lpbf
Push Button Metal: Market Overview 2026
Pioneered by Xact Metal, low-cost metal printing could break open the LPBF market and make it much bigger than it is now. OneClickMetal showed us how canisters and ease of…
Nikon SLM Solutions and PanOptimization Team Up on Metal AM Simulation
Nikon SLM Solutions is partnering with PanOptimization to integrate PanX into its build preparation software. This is great news for PanOptimization, as it will introduce its technology to a myriad…
3DPOD 319: 3D Printing at ORNL, Part III — Ryan DeHoff
Ryan DeHoff is the Director of the Manufacturing Demonstration Facility at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. We talk with Ryan about the great people at the MDF and the different things…
Push Button Metal: SnowX
In addition to MetalBase and ScrapLabs, we now have a new competitor in the low-cost LPBF space. Chinese firm SnowX aims to release its SnowPod through Kickstarter. The 80 ×…
Solukon Goes Big with New SFM-AT850 Depowdering System
Solukon has released the SFM-AT850 depowdering system. The German depowdering specialist has updated its product line, and this machine replaces the SFM-AT800-S and SFM-AT1000-S. Rather than many small parts, this…
The Hidden Economics of Powder Bed 3D Printing: Closing the Loop in Powder Management
Automation is a very topical thing in additive manufacturing at the moment. With renewed scale, some clients are fervently looking to automate production. Other business cases only make sense with…
Oerlikon Adds ATLIX’s xBUILD 5000, Plans More for 2027
Oerlikon has installed a new ATLIX xBUILD 5000 metal 3D printer at its facility in Huntersville, North Carolina, marking the first production deployment of the system worldwide. The machine will…
Kickstarter is Testing the Next Wave of Desktop 3D Printing
3D printers are raising serious money again…on Kickstarter, that is. Over the last few months, a new group of 3D printer campaigns has attracted millions of dollars and thousands of…
The Frankenservice Part 2: Have Your Cake and Eat it Too
This series of articles delves into a thought experiment. What if we let go of using a few machines very optimally, but instead use lots of different machines to meet…
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…
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,…
3DPOD 310: Metal LPBF Under $10k with Tom Bakker, Metal-Base
Tom Bakker is a talented engineer who has worked in LPBF, custom machine building, and on semiconductor equipment. Now he wants to make LPBF metal printing cheap. With Metal Base,…
Sinterit and DyeMansion Join Forces as Polymer LPBF Enters Its Next Competitive Phase
The entry-level laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) polymer space is heating up. Whereas in metals it’s Chinese vendors offering breakthrough low-cost products, in polymer it’s HP and Formlabs enabling easier,…
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…
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…
3DPOD 305: Automating AM with Grenzebach’s Oliver Elbert
Oliver Elbert‘s over ten years in additive manufacturing have been spent automating LPBF. For large, high-volume, or critical parts, Grenzebach has provided custom automation solutions. Depowdering, powder handling, sieving, heat…
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….
AM Asia Watch: Chinese Company Claims Advances in Titanium Powder Beyond 700C
They’re a familiar sight at trade shows: Chinese powder companies with barren stands lacking parts. There’s maybe some glass vessel with powder in it and a semi-complete data sheet, but…
Austal, Curtin University and AMCRC Work on R&D Together
Australia’s Additive Manufacturing Cooperative Research Centre (AMCRC) works with 70 industry partners to deliver collaborative R&D projects. They also work on workforce development and technology transfer. It’s kind of analogous…
Solukon Releases SPR-Pathfinder PRO—and a Smart Software Strategy
Large-format LPBF darling Solukon Maschinenbau launches SPR-Pathfinder PRO, an upgrade to its depowdering software. This is a smart play because it enables the company to keep ahead of potential competition…
Pogačar & Fairlight Cycles Show Us Low Cost 3D Printed Components for Bikes
There has been a lot going on in 3D printing for bicycles over the years. The most successful implementation so far is in bicycle seats. Carbon 3D printed seats are…
Divergent Declares that German 3D Printers are Superior, And Plans Massive LPBF Expansion
Divergent has announced a new version of its Laser Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF) printer and a new site. The company aims to do nothing short of “further accelerating its mission…
Formlabs Launches the X1: Let’s Pack It In?
I’d like to share my disappointment. When Formlabs teased that something big was coming, I really hoped the firm would finally get around to making CNC machines, as it always…
