Stories of Technology, Innovation, & Entrepreneurship in the Southeast

“We help lightweight things that move,” Lewis Motion says in describing WEAV3D, the company that he co-founded with Christopher Oberste. Motion serves as Chief Executive Officer and Chair of the Board of Directors, while Oberste is President and Chief Technology Officer.

Today, the Atlanta-based company is going through The Company Lab’s “Sustainable Mobility Accelerator” powered by gener8tor. The five participating teams will have their “Demo Day” from 4 to 6 p.m. EST on December 11 at the Barrelhouse Ballroom by Five Wits, 1501 Long Street in Chattanooga. To register, click here.

The two Co-Founders met at the Georgia Institute of Technology where both were graduate students – Motion working on his MBA, and Oberste on his Ph.D. At the time, Motion was still in the U.S. Coast Guard. They took an early iteration of the company through the National Science Foundation (NSF) I-Corps program where the customer discovery process proved enlightening.

As a then Commander for Coast Guard Specialized Aviation Missions, Motion said they were drawn to aviation but were soon dissuaded from starting in that business sector by a Boeing executive who told them, “Aviation is where start-ups go to die.”

Over the next five years, the primary focus was on developing the technology which he describes as “Rebar for Plastics^®.” The Co-Founders even copyrighted the term.

The patented WEAV3D^® process is based on a woven composite lattice reinforcement called Rebar For Plastics^® that enables the company’s lattice forming machines to produce custom lattice structures from unidirectional, fiber-reinforced composite tapes. The composite lattices are then overmolded into a finished structural component using conventional molding processes.

In its early years, WEAV3D won or placed very high in several pitch events including the Megawatt Ventures where it captured $50,000, the TIECON Southeast University Business Plan Competition (won in 2017), the U.S. Department of Energy’s Cleantech University Prize (placed third in 2017), and was selected for the Plug and Play Winter Mobility Accelerator program after graduating from its Spring 2019 Materials and Packaging program.

“We have also been awarded $2.1 million by NSF,” Motion says. That includes Phase I, Phase II, and Phase IIB Small Business Innovation Research awards.

Earlier this year, WEAV3D and partner Braskem, the largest polyolefins producer in the Americas as well as a market leader and pioneer producer of biopolymers on an industrial scale, were recognized on several fronts. One was for their innovative automotive door component prototype that was named one of three finalists in the Automotive and Road Transportation – Process category of the JEC Composites Innovation Awards 2024. In late September, their thermoplastic composite lattice technology, developed in partnership with the Clemson (University) Composites Center, was selected as the Most Innovative Part by the Society for Plastics Engineers (SPE) Automotive Composites Conference and Exhibition (ACCE) and was awarded the Material and Process Innovation Award by the American Composites Manufacturers Association (ACMA) for its Awards for Composites Excellence (ACE).

In late September, WEAV3D was one of 18 companies named to the Pepperdine Graziadio Business School’s 2024 list of Most Fundable Companies^®.

Motion retired from the Coast Guard in May 2022, and now devotes all of his attention to the company.

With the long sales cycle in automotive, it will probably be the 2027 or 2028 model years before the WEAV3D^® process will find its way into passenger vehicles. Moreover, automotive is about 50 percent of the company’s focus with 30 percent in something Motion describes as the “built” sector.

“No other technology can produce the same level of lightweight materials,” he adds. “It’s a very flexible platform technology that can have a 4.5 gigaton impact over 30 years.”

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