Knoxville manufacturer of jet engine parts invests $4M to start 3D printing the full thing

A company that manufactures jet engine parts in Knoxville is adding more than 50 jobs to begin building full engines with 3D printers.

Beehive Industries, an aerospace technology developer, has expanded to a new 60,000-square-foot manufacturing facility at 10505 Murdock Drive. Employees have been in the facility for about a month, but state and local leaders visited the site May 3 to celebrate the $4 million investment.

Roughly 60 jobs should be added over the 18 months in the manufacturing, engineering and machining fields, Chief Product Officer Gordie Follin told Knox News.

The company already has a smaller manufacturing facility roughly 2 miles away on Schaeffer Road, next to Pellissippi Veterinary Hospital. Its other sites are in Denver and Cincinnati.

Between the Knoxville and Denver locations, Beehive will produce about 10,000 engines a year, roughly half of which would be made in Knoxville. The company specializes in making these engines and parts for defense purposes.

This is the third major Knox County economic development project we've reported over the past month. In April, local leaders announced Wisconsin-based HVAC company Greenheck Group will invest $300 million in a new corporate campus at the Midway Business Park. It's expected to create 440 jobs by 2029 and has more room to grow.

VOITAS, an electric vehicle charging manufacturer, recently chose downtown Knoxville as the home for its international headquarters. The company plans to bring 100 jobs to downtown over the next four years.

Silas Sloan is the growth and development reporter. Email silas.sloan@knoxnews.com. X, formerly known as Twitter @silasloan. Instagram @knox.growth.

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This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Beehive Industries expands in Knoxville to 3D print jet engines