I did not set out to build a 3D printing company. I set out to understand how materials move.
My background is in Mechatronics Engineering — the discipline that sits at the intersection of mechanical systems, electronics, and software. During my studies and research, I became increasingly absorbed by one particular problem: how do you build machines that move the way biological systems move? Not the rigid, joint-and-lever motion of industrial robots, but the fluid, adaptive, force-distributing motion of muscles, tendons, and soft tissue.
That question led me to soft robotics and artificial muscles — one of the most consequential and least commercially developed fields in modern engineering. I published peer-reviewed research on this in Materials Today: Proceedings (Elsevier / ScienceDirect). The paper — "Linear actuator using heat-responding artificial muscle" — investigates HTPA (Heat-responding Twisted Polymer Actuator) technology: nylon-based artificial muscle fibres that contract and extend in response to thermal energy, controlled via a thermoelectric model, with self-sensing capability built into the actuator itself.
It is still early work. But it points toward something I believe will become one of India's most important deep-tech frontiers over the next decade — soft robotic actuators that can replace rigid motors in prosthetics, surgical tools, wearable exoskeletons, and autonomous robots.
Why I Built FOFUS First
Deep research requires infrastructure. It requires machines, materials, iteration cycles, and — in the Indian context — it requires revenue to fund itself.
I am from Irinjalakuda, Thrissur. I grew up steps from Koodalmanikyam Temple — one of the four sacred Nalambalam Ramayana temples of Kerala. I watched local artisans work in brass and wood. I watched traditional sculptural knowledge slowly disappear as the next generation moved toward software jobs. And I saw a gap: Kerala has an enormous, emotionally invested market for high-quality sacred art, but almost no one applying modern manufacturing precision to serve it.
FOFUS was born from that gap. A 3D printing studio that could manufacture sacred idols, custom gifts, and heritage collectibles at a quality and price point that neither traditional artisans nor mass importers could match. Revenue from FOFUS funds the lab. The lab builds the next version of FOFUS.
Building the Klipper Printer
Most 3D printing businesses buy printers off the shelf. I built mine.
My custom Klipper-based FDM printer is not a hobby project. It is a precision manufacturing tool designed around the specific tolerances and materials that FOFUS's product lines require. Klipper firmware — the most advanced open-source printer control system available — gives me direct control over motion algorithms, pressure advance, input shaping, and thermal management at a level that commercial printers simply do not allow.
Building this printer taught me more about additive manufacturing physics than any textbook. It also gave FOFUS a manufacturing advantage: when you understand your machine at the firmware level, you can push tolerances that off-the-shelf operators cannot.
The ML-Assisted 3D Printer Farm
The project I am most focused on right now is a 3-printer ML-assisted manufacturing system.
The concept: a multi-printer farm where machine learning models monitor print quality in real time via camera and sensor feedback, detect failure modes before they cascade, automatically adjust slicer parameters based on historical print data, and distribute jobs across printers based on predictive load balancing.
When complete, this system will allow a single operator — or no operator — to run a high-throughput manufacturing farm with quality control that currently requires constant human supervision. For a made-to-order business like FOFUS, this is transformative. For Indian additive manufacturing at large, it is a model that does not yet exist at the small-studio scale.
Where Soft Robotics Fits
The long arc connects back to soft robotics. The HTPA artificial muscles I researched require precision fabrication at tolerances that conventional manufacturing cannot achieve economically. Multi-material and functionally graded 3D printing is the only viable path to making soft robotic actuators manufacturable at scale in India.
My published work in Materials Today: Proceedings establishes the materials science foundation. Building FOFUS builds the manufacturing infrastructure — one printer, one material experiment, one iteration at a time.
Culture as the Anchor
I could have built a generic prototyping studio. I chose to anchor FOFUS in Kerala's cultural heritage because sacred art and advanced manufacturing are not opposites — they are expressions of the same human drive toward precision, meaning, and beauty.
The Koodalmanikyam Temple's bronze iconography represents centuries of accumulated craft knowledge about proportion, form, and material. The soft robotics lab represents the same drive applied to actuators and polymers. FOFUS sits between these two worlds.
If you are a researcher, engineer, or student in Kerala interested in soft robotics, additive manufacturing, or hardware R&D — reach out. We have a makerspace in Irinjalakuda with open-access printers and scanners.
Akshay Jojo
Founder, FOFUS / GNILABS LLP
Irinjalakuda, Thrissur, Kerala
support@fofus.in