AMS 2025

Beyond DeepSeek: Reimagining AI Integration in China’s 3D Printing Industry

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China’s recent breakthrough in AI development, demonstrated by DeepSeek‘s success, offers important insights into the future of the country’s industrial AI applications. Despite chip restrictions, DeepSeek achieved remarkable performance through innovative model optimization and efficient architecture design. By implementing 8-bit floating-point precision and a MoE(Mixture of Experts) architecture that activates only 37B of 671B parameters per token, DeepSeek significantly reduced computational demands while maintaining high performance. This achievement aligns with China’s traditional strength in practical technology applications, where the focus has been on implementing solutions that prioritize efficiency and accessibility. This approach could prove valuable in manufacturing sectors, including 3D printing, where optimizing performance while managing costs remains a critical challenge for industrial adoption.

The global shift toward smart factories, combined with growing demands for customization, has accelerated AI adoption in manufacturing. As demonstrated by DeepSeek, Chinese companies are capable of developing efficient AI solutions that perform well despite hardware limitations. This capability in AI development, combined with China’s established manufacturing strengths, points to promising future opportunities in additive manufacturing. As the industry takes its initial steps in AI integration, key applications like AI-driven design, process simulation and optimization, and real-time quality control are expected to become increasingly essential as the technology matures.

Market Growth and Corporate Progress

China’s 3D printing market is projected to reach USD 7.9 billion by 2030, growing at 27.5% annually—compared to North America’s 22.4%. Several Chinese manufacturers have achieved significant milestones in the global AM market. Eplus3D’s delivery of over 100 super-meter metal 3D printers worldwide demonstrates China’s capability to produce and scale industrial-grade machines. Bright Laser Technologies (BLT) recorded a 60% revenue spike in 2024, establishing itself among the top global AM revenue earners, with strong performance in aerospace and medical applications.

Industrial Implementation

Chinese manufacturers are exploring AI integration in additive manufacturing. Some potential areas of AI implementation can be found in the following cases. Farsoon Technologies has developed their Support Reduction System (SRS) that precisely controls energy delivery and temperature distribution during the printing process. The system enables printing of structures with 20-25 degree angles without supports and can handle horizontal holes up to 50mm in diameter without additional support structures. These capabilities have been demonstrated across multiple materials, including titanium alloys, high-temperature alloys, aluminum alloys, and stainless steel.

Courtesy of Farsoon Technologies

UnionTech’s D300 system combines dual 4K DLP projection units with AI algorithms to achieve precision levels of 0.05mm in dental applications. The system demonstrates significant automation capabilities, processing up to 180 dental models within 24 hours through automated layout, task assignment, resin replenishment, printing, removal, and sorting operations.

In large-scale manufacturing, BLT’s BLT-S800 printer, featuring 20 lasers, implements their proprietary BLT-BP software for production optimization. The system adapts fusion speed to part contours and has shown concrete improvements in manufacturing efficiency, notably reducing profiling time to 30 minutes for large parts with 25G data volume.

RapidDirect, a manufacturing service provider in Shenzhen, launched their AI-powered Sheet Metal Fabrication Instant Quote system in March 2024, achieving an 82% success rate in automated drawing recognition and pricing calculations.

Courtesy of RapidDirect

Large-Scale Applications

The integration of AI and 3D printing extends to infrastructure projects. A prime example is the 180-meter-high hydroelectric dam project on the Tibetan plateau, where AI-guided 3D printers and autonomous equipment are being used for construction. The system monitors environmental conditions—wind, temperature, humidity—and adjusts deposition rates accordingly, demonstrating practical applications of automation in challenging environments.

Healthcare Applications

In healthcare, AI integration focuses on specific, achievable goals. Weiyun AI & Robotics automates the design and production of patient-specific dental products, from scanning to final production, reducing manual labor and clinical errors. Their systems handle everything from aligners to crowns, demonstrating the practical benefits of AI integration in specialized manufacturing. UCrest and Hangsukeji’s collaboration targets bioprinting applications, particularly in tissue scaffold development and medical implant production, addressing specific healthcare needs in the Chinese market. These projects demonstrate practical applications of AI in medical manufacturing, with a focus on improving precision and reducing production time.

Courtesy of UCrest Berhad

Government Support and Policy Framework

The Chinese government has established a comprehensive AI policy framework to accelerate the integration of AI into manufacturing, with the AI+ initiative at its forefront. The Beijing Municipal AI+ Action Plan (2024-2025) exemplifies China’s current approach to AI integration, aiming to develop 3-5 advanced, independently controllable foundational AI models, 100 industry-specific AI applications, and 1,000 successful case studies by the end of 2025. This ambitious plan reflects China’s strategy of being “government-guided, innovation-driven, and application-led” in AI development. By leveraging Beijing’s advantages in computing power, data resources, and diverse application scenarios, the initiative seeks to promote standardized, large-scale implementation paths for AI across various industries including additive manufacturing.

Supporting this municipal initiative, the Next Generation AI Development Plan (2017-2030) provides a longer-term national framework, aiming to position China as a global hub for AI innovation by 2030. At the local level, provinces such as Guangdong, Jiangsu, and Shandong offer grants and tax benefits to manufacturers adopting AI-driven production technologies. Innovation hubs like Beijing’s Zhongguancun Science Park and Shanghai’s AI industrial clusters provide funding and infrastructure support for AI-powered manufacturing startups.

This multi-level policy approach, emphasizing both foundation model development and practical industry applications, creates a fertile environment for AI-powered additive manufacturing innovation while promoting what Beijing terms “new productive forces” in the digital economy.

Current Challenges

The Chinese additive manufacturing industry faces several hurdles in AI implementation. New U.S. export controls on advanced AI chips, implemented on January 13, 2025, have created significant barriers for manufacturers developing AI solutions. The human capital challenge is equally pressing – China faces an estimated shortage of 5 million AI-trained professionals, with talent concentrated in major tech hubs like Beijing and Shenzhen. This geographical imbalance in skilled workforce distribution, combined with limited access to supercomputing resources for research and training at many universities, poses significant challenges for the nationwide deployment of AI in additive manufacturing.

The AM industry is also grappling with intellectual property concerns, as highlighted by the August 2024 Stratasys lawsuit against Bambu Lab over ten patents related to core 3D printing technologies. This IP challenge was further emphasized in the VoxelDance case of November 2024, where German authorities removed their display at Formnext following legal action by nTop over alleged software infringement, highlighting China’s ongoing challenges in developing independent software capabilities.

Additionally, China’s Personal Information Protection Law has complicated the implementation of AI systems, particularly in healthcare applications where patient data protection is crucial. This regulatory framework, while necessary for data security, creates additional complexity for manufacturers seeking to implement AI solutions in sensitive sectors.

Conclusion

DeepSeek’s emergence as a cost-effective, high-performance AI model could mark a significant turning point in China’s approach to AI implementation in manufacturing. DeepSeek’s success demonstrates the viability of optimized, practical solutions that prioritize accessibility and efficiency—a strategy that aligns well with China’s traditional manufacturing strengths: making technology accessible and practical for widespread adoption. While Western competitors often focus on pushing technological boundaries, Chinese manufacturers excel at optimizing solutions for real-world applications and market accessibility. The enthusiasm and global attention garnered by DeepSeek’s success will likely accelerate this trend across China’s manufacturing sector.

The ripple effects of DeepSeek’s breakthrough extend beyond AI development itself. As Chinese manufacturers continue to develop task-specific AI solutions, they are positioning themselves to transform additive manufacturing through practical innovation. This combination of AI expertise and manufacturing pragmatism, supported by China’s robust infrastructure and growing domestic market, suggests a future where AI-enhanced additive manufacturing becomes both more accessible and commercially viable, potentially reshaping the global AM landscape.

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