Editorials / Opinions
UC Berkeley and Prusa Open Up the World of Volumetric 3D Printing
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley) has released OpenCAL, a DIY volumetric 3D printer developed in collaboration with Prusa Research and Formlabs. Formlabs produces the resin, which will be…
50,000 Orders and Counting: EPlus3D & Chinese AM Services Provider Are Scaling Liquid Cooling Solutions for AI Servers
An under-appreciated story driving the additive manufacturing (AM) industry this year has been the divergence between what’s driving the market in China and what’s driving it everywhere else. Let’s start…
Additive Manufacturing Has a Major Growth Opportunity; Trust Will Decide Who Captures It
After years of overpromising, the next phase of AM growth will be won by companies that consistently deliver what they say. When I entered additive manufacturing in 2014, after 15…
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 Γ…
Mosquito Dreams Part 3: Kelly Johnson & The Starfighters
Chair manufacturer ThonetΒ pioneered bending wood, mass production, and composites. Then a strange wooden airplane takes to the skies and, against all expectations, does well. It takes on many roles and…
Domestic Consumption is Still the Biggest Problem for Chinese Advanced Manufacturing
At China’s inaugural National Advanced Manufacturing Conference (NAMC) that was held last month, Chinese President Xi Jinping asserted that China aims to use advanced manufacturing to “enhance the autonomy and…
Inside MGA’s 10th Anniversary Annual Meeting in Berlin
Mobility goes Additive (MGA) is an organization exploring collaborative implementation of additive manufacturing. Based in Berlin, MGA staffers work in defense, rail, and medicine while exploring urban transport, lifestyle, and…
Mosquito Dreams Part 2: Monocoque and the Battle of Britain
In the first article in this series, we look at how a European chair company invested in the world by pioneering mass manufacturing, modularity, bent wood, tubular steel, catalogs, composites,…
The βApple Effectβ: Are 3D Printers Becoming Lifestyle Products?
For most of its history, desktop 3D printing has been a technology business. Companies competed on speed, accuracy, build volume, temperature, materials and reliability. Buyers compared specifications because the machines…
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…
Stratasys vs. Bambu Lab: Why Europe and the U.S. Reached Different Results, Part II
Editor’s note: This is Part 2 of a two-part series by Xu Fanglei examining the technology and patent issues behind the Stratasys-Bambu Lab dispute. Part 1 looked at the $27.6…
Mosquito Dreams Part 1: Thonet, A World History
As a child, I lived in Kenya for a while. When we went to Mombasa, wafting breezes, crunchy white powder that sounds like snow underfoot, beaches bordered by many unseen…
MODGrid: “Gridfinity for in Your Pants”
Gridfinity, of course, is a 3D printed configurable base plate system. Print the right-sized base plate, then print boxes or scissor holders that click onto it to organize your kitchen,…
AM Demand Signals: Global Grid Resilience, Part 2
The nature of the AI boom seems no clearer despite its persistence, yet it persists. For one thing, as I’ve discussed before, people really seem to dislike data centers. American…
AM & National Competitive Advantage, Part One: the Real Problem with US Manufacturing
The problem with US manufacturing is the productivity growth rate. Depending on the source, US manufacturing productivity has either been flat or slightly declined since 2010. Before going any further…
Sunlu i10 Filament Dryer Review: Set It, Forget It, Keep Printing
The Sunlu i10 is a filament dehumidifier that I’ve been testing for the last few months. It’s a practical, easy-to-use cabinet that keeps your filament in tip-top shape. Sunlu gave…
How Drone Proliferation Is Forcing a Rethink of Defense Manufacturing
The rapid proliferation of low-cost drones is forcing manufacturers to rethink their approach to design, production, quality, and scale. For defense manufacturing teams, the challenge is both how quickly a…
The 3D Printing Opportunity in UGVs
In 2024, IperionX partnered with fastener firm Vegas Fasteners to jointly make fasteners for the US Army Ground Vehicle Systems Center (GVSC). That DEVCOM component has been hit by funding…
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 Weβre Tracking It)
If it feels like additive manufacturing and 3D printing technologies are finding a place in the mainstream of everyday products and life, itβs 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…
