Eric Ronning and his company, Re Mixers, have turned fluid mixing into a proving ground for radical innovation. Ronning set out to solve one of manufacturing’s persistent challenges; how to mix fluids more effectively, more sustainably, and with far less waste.
Before Re Mixers, Ronning was a student at UW—Madison, where he worked as a research assistant at the Morgridge Institute for Research, the Polymer Engineering Center and the Wisconsin Structures and Materials Testing Laboratory. Upon graduating in 2015 with a degree in Mechanical Engineering, he joined the entrepreneurial world through persistent participation in business and engineering competitions. His first product, the Xemex static mixer, launched in 2019 after three years of development and went on to win New Product of the Year at the Assembly Show. Entirely manufactured in Wisconsin, Xemex represents not just a leap forward in mixer design, but is pioneering a new standard for high-mix, high-volume production of industrial components.
Re Mixers’ operates out of a 15,000-square-foot facility equipped with 3D printers that allow for mass production at a scale rarely achieved with additive manufacturing. This setup enables the team to produce tens of millions of units annually and rapidly create new accessories and components without long lead times or costly tooling requirements. The company’s flexible manufacturing model means they can respond quickly to customer needs, shortening development cycles from months to days while still offering the appropriate solutions.
Xemex was developed using artificial intelligence, shifting how engineers think about product discovery. This integration of AI and scalable manufacturing has pushed the company to the forefront of both innovation and practicality in industry. With the hope of expanding into a hardware-as-a-service model, Ronning and his team are not just improving fluid mixing, they’re redefining the relationship between design, production, and problem-solving across a wide range of industries.
We asked Ronning to share his thoughts on his entrepreneurial journey and experience founding Re Mixers:
How has D2P helped you, and what have you learned?
When we started, we had developed technology without a market. D2P helped us flesh out what opportunities actually existed in the market and identify which customers would resonate with the technology that we had already developed. The core area where D2P helped us the most was with the business plan.
What other entrepreneurial resources/programs have guided you?
I was very involved in competing in engineering and business competitions throughout undergrad. In 2012, I competed in the Shcoofs Prize for Creativity and won first place. Subsequently, I took second place in the Tong Prototype Prize. These two competitions kick-
started a lot for me. After that, I went on to compete nationally at the Collegiate Inventors Competition in D.C. and won second place. The most recent competition we took part in was the Governor’s Business Plan Contest in 2016, in which we tied for second place with a 3D printing company called Linectra. Linectra was founded by my friend, Brandon Walker. If I had to split the prize with anyone, I’m glad it was him.
What are your hopes for the company moving forward?
We developed a method of flexible manufacturing that allows us to really listen to the customers in the space and provide workable solutions. We’ve built a sizable print farm that allows us to 3D print accessories in addition to the core technology, the mixer. Coming to industrial partners with that expanded capability without needing to tool up a mold and wait six months has been crucial. Instead of months or years, launching accessories and related products takes only days or weeks. We’re really changing the paradigm of what’s possible in the industrial sector, using that core competency that we developed to make the mixer possible to unlock all kinds of other solutions. Our hopes for the company moving forward are that we will continue to transform into a hardware service model, offering unique, appropriate and quick solutions for really otherwise extremely difficult problems.
What drives you/why is this project important to you personally?
Currently, we’re at the juncture of a lot of exciting technologies. We used a type of AI to develop the mixer itself. We were curious about what the most efficient mixer would look like physically, and we ended up discovering a new method of moving fluids altogether. It is unique to use AI for discovery and not just feature optimization. We’re not only at the forefront of engineering design in that sense, but also at the forefront of production. Our 15,000 square foot facility is set to become the largest 3D printfarm in North America, if not the world. With the innovations we’ve made to production methods, we’re able to produce 20 to 40 million units a year between two facilities, which is much higher than what is typically seen using 3D printing.
What advice would you give to other campus innovators who are just starting out with exploring their ideas?
There is always some shiny new topic in the tech space that everybody tends to gravitate towards at first. Usually by the time something is really exciting, it’s already well developed. If you are truly ahead of the curve, it may feel like you are wrong or mistaken somehow. When we tell people that we’re using 3D printing to manufacture at the scales that we are, people still think we’re crazy. Until the last 12 months, we didn’t tell anybody that we used AI to develop the product because whenever we started to talk about that, we got a lot of blank stares and incredulous looks. And now, it’s almost completely accepted. My core piece of advice would be to stick to your guns.
Is there an experience during the development of your project that surprised you or had a powerful impact on your direction? What did you learn, or how did it change your thinking?
When we realized that 3D printing would be necessary for manufacturing these, it felt like an uh-oh moment. However, we transformed that into a huge asset. COVID was similar, as we launched our first product in October 2019 and first launched the website in March of 2020. The pandemic affected the sales process in the industry because, at the time, everything was in person. Shifting into a virtual environment was interesting. This was one of many hurdles along the way, but we always believed in the technology and mission.
Campus is full of bright minds and amazing ideas, but people often do not self-identify as an entrepreneur. Do you connect with that term, and why or why not? Is there another term you’d use to describe what you’re doing with your project?
I’ve always felt like the term entrepreneur applies, but it’s important to be honest about how hard it is. While anybody can be an entrepreneur, it doesn’t mean everyone should be. Starting a company is like signing up for tours of duty, or many tours of duty. It’s not for the faint of heart and you always must ask yourself if you’re willing to follow through. When we started, I felt like more of an innovator than an entrepreneur. The process definitely shaped me, and I feel confident in describing myself as an entrepreneur now.