3D Printing News Briefs, September 17, 2026: 3D Printed Boat, UAS Development, & More

We’ll start with maritime manufacturing in this week’s 3D Printing News Briefs, and continue on to defense 3D printing. We’ll end with funding for Tripo AI. Read on for all the details!

UMaine’s Advanced Structures & Compsites Center Launches 3D Printed Boat

University of Maine researchers launched 3Dirigo X, a high-performance 3D printed boat that’s a big step forward in taking large-scale 3D printing to practical applications. The 30-foot boat, built to handle offshore conditions at speeds close to 40 knots, was created at UMaine’s Advanced Structures and Composites Center. It builds on the university’s original 3Dirigo boat from 2019, which won three Guinness World Record awards and proved that large-scale 3D printing could be used to make a high-performance vessel. 3Dirigo X was developed through the federally funded Accelerated Rapid Prototyping initiative, and UMaine researchers made the manufacturing process faster, increasing the print rate from 20 pounds/hour to 500 pounds/hour. Additionally, production timelines were decreased thanks to improvements in digital design, composite materials, process controls, and sensors. The work on the 3Dirigo X could reduce the need for expensive molds, help build vessels faster, and more quickly adapt designs for both commercial and defense use. Federal, university, and defense leaders gathered for the launch and demonstration, including Habib Dagher, executive director of the Advanced Structures and Composites Center; Keith DeVries, Manufacturing Technology (ManTech) director at the Office of the Secretary of Defense; and U.S. Senator Susan Collins (R).

“What’s different today, again, is the fact that we can model and design vessels. We have developed technologies to design vessels that can withstand the kinds of extreme environments in the open ocean,” said Dagher. “Today is a big milestone for our research and development projects. There is more work to do to continue to optimize the manufacturing process and the material properties.”

Divergent & AEVES Collaborating for Adaptive UAS Development

U.S. defense tech company AEVEX and Divergent Technologies have announced a strategic collaboration to speed up adaptive UAS development and scalable production. With expert knowledge in accelerated testing, rapid payload integration, and quick transitions from development to deployment, AEVEX has delivered thousands of autonomous unmanned systems around the world. The goal of this collaboration is to develop a next-gen drone, designed around the automated Divergent Adaptive Production System (DAPS). The system integrates AI-enabled design optimization, 3D printing, robotic assembly, and certification to deliver fast iteration and surge-ready production. The autonomous platform that the two companies develop will need to address emerging mission requirements, as well as deliver advanced operational capability at scale and speed. In their collaboration, Divergent and AEVEX will first investigate adaptive airframe technologies and digital manufacturing processes to help reduce part count, compress timelines, and support scalable fabrication.

“We’re proud to collaborate with AEVEX to deliver mass at the pace of need. Divergent is a force multiplier for our customers’ programs, and we’re excited to integrate DAPS with AEVEX’s field-proven expertise to set a new standard for delivering capability at speed and scale,” stated Lukas Czinger, Co-Founder and CEO at Divergent.

Tripo AI by VAST Raises 3 Billion Yuan in Series B and Series B+ Funding

Launched in 2024, China’s Tripo AI by VAST is a top AI company in generative 3D modeling. It sounds very easy to use: just upload photos or type a description, and Tripo generates print-ready, high-quality 3D models. It has integrated with major players, like Creality, Anycubic, and gaming giant Tencent Games, all of which have embedded Tripo’s API into their platforms. Now, the company has raised approximately 3 billion yuan in Series B and Series B+ financing rounds, led by MPCi. Institutions from a variety of sectors invested, like Yanqu Games, 37 Interactive Entertainment, CDH Venture and Growth Capital, Muhua Tech Ventures, Vitalbridge Capital, GreatOrigin Asia, and more. The funding rounds wrapped up right as the company announced a big breakthrough in 3D-native foundation models: the preview release of Tripo P2.0. This is an upgrade from Tripo P1.0, and enables quad topology and very fast generation of production-ready 3D objects, along with higher mesh budgets and multi-view input. These financing rounds will help Tripo AI speed up the development of its 3D data infrastructure and 3D-native foundational models, as well as drive product development and commercialization and grow computing infrastructure for AI training and inference.

“Introducing Tripo P2.0 Preview, a Smart Mesh update designed to help creators move generated 3D assets smoothly into production,” the company wrote on its website.

“With Tripo P2.0 Preview, you can generate meshes that are easy to edit, rig, animate, and integrate into your production pipeline.”