Editorials / Opinions
The Frankenservice Part 1: Print the Rainbow
So far, most service bureaus and manufacturing companies stick to what they know. Not only for OCD reasons, but gleaming lines of identical LPBF machines are also arrayed on impossibly…
Mastrex 3D Printers: Made in the USA?
Mastrex has launched a line of six metal LPBF printers starting at $39,000. Recently, the firm partnered with Continuum Powders to validate its metal powders on Mastrex machines. But the…
Japan’s B1 Terra Drone to Be Mass Produced
Despite its industrial might and precision engineering excellence, Japan has been rather aloof to 3D printing over the past decades. Even with an early start by companies such as Teijin…
The Evolution and Future of The AM Services Market (and How We’re Tracking It)
If it feels like additive manufacturing and 3D printing technologies are finding a place in the mainstream of everyday products and life, it’s because they are. It has been a…
South Korea’s Lincsolution Announces AM Defense Hub as Nation is Caught in US-China Trade War
In my most recent post about RIMPAC, I noted that US military joint exercises appear to be the latest function of the US government to be leveraged by the Trump…
Phase3D Gets Air Force Contract for Real-Time CMC Inspection
Inspection software and tooling firm Phase3D has been given a Department of the Air Force contract. Its Fringe Inspection platform will be used in ceramic matrix composites (CMCs). CMCs are…
Prusa Upgrades Its Lineup with CORE One+ (Gen 2), CORE One L+, and XL+
Prusa Research has updated its high-end desktop 3D printer lineup. The company is offering new and improved versions of the machines it targets at industrial and power users, with the…
Additive Economics 101, Part 1: Betwixt Rolex and Ryanair
Let’s look at what matters when we make things that matter. What considerations are there, what is important, what affects cost? Look at the levers in laser powder bed fusion,…
Achieving Customer Excellence in AM, Part I: Why AM Strategies Have to Change
Additive manufacturing suppliers have competed on technology for most of the past two decades. Laser count, build volume, build rate, and process monitoring defined the pitch, and for a long…
The Formlabs X1 Versus the HP 1200: Costing, Throughput & 30% Packing Density
We are at one of the most important moments in the powder bed fusion market’s entire history. EOS is on the retreat, retrenching itself in higher-volume industrial systems while dropping…
The State of the Desktop Filament Market 2026, Part 4: An OS for Reality
OK, so in this four-part series, we used a cutting-edge stealth mode AI business intelligence tool that outperforms all commercially available LLMs. We then gussied up the data using Google’s…
Killer 3D Printing Applications: Cooling for Body Armor, Helmets, Seats, & Safety Gear
In this ongoing series of Killer 3D Printing Applications, we’ve looked at a lot of things, including tools, tool voids, factory automation, aircraft seating, car seats, and more. We’ve been…
Eplus3D & UCL Rocket Test New LOX IPA Engine
Eplus3D has worked with UCL Rocket on liquid rocket engines. Right now, they’re working on a regenerative liquid oxygen (LOX) and isopropyl alcohol (IPA) liquid-cooled architecture. These rockets use IPA…
The State of the Desktop Filament Market 2026, Part 3: Special Hamburger Meat
Essentially, I used a cutting-edge stealth-mode AI tool that goes far beyond the capabilities of commercially available LLMs to conduct deep research into the desktop 3D printing filament market. I…
The State of the Desktop Filament Market 2026, Part 2: AI is a Fitful Day Drinking Intern
In this series, we’re using cutting-edge AI research tools, including an unreleased deep research tool to look at the desktop 3D printing filament market. We’re then comparing it with our…
Forty-Five Years After Alvin Toffler Coined “Prosumer,” Could AI and 3D Printing Make It a Reality?
Every major technology wave comes with big predictions about how it will change the world. Today, many of those predictions center on artificial intelligence (AI). Futurists like Ray Kurzweil and…
The State of the Desktop Filament Market 2026, Part 1: Facehugging AI
As many as ten million desktop 3D printers may be sold this year. This makes the desktop filament market potentially a significant business. I’ve interviewed key participants in this industry,…
How the World’s Most Advanced Tech Companies Are Using 3D Printing
3D printing has been around for decades. For most of that time, it was a prototyping tool. Engineers used it to check if a design looked right before spending money…
Additive Manufacturing at a Crossroads
Additive manufacturing is at a crossroads. Simultaneously, we find ourselves between certain very different modalities, applications, and industries. Rather than being able to explore them all, companies will now have…
Desktop UV Printers & 3D Printing: Collision Course
UV printing has been around for ages, of course. But, since a few years ago, desktop UV printers have made their way into households, small businesses, and enterprises. These machines…
The Next Phase of EB-PBF Will Be Defined by Beam Control
The bar for metal additive manufacturing has moved. Early on, the question was often simple: Can the machine print the material and produce a dense part? That still matters, but…
The SLS Market, Game of Trucks: Part 2
With the release of the new HP 1200 and the Formlabs X1, we can see real competition from very different segments. From several million dollars to just $20,000, the laser…
APAC’s 3D Printing Capital Wave Is Bigger Than Venture Funding
By the usual measure, a tally of funding rounds, APAC’s additive manufacturing market had a quiet second quarter. The capital that has actually closed across the region comes to about…
The SLS Market: Game of Trucks
This is truly an exciting moment in the SLS market. With HP‘s release of the 1200 and Formlabs‘ release of the X1, we can see the SLS market heating up….
