Bioinspired AM Boosts Robotic Limb Stiffness And Sensing
Researchers have demonstrated a bioinspired additive manufacturing (AM) strategy that simultaneously increases robotic limb stiffness and embeds strain‑sensing capability. By allocating stiffer polymers along high‑stress paths and compliant, piezoresistive material where strain is most informative, the printed limb achieves higher load‑bearing performance while delivering reliable proprioceptive feedback. The approach leverages voxel‑level control in multi‑material extrusion or inkjet polymer printing, eliminating the need for separate sensor stacks and reducing overall part count. Results suggest lighter structures, smaller actuators, and simplified assembly for legged robots and manipulators.
When No Two Spines Are Alike: Inside the First AI-Designed Cervical Implant
UC San Diego Health performed the world’s first fully personalized anterior cervical spine implant, combining high‑resolution imaging, AI‑driven design, and titanium 3D printing. The AI algorithm generated a patient‑specific geometry that matches the vertebral endplates, restores natural lordosis, and optimizes...
SOLen 3D Printed Soft Optical Sensor For Mechanosensing
Researchers unveiled SOLen, a fully 3D‑printed soft optical sensor that embeds a miniature lens to guide light through an elastomeric waveguide for mechanosensing. By routing light internally, the device measures pressure, stretch and shear without metal traces, reducing drift, hysteresis...
Nigeria’s Oil and Gas Expansion and 3D Printing
Nigeria’s oil and gas sector is undergoing a rapid expansion, driven by $500 million local acquisitions, a $750 million Afreximbank partnership, and the launch of the 650,000 bpd Dangote refinery. Production has already surpassed 1.5 million barrels per day, with a government goal to...
Researchers Test 3D Printed Milling Cutter With Conformal Cooling
Researchers have 3‑D printed a milling cutter using laser powder bed fusion with internal conformal cooling channels that follow the cutting edge. The freeform coolant paths keep coolant closer to the shear zone, potentially lowering tool temperature and wear. Tests...
Detoxified Asbestos Cement Becomes PLA Filler For 3D Printing
Researchers propose converting detoxified asbestos cement into a mineral filler for PLA composites used in fused filament fabrication. The treated filler is intended to curb PLA’s thermal depolymerization, improving melt viscosity and dimensional stability during printing. By up‑cycling hazardous cement...
Third-Party Software Marks New Phase in 3D Concrete Printing Development
Third‑party software for 3D concrete printing (3DCP) has emerged with Portugal‑based CAMADA. The platform converts 3D models into G‑code optimized for robotic‑arm or gantry printers and even allows basic model creation. Historically, 3DCP operators relied on proprietary slicers supplied by...
3DQue Introduces Lifetime Licensing Option for AutoFarm3D
Vancouver‑based 3DQue announced a lifetime licensing option for its AutoFarm3D print‑farm management platform. The service, previously sold as a per‑printer subscription at $10 /mo for Lite and $30 /mo for Standard, will now be available as a one‑time perpetual license. Pricing has...
Design of the Week: Styxosaurus
The Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre in southern Manitoba is using five 3D printers, including a Bambu Lab H2S, to fabricate a life‑size Styxosaurus replica. The team scans each fossil fragment, digitally reconstructs missing bones, and prints hundreds of components that...
LM PAEK Can Outperforms PEEK In Certain Applications
A Drexel‑led study demonstrated that low‑melt polyaryletherketone (LM PAEK) can be fused‑filament‑fabricated into porous knee‑revision cones that outperform traditional PEEK in shear strength and stiffness. Using a Taguchi L8 design, the researchers printed 64 cylindrical surrogates with gyroid and diamond TPMS...
From Market Headwinds to Measured Recovery: AM’s 2026 Inflection Point
Additive manufacturing (AM) has endured a 2‑3‑year sales dip, but recent data shows a modest rebound starting in Q1 2026. CEO Yoav Zeif framed the slowdown as a normal CAPEX cycle, emphasizing that hardware performance and customer usage intent are improving....
Stratasys Patents Low Temperature PolyJet Modeling Materials
Stratasys has filed a patent for low‑temperature PolyJet materials that maintain jet‑ready viscosity at around 35 °C, far below the typical 50‑90 °C range. The formulations combine low‑molecular‑weight curable components and reactive diluents to stay under 50 cPs while delivering mechanical performance comparable...
Fugo Precision 3D’s Centrifugal Resin 3D Printing with Integrated Wash and Cure
Fugo Precision 3D has introduced a centrifugal resin 3D printer that combines printing, washing, and curing in a single rotating cylindrical tank. The system spins a resin‑filled chamber, uses 20 UV lasers to solidify layers, and then drains, washes, and...
Analysis Finds Rapid Growth in 3DCP Adoption Across Multiple Regions
An interim analysis by construction‑automation journalist Jarret Gross reveals rapid global expansion of 3D concrete printing (3DCP) projects. The mapped data, representing roughly 50 % of known installations, shows dense clusters in the Persian Gulf, Northern Europe, China, Japan, Western Australia,...
ORNL Develops Multiplexed Extrusion System to Increase Large-Format 3D Printing Speeds
Oak Ridge National Laboratory has unveiled a multiplexed extrusion system designed to accelerate large-format 3D printing. Instead of a single bulky hot end, the prototype uses several small extruders whose outputs merge into one deposition line, improving heating efficiency and...
Researchers 3D Print Plug And Play Electrochemical Device
Researchers introduced MICRO, a multimaterial, single‑step 3D‑printed electrochemical device that integrates electrodes, microfluidic channels, and housing in one build. By leveraging dual‑extrusion printing of conductive and insulating polymers, the platform eliminates wiring, sealing, and machining steps traditionally required for screen‑printed...
Enormous 3D Print Farm in China Demonstrates Ultra High-Volume Additive Manufacturing
Shenzhen‑based Huafast Industry has assembled a 3D‑print farm of 5,000 machines, capable of producing 40,000 desktop ornaments in a single week. The facility stacks printers four high on one‑metre‑wide racks, creating a kilometer‑long line. Management plans to double the fleet...
3dfabs Revives Distributed 3D Printing Network Model
3dfabs has relaunched a distributed 3D‑printing network similar to the original 3D Hubs model, allowing individual printer operators to list services and accept jobs globally. The platform now hosts 211 participating "fabs" across a dozen countries and charges no usage fees....
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base: Ohio’s Tech Powerhouse Meets 3D Printing Innovation
Wright‑Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio’s largest single‑site employer, is emerging as a premier hub for additive manufacturing within the U.S. Air Force. The Rapid Sustainment Office recently awarded a $2.5 million contract to develop a nine‑foot fused filament printer, aiming to...
Reinforcement Learning Tames DLP Peel Forces For Fragile Prints
A new research paper introduces geometry‑adaptive reinforcement learning (RL) to control the peel step in Digital Light Processing (DLP) resin printing. By extracting slice‑level features such as cured area and perimeter, the RL agent dynamically adjusts lift speed, dwell time,...
Prusa Launches Highly Abrasive PETG Ultraglow Green
Prusa Research has launched Prusament PETG Ultraglow Green, a glow‑in‑the‑dark filament marketed as the brightest on the market. The material blends clear PETG with a high loading of strontium aluminate phosphor, delivering intense luminescence after UV charging. Prusa warns that...
Multimodal AI Sensor Fusion Targets 3D Print Faults
Researchers propose a multimodal sensor‑fusion framework for real‑time fault detection in additive manufacturing, merging vision, thermal, acoustic, vibration, and drive‑current streams. Current single‑sensor solutions often miss subtle defects or generate false alarms, limiting scalability of 3D‑print farms. The fusion model...
Prusa Details XL Roadmap, Prices, And Toolheads
Prusa Research announced a $200 price reduction for the assembled Original Prusa XL, positioning it as the most affordable multi‑material tool‑changer in its lineup. The XL retains its active tool‑changing architecture, supporting up to five full heads, while the newer INDX...
Dyze Design Patents Modular Motion Control For AM
Dyze Design has filed a patent proposing a modular motion‑control architecture that separates command streams into priority queues and splits telemetry into real‑time and archival channels. The design adds edge‑processing modules for sensors, stepper and BLDC drives, and even a...
3D Printed Pipe Embeds Heater And Sensor For Space
A European consortium has 3D‑printed a 150 mm spacecraft‑grade pipe in 316L stainless steel that embeds a 60 W resistive heater, internal wiring, a D‑sub connector, and an aerosol‑jet‑printed temperature sensor. The design‑for‑additive‑manufacturing approach eliminates separate Kapton heaters and fragile leads, aiming...
Creality’s CFS-C Eliminates Hot-End Purging with New Remote Cutting Approach
Creality has launched the CFS‑C filament swapper, marketed as a “no‑purge” solution for its K1 series desktop FFF printers. By relocating the filament‑cutting operation from the hot end to the swapper, the system eliminates the traditional purge cycle, cutting change‑over...
MIT Engineers 3D Print Fully Functional Electric Motor
MIT engineers have unveiled a multi‑material 3D printer capable of fabricating a fully functional electric linear motor in a single print job. The system integrates four distinct extruders that handle conductive, magnetic, and standard plastic materials, allowing the motor to...
Canadian APMA Unveils Two 3D-Printed Electric SUV Demonstrators Under Project Arrow Initiative
The Canadian Automotive Parts Manufacturers Association (APMA) showcased two 3D‑printed electric SUV demonstrators, Project Arrow Vector and Project Arrow Borealis, at a recent trade show. Both models feature a 550 km electric range and Level 3 autonomous driving capability, with a central‑facing...
3D Printed Dissolving Microneedles
Researchers have demonstrated dissolving microneedle (DMN) arrays fabricated using resin‑based 3D‑printed master molds, enabling drug delivery through the inner cheek. The workflow pairs rapid SLA/DLP printing with polymer micromolding, allowing design changes from CAD to mold within hours. Mechanical, dissolution...
Who’s The Biggest In 3D Printing, February 22, 2026
The weekly Fabbaloo leaderboard shows the public 3D‑printing sector valued at $15.9 billion, with Farsoon and Bright Laser holding the top spots at $4.6 billion and $4.1 billion respectively. Chinese firms were flat due to the Lunar New Year holiday, while Xometry added...
Boston Scientific’s Penumbra Acquisition: Impacts and 3D Printing Opportunities in Vascular Medicine
Boston Scientific announced a $14.5 billion acquisition of Penumbra, re‑entering the neurovascular market and expanding its cardiovascular device portfolio. The deal, paid at a 19 % premium with a 73 % cash and 27 % stock mix, targets Penumbra’s thrombectomy and embolization technologies. Boston...
Proximal Sound Prints Elastomer Microstructures Using Ultrasound
Proximal Sound Printing (PSP) is an ultrasound‑driven additive manufacturing technique that cures native PDMS at a localized barrier, achieving a practical feature size of 0.2 mm. The process reduces electrical input to roughly 5 W—four times less than its predecessor Direct Sound...
Telemeter Launches 3D Printable Electromagnetic Absorber Filament for Automotive Radar
Telemeter Electronic introduced a 1.75 mm FFF filament engineered to absorb electromagnetic energy in the 76‑81 GHz automotive radar band and broader 50‑100 GHz millimeter‑wave spectrum. The PLA‑based material prints on standard desktop printers using typical PLA temperatures, yet its dielectric loss enables...
Israel Considers Updating 50-Year-Old Building Codes to Enable 3D Concrete Printing
Israel is reviewing its 50‑year‑old building construction regulations to accommodate 3‑D concrete printing (3DCP). The push follows exposure to advanced construction tech at the World of Concrete expo and a severe labor shortage caused by the Gaza conflict. Officials argue...
Researchers Test SLS of PHB With Biocarbon
Researchers evaluated selective laser sintering of polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) blended with a biocarbon filler to assess its viability as a greener powder‑bed material. By varying bed temperature, laser power, scan speed and hatch spacing, they identified a narrower yet manageable sintering...
Hands On With The Bambu Lab P2S Combo, Part 1
Bambu Lab has launched the P2S Combo, its latest desktop 3D printer that supersedes the popular P1S. The machine retains the 256 mm cubic build volume but adds a rigid steel frame, 600 mm/s peak speed (practically 300 mm/s), and a 40 mm³/s material...
Kratos Defense & Security Solutions: Additive Manufacturing Powers the Future of Defense and Space
Kratos Defense & Security Solutions is accelerating its defense and space programs by investing heavily in additive manufacturing, highlighted by the acquisition of a Velo3D Sapphire metal 3D printer and the launch of a CAMM materials‑characterization program. The company uses...
