Metal 1.0 Kickstarter Promises Low-Cost Desktop LPBF Metal 3D Printing
The Metal 1.0, a desktop LPBF metal 3D printer, launched on Kickstarter with a price of €8,500 (~$9,840), promising low‑cost entry to metal additive manufacturing. It uses a 60 W diode laser, a small 128 × 100 mm build area (stretch version 128 × 150 mm), and offers an optional onboard nitrogen generator for powder oxidation control at about $1,400. The machine ships as a DIY kit and supports 316L, Inconel 718 and bronze powders, with copper in development. However, the company is only two years old, has never delivered a product, and the powder handling method remains unclear.
Jamaica Is Detaining 3D Printers
Jamaica’s customs now detains every imported 3‑D printer, subjecting each device to a background investigation before release. The policy targets the growing threat of 3‑D‑printed firearms, a concern echoed worldwide. With only 44 printers entering the island over three years—about...
Navigating Complexity in Industrial 3D Printing Sales: An Interview with Corbel’s Le’ora Lichtenstein
Corbel’s AI platform tackles the knowledge bottlenecks that slow industrial 3D‑printer sales by turning dense manuals and tribal expertise into conversational answers. The system ingests PDFs, videos and sales conversations, then surfaces relevant specifications instantly for prospects. Feedback loops let...
DreamPartGen Brings Part Aware Text To 3D
DreamPartGen is a new research model that generates part‑aware 3D objects directly from natural‑language prompts, addressing the long‑standing gap where text‑to‑3D tools produce monolithic meshes unsuitable for functional assemblies. By representing each component separately and modeling their spatial relationships with...
Legal Analysis Finds Ambiguities in Prusa Research’s Open Community License
Prusa Research introduced an Open Community License (OCL) intended to keep its 3‑D‑printer designs open for non‑competitors while blocking rivals, especially low‑cost Asian manufacturers. A lawyer‑led line‑by‑line analysis highlights vague definitions, notably the inconsistent use of “commercial” versus “non‑commercial,” and...
Study Probes Long-Term Degradation of AM Polymers
A new study published in the Journal of Manufacturing and Materials Processing examines how additive‑manufactured polymers degrade under heat, humidity, UV exposure, and cyclic loads. It compares degradation mechanisms across FFF, SLS and vat‑photopolymer processes, highlighting the role of porosity,...
Who’s The Biggest In 3D Printing, March 22, 2026
The weekly Fabbaloo leaderboard shows Farsoon retaining the top spot with a $4.6 billion market cap, though it slipped 12% amid profit‑taking. Xometry bucked the sector trend, rising 6% while the broader 3D‑printing market fell about 6% due to energy‑supply concerns....
Birmingham’s Steel Sector Is Rising Again
Birmingham, Alabama is experiencing a modern steel resurgence driven by over $1.5 billion in recent capital investment. Major projects such as ACIPCO’s $790 million induction‑furnace upgrade and U.S. Steel’s $75 million premium thread line are expanding capacity while cutting emissions. The city’s historic...
New VOC Calculator Estimates Air Quality in FFF Printing Environments
Heatforge 3D has launched an online VOC calculator that quantifies volatile organic compound concentrations in FFF 3‑D printing environments. Users input room volume, air changes per hour, number of printers, and filament type (ABS, PLA, nylon, HIPS, PVA) to receive estimated...
Study Compares CNC, SLM, Extrusion For UAV Part
A recent Sustainability study compares CNC milling, Selective Laser Melting (SLM), and metal extrusion (MEX) for producing a VTOL UAV component. The analysis evaluates material efficiency, energy consumption, capital investment, and post‑processing labor across a single functional part. Results show...
EX3D Prints Launches Distributed 3D Printing Network Connecting Buyers, Makers, and Designers
EX3D Prints has launched a distributed 3D printing marketplace that connects print buyers, desktop printer operators, and model designers. Buyers pay for prints, operators execute jobs, and designers earn a 10% royalty on each sale. The platform faces quality consistency...
Digital Twin Aims To Speed Automotive Additive Manufacturing
Researchers introduced a modular digital‑twin framework that mirrors the entire additive‑manufacturing workflow for automotive parts, from CAD through in‑situ monitoring to post‑build inspection. The architecture separates a product twin, process twin, and equipment twin, allowing live data from cameras, thermography...
New Approach For Sequential FFF 3D Printing
A new portfolio‑based scheduler called Portfolio‑CEGAR‑SEQ leverages multi‑core CPUs to solve the combined placement and ordering problem of sequential FFF printing. The approach runs several CEGAR‑SEQ instances in parallel, each seeded with a different heuristic, and selects the first feasible...
Brazil’s Petrobras Leverages 3DCRIAR’s Multi-Location Outsourcing Model to Advance 3D Printing in Oil and Gas
Petrobras has deepened its additive‑manufacturing strategy by partnering with 3DCRIAR to run fully outsourced polymer 3D‑printing labs at its CENPES research center and across five coastal hubs. The labs create a digital inventory of validated part designs that can be...
$42 3D Printer Trades Features for Price in “Race to the Bottom”
A $42 Frequency Division Multiplexing 3D printer has hit the market, slashing desktop printer prices to unprecedented lows. The machine offers a 100 × 100 × 100 mm build volume, 230 °C hot end limited to PLA, and print speeds of 10‑40 mm/s. It lacks automated leveling,...
Why Apple’s LiTo Research Could Matter To 3D Printing
Apple researchers introduced LiTo, a latent 3D representation that jointly models object geometry and view‑dependent appearance. The method captures surface points, color, and viewing direction, improving reconstruction of glossy and reflective objects that challenge existing image‑to‑3D pipelines. While LiTo is...
Thermwood Gear Pump Patent Optimizes Large Format Extrusions
Thermwood’s new patent tackles bead‑size inconsistency in large‑format pellet extrusion by inserting a gear pump between the screw extruder and nozzle. The pump’s fixed displacement, synchronized with screw speed and guided by pressure feedback, decouples melt flow from rapid gantry...
Vision Transformers Boost Real Time FFF Quality Monitoring
Researchers at LSU and Auburn University introduced a Vision Transformer (ViT) system that fuses 2D laser‑generated depth maps with self‑attention to detect FFF 3‑D‑printing defects in real time. The approach classifies normal, under‑extrusion, over‑extrusion and void regions, delivering predictions in...
Implications of the Bambu Lab vs Pop Mart Settlement
Pop Mart, the Chinese collectible giant, settled a dispute with Bambu Lab after discovering its MakerWorld repository hosted copyrighted Labubu 3‑D models. The settlement required Bambu Lab to remove all Pop Mart content, ending a lawsuit that threatened Pop Mart’s...
HB 2320 Advances in Washington While Broader 3D Printer Control Bill Stalls
Washington’s legislature has cleared HB 2320, an intent‑based bill targeting the illegal manufacture of 3D‑printed weapons, and it now awaits the governor’s signature. A companion proposal, HB 2321, which would have mandated online database checks and firmware controls on all printers, stalled...
Multi Wire FSAM Patent Targets Bigger Metal Builds
A new patent filed by Blue Origin describes a multi‑wire friction stir additive manufacturing (FSAM) tool that replaces a single feed channel with several spindle‑integrated channels. Each channel can accept wires of different gauges or materials, supported by internal sleeves...
Disney’s Big Bet on Storytelling, Parks and Products
Disney is committing $60 billion through 2033 to expand parks, launch the Disney Adventure cruise ship and deepen its experiential portfolio. Roughly 3,000 Imagineers are tasked with turning narrative concepts into immersive attractions, merchandise and ship environments. The new cruise ship,...
SLS Prints Programmable Bonded Magnets
Researchers at Auckland University of Technology have demonstrated a field‑assisted selective laser sintering (SLS) process that prints polymer‑bonded magnets with locally programmable pole patterns. By integrating under‑bed electromagnets and a powder‑handling bar, they can deposit different magnetic powders point‑wise and...
Mintion’s Inexpensive V1 Filtration System Reduces FFF 3D Printer Emissions
Mintion has launched the V1 filtration system, a low‑cost add‑on for desktop FFF 3D printers that captures both nanoparticles and volatile organic compounds. The unit uses a three‑stage filter stack—coarse screen, HEPA H13, and activated carbon—driven by a centrifugal fan...
New MIT AI System Designs Structurally Sound 3D Printable Objects
MIT CSAIL introduced PhysiOpt, an AI system that creates 3D printable objects with built‑in structural integrity. Trained on a library of functional shapes, the model automatically refines designs to address overhangs, weight‑bearing limits, and other physical constraints. Users can describe...
Dallas, Texas Is a Drone and 3D Printing Place to Be
North Texas, particularly the Dallas suburbs, has quietly become a national hotspot where drone manufacturing and 3D printing intersect. Companies such as Eagle NXT, Shield AI, and Delta Black Aerospace are scaling operations in Allen, Frisco and McKinney, using additive manufacturing for rapid...
Ameralabs Publishes Comprehensive 23-Point Safety Analysis of 3D Printing Resin
Ameralabs, a Lithuanian 3D‑printing resin producer, released a free 23‑point safety analysis exposing persistent misconceptions about resin toxicity. The report highlights that most resins are toxic, with health effects often manifesting after repeated exposure, leading many users to mistakenly deem...
ISO 14001 Positions Shapeways for Growing Demand in Sustainable Manufacturing
Shapeways announced it has earned ISO 14001 certification, establishing an Environmental Management System that meets international sustainability standards. The certification is crucial for service bureaus targeting regulated sectors such as healthcare and defense, where customers must source parts from certified facilities....
New Materials and Workflow Platform Strengthen Axtra3D’s Resin Manufacturing Ecosystem
Axtra3D unveiled three new elastomeric resins—Loctite 3D IND475, Loctite 3D Med414, and Ultracur3D EL 4000—broadening its material lineup from soft to hard shore‑A grades. The company also introduced the Axtra Workflow, an all‑in‑one manufacturing bundle that pairs the Lumia printer...
How Could Large Scale Slurry Ceramic 3D Printing Work?
A recent Open Ceramics paper compares the mature sand binder‑jetting workflow, now used for high‑volume core production, with emerging slurry‑based ceramic 3D printing. While binder jetting offers large build volumes, fast job‑box swapping and high sand‑reclaim rates, slurry printing delivers...
Hands On with Helio Additive and 3D-Fuel PCTG
Helio Additive provides a subscription‑based thermal‑optimization service for desktop 3D printers, automatically tweaking G‑code to improve layer adhesion and speed. In tests with 3D‑Fuel’s PCTG filament on a BambuLab P2S, the Enhance feature reduced print times between 8% and 66%...
Huistone Patent Targets Large Area Resin Printing Economics
Fujian Huistone 3D Technology has filed Chinese patent CN121608383A describing a 3D printer that relocates a UV light source across the build area instead of using a fixed, full‑size array. The moving‑light engine is driven by dual servos and screw mechanisms,...
Why Recycling 3D Printed Plastic Remains Difficult Despite Growing Interest
The Tyee reports that recycling 3D‑printed plastic remains a major hurdle despite growing interest. Most desktop printers produce more waste than finished parts, and the waste stream is heterogeneous. Industrial‑scale filament production equipment is costly, and sorting by polymer type...
Industry Investment Is Reshaping US Research: Roche’s Expansion at Harvard and the Additive Manufacturing in Pharma
Roche announced a three‑fold expansion of its footprint at Harvard University’s Enterprise Research Campus, increasing space from 30,000 to 100,000 square feet. The move is part of a broader $50 billion U.S. R&D investment plan that aims to add more than...
NiTi TPMS Sheet Lattices Promise Lightweight Performance
Researchers have demonstrated laser powder‑bed fused nickel‑titanium (NiTi) triply periodic minimal surface (TPMS) sheet lattices that deliver high specific stiffness and energy absorption while retaining superelastic behavior. By pushing wall thicknesses to the limits of LPBF resolution, the continuous‑sheet architecture...
ICON Launches Titan 3D Concrete Printer Designed for Two-Storey Building Construction
ICON has announced the commercial launch of Titan, its new 3D concrete printer built to construct two‑storey residential structures. The system uses ICON’s low‑carbon CarbonX material and fits inside a standard shipping container for easy site deployment. Customers can place...
Patent Proposes Software-Based Method for Sidewall Color Mixing in Multi-Nozzle FFF Printing
A Chinese patent (CN121608391A) proposes a software‑driven method to generate richer sidewall colors on multi‑nozzle FFF printers by using ultra‑fine layer heights and alternating filament colors. The technique treats the wall as an optical grating, blending colors through micro‑layer stacking...
Booz Allen’s US$300M Andreessen Horowitz Investment and the Role of 3D Printing in National Security Innovation
In January 2026 Booz Allen Hamilton pledged a US $300 million capital commitment to Andreessen Horowitz, with an option to expand to $400 million, to back hard‑tech startups focused on AI, robotics and additive manufacturing. The partnership spotlights Firestorm Labs’ xCell, a containerized 3D‑printing...
Researchers Explore Use of Digital Twins For Resin 3D Printers
Researchers have introduced digital‑twin models that ingest printer settings and sensor data to predict resin cure states and dynamically adjust exposures in vat photopolymerization. The approach combines optics, cure kinetics, thermal and oxygen transport models, enabling pixel‑level compensation, heat‑management scheduling,...
Natural Language Mechanical Design: FusionMCP Demonstrates AI-Driven CAD
A GitHub contributor released FusionMCP, a Model Context Protocol server that lets Claude or similar LLMs control Autodesk Fusion 360 through plain‑English commands. The system translates natural‑language prompts into step‑by‑step CAD actions—sketching, extruding, adding features, and exporting STL files—demonstrated by...
3D Printing Meets Embryo Screening: Additive Manufacturing in IVF and Reproductive Medicine
Additive manufacturing is reshaping IVF and embryo screening by enabling high‑resolution microfluidic chips, biocompatible scaffolds, and precision tools. Two‑photon polymerization printers can produce sub‑50 µm channels in hours, cutting device lead times from weeks to days and improving embryo handling consistency....
Robotic Arm 3D Food Printing Targets Kitchen Automation
Researchers propose using six‑axis robotic arms for 3D food printing to bring true kitchen automation. Unlike traditional gantry printers that lay flat planes, a robot arm can plate directly, trace non‑planar paths, and navigate obstacles. The study highlights major hurdles...
QC2A Desktop 3D Printer Brings Full-Color 3D Printing Below US$10K
The inew3d QC2A desktop printer, launched on Kickstarter, brings true full‑color photopolymer jetting to the desktop market for under US $10,000. It delivers an unprecedented 720 × 2880 dpi resolution, translating to roughly 0.035 mm detail, and supports six material channels including CMY, white, transparent...
Creality Introduces Ender-3 V4 Combo
Creality has launched the Ender‑3 V4 Combo, a desktop 3D printer paired with a four‑spool filament storage (CFS) unit. The printer features a novel one‑piece U‑shaped gantry, automatic calibration, a color touchscreen, Wi‑Fi, and operates at 47 dB. The CFS uses...
Polymaker’s Advanced Filament Selection Tool Includes Color Matching and Material Comparison
Polymaker has launched an advanced online filament selection tool that streamlines product discovery through color matching, finish filters, and engineering property comparisons. Users can input RGB, HEX, HSL, or CYMK codes, upload images for automatic color extraction, and select from...
Green Additive Manufacturing For Circular Medical Devices
Researchers propose a comprehensive green additive manufacturing (AM) cycle for medical devices, integrating circular‑economy principles into design, material selection, and process control. The roadmap emphasizes digital inventory, on‑site production, and validated reuse pathways while addressing strict sterilization and biocompatibility regulations....
How 3D Printing Innovation in Prosthetics Led From CU Labs to Hanger’s Acquisition of Point Designs
Hanger, Inc. announced the 2025 acquisition of Point Designs, a Colorado‑based startup specializing in 3D printed prosthetic fingers. The company, founded in 2016 from University of Colorado labs, offers modular titanium digits such as the Point Digit and Point Pivot+...
3D Printed Ceramic Array Converts Water Flow Into Measurable Electrical Signals
Researchers identified that the porous ceramic spines of sea urchins generate millivolt‑scale electrical signals when water flows over them, a phenomenon driven by electrokinetic charge separation rather than biological activity. By replicating the spine’s graded stereom architecture with a triply...
Dual Laser LPBF Targets Support Free Overhang Quality
A patent from Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics proposes a dual‑laser LPBF system that treats overhangs and bulk support as separate manufacturing problems. The low‑power micro‑laser (10‑40 µm spot, 10‑15 µm layers) prints overhang regions, while a high‑power, larger‑spot laser (60‑100 µm,...
Flashforge’s Hidden Filament Cutter Reclaims FFF Build Area
Flashforge has filed a patent for a retractable filament cutter that stays outside the printable envelope until needed. The mechanism mounts on the printer frame and swings into the build area via a linkage, eliminating the permanent post that occupies...
