, my first thought was: if AI servers are moving toward liquid cooling, why aren’t phones doing the same?

The R&D engineer’s answer was surprisingly simple.

Phones don’t have the space.

This fan sits near the camera area because that’s one of the few places with usable volume left once cameras, batteries, processors, antennas, and everything else are fighting for space.

Three days into Computex, one pattern kept showing up: AI cooling is attracting expertise from unexpected places.

Walking through booths focused on CDUs, cold plates, manifolds, pumps, immersion cooling, and two-phase systems, many of the strongest players were leveraging capabilities they had already built elsewhere.

Delta is applying decades of experience in motors, power electronics, and thermal management to cooling infrastructure.

I also met founders who previously worked at larger companies and are now building businesses around specific cooling bottlenecks.

I walked into the showroom and the first thing I noticed was the scale.

Landing gear components. Engine structural parts. Heavy, precise, expensive to get wrong.

I visited an aerospace CNC shop in Taiwan recently. 500+ people across multiple facilities. They started on smaller parts and built toward large workpiece capability over time.

The production floor could not be filmed. Confidential programs. Confidential customers. Confidential geometries. AS9100 certified. NADCAP accredited.

A coating spec doesn’t guarantee coating performance.

“200°C for 20 minutes” is a target, not a confirmation.

I was reviewing a finishing process with one of our coating partners in Taiwan last week. They handle work across consumer electronics and motorcycle components: Garmin, Ducati, that range.

Honestly there was too much to absorb in one visit. I’m still going back through the footage now.

But one thing stood out immediately: how many steps are involved before and after the coating is actually done.

Manufacturing isn’t a single process. It’s a system.

A part can move through die casting, surface prep, X-ray inspection, CMM measurement, painting, masking, packaging, and logistics before it is ready.

The real question for hardware brands is not whether to outsource everything or build everything.

It is what you should control directly, and what you should scale through trusted partners.

Still improving the filming and audio, but this is the start.

I’m a big fan of engineering content on YouTube, and what Hacksmith built is impressive.

This isn’t an insider case study. It’s just how I think about manufacturing scaling decisions.

A hit product can validate demand. But it does not automatically justify taking on a much heavier operating model.

That’s where things can shift from product momentum into operational debt: machinery, hires, management, training, QC systems, maintenance, internal systems, and monthly operating burn.

To me, there are usually three paths: full in-house, full outsource, or the middle path... validate trusted suppliers, forecast demand, and keep only critical layers in-house.

That middle path is often the smartest one for businesses whose original engine is still brand, product, and audience.

Reshoring doesn’t mean bringing everything back.

What parts of manufacturing are actually critical, and what parts are not?

Some things may need to stay close to home:

• final assembly
• sensitive testing
• software / electronics integration
• critical dimensions
• anything that protects real IP

Precision looks very different depending on how a part is made.

On one end: thin-fin copper heat sinks (stamped at high volume) > tight fin spacing (pitch control) > tool wear over long runs > consistency at micro scale.

In some cases, final adjustments are still done by hand - using precision tools to align and assemble components into a larger structure.

On the other: large aluminum die-cast housings > material flow > thermal behavior > structural integrity at scale (porosity, leak paths).

Both require precision - but in completely different ways. And what is often overlooked is this: precision does not come from a single process.

It comes from how processes stack - as a system. Casting for shape at scale, then machining where tolerances actually matter.