supply chain resilience
DARPA Backs Research Project to Speed Up Qualification of DoD’s 3D Printed Parts
About a year ago, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) announced a funding opportunity called SURGE: Structures Uniquely Resolved to Guarantee Endurance. As with so much of what the…
Moving Beyond the Hypothetical: the Role 3D Printing Should Play in US Reshoring
Barely two months into President Trump’s second term, it’s already cliché to point out that chaos is the only constant thread running through all of the new administration’s policies. (Indeed,…
AM Coalition’s 2025 DC Legislative Fly-In: The Time Is Now for U.S. 3D Printing Policy
The Additive Manufacturing (AM) Coalition is set to host its third annual DC Legislative Fly-In from May 6 to 8, 2025, in Washington, D.C. The event, which aims to strengthen…
Automation Alley Lays the Infrastructure for Distributed Manufacturing in Michigan and Beyond
For over 25 years, Automation Alley has been at the forefront of Michigan’s technological evolution, helping to reposition the state from its Rust Belt reputation to a modern hub of…
Strategic Advantage of 3D Printing in a Time of Import Tariffs
The value of 3D printing in mitigating the impact of import tariffs is often underestimated. Now is the time to leverage 3D printing to adapt and profit from the opportunities…
Reshoring Resources for Additive Manufacturing
Reshoring is the process of returning the production and manufacturing of goods to the company’s original country. According to a 2024 article by Forbes, approximately 66% of U.S. companies outsource…
IperionX Lands Up to $47.1M from DoD for Titanium 3D Printing Powders
IperionX, the Charlotte-based supplier of critical mineral powders used for additive manufacturing (AM), has been awarded a contract worth up to $47.1 million from the US Department of Defense (DoD)…
Rapid Fusion Introduces UK’s First Large Format Hybrid 3D Printer for Polymers
Rapid Fusion is set to unveil what it describes as the first UK-built large format hybrid 3D printer, Medusa, at an open day event on February 26 at its Skypark…
ADDiTEC’s AMDROiD X: A Portable DED Metal 3D Printer for Defense
Given the outsized role of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) in the additive manufacturing (AM) industry, the Military AM (MILAM) conference in Tampa, Florida, has become a key trade…
Individual Power, Institutional Opportunity
The ‘creator economy’ is probably most easily recognized in the spheres of media, art, and fashion. New platforms with tools that seriously reduced marketing campaign expenses, amplified reach, and enabled…
Update: Velo3D Enters Forbearance Agreement as Debt Challenges Intensify
See the addendum to this article for an update from 12/12/24. Velo3D is set to lay off an additional 46 employees by the end of 2024 as part of its latest…
AM Under Trump, First Thoughts: Reshoring
Constrained resources and the need to fight climate change have led to a new era of manufacturing focused on re- and nearshoring paired with supply chain resilience. In the battle…
Wayland Additive Expands Electron Beam 3D Printing to Central and Eastern Europe
U.K.-based Wayland Additive has been growing significantly since its public launch in 2021, including an increasingly strong presence in North America and Asia. The latest leg of its journey is…
ADDIMETAL to Debut First French Metal Binder Jetting 3D Printer at Formnext 2024
ADDIMETAL, a French original equipment manufacturer (OEM) of additive manufacturing (AM) hardware, will debut its first product, the K2-2 metal binder jetting (MBJ) printer, at Formnext 2024 in Frankfurt, Germany…
NAMIC’s Global Additive Manufacturing Summit: Innovation, Sustainability, and Strategic Collaboration in Singapore
Once again, we joined business people and researchers from around the world in Singapore for Global Additive Manufacturing Summit. Singapore’s national 3D printing partner, the National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Cluster…
Visitech Opens First US DLP Light Engine Factory in Texas
Norwegian digital light processing (DLP) system manufacturer Visitech has opened its first professional DLP light engine factory in the United States. The facility, located in Allen, Texas, is set to…
ORNL Combines 3D Printing and HIP to Create Large Metal Parts
As the demand for large-scale metal parts continues to rise across sectors such as clean energy, aerospace, and defense, the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is spearheading…
Pratt & Whitney to 3D Print Engine Parts for the F-35
US defense contractor Pratt & Whitney, a subsidiary of RTX, told Breaking Defense that the company plans to use additive manufacturing (AM) for the F135 engine, which powers Lockheed Martin’s F-35 Joint…
AM Data Slice: 3D Printing Materials to Reach $3.9B in 2024
“AM Data Slice” from Additive Manufacturing Research (“AMR”) is a regular segment that offers readers an insightful dive into the additive manufacturing (AM) landscape, showcasing pivotal statistics and trends derived from…
3D Printing & the Military: It Takes a Village to Make a Nuclear Bomb
In previous installments in this series, we explored how the U.S. military is preparing to utilize additive manufacturing (AM) technologies. Then, in another article, we discussed the idea that possessing…
How Will 3D Printing Impact Supply Chain Resilience in 2024?
At the end of 2023, the Biden Administration announced the development of a task force dedicated to supply chain resilience. A month later, the Department of Defense (DoD) published its…
ExxonMobil and BP Latest Energy Giants to Join Fieldnode’s Digital Parts Inventory Project
In January 2023, a group of five oil & gas giants — ConocoPhillips, Equinor, Shell, TotalEnergies, and Vår Energi — signed an agreement to participate in the development of a…
3D Printing Resilience: the Case of Fiber Lasers
Since at least 2020, additive manufacturing (AM) has become more and more synonymous with the concept of supply chain resilience. In 2024, there is almost guaranteed to be a striking…
Scanning for Planning: How 3D Scanning Contributes to Supply Chain Resilience
The week after Thanksgiving, the Biden administration provided the world with major insight into what will be driving the White House’s activities in 2024 (beyond Biden’s campaign for reelection). The…