My Printer

  • VulcanForms Lands Major State Backing in Massachusetts Manufacturing Push

    Massachusetts is making a major bet on industrial 3D printing. As part of a new $52 million package of state tax credits to support business expansion, the Massachusetts Economic Assistance Coordinating Council awarded more than $21.2 million to metal additive manufacturing (AM) company VulcanForms. The incentives will support the company’s plans to build a manufacturing facility of up to one million square feet in Devens, Massachusetts, where it expects to create 1,063 new jobs.

    It was the largest award approved in this funding round, which included 11 business expansion projects across the state. That is what makes this announcement stand out. Massachusetts is not funding another research project or pilot program. It is investing in large-scale manufacturing built around metal 3D printing.

    A factory built around AM

    VulcanForms already operates advanced manufacturing facilities in Massachusetts. The new Devens expansion would become another major production site, allowing the company to increase output for aerospace, defense, medical, industrial, and consumer applications. The brand has built its business around manufacturing finished metal parts at production scale. The new campus would also rank among the largest manufacturing investments centered on metal AM in the United States.

    VulcanForms has created digital production systems based on its industrial 3D printing technology. Image courtesy of Joseph Seif.

    Programs like Massachusetts’ Economic Development Incentive Program are performance-based. The $52 million represents state tax credits, not direct funding. In return, the 11 companies are expected to invest more than $1.4 billion of their own money into new facilities, equipment, and expansion projects across Massachusetts while creating and retaining thousands of jobs. VulcanForms’ planned Devens campus is part of that investment. In fact, the size of the VulcanForms award tells us that state officials believe AM can deliver those returns.

    “The Economic Development Incentive Program is one of the state’s most effective tools for supporting business expansion and job creation,” said Economic Development Secretary Eric Paley. “From robotics and artificial intelligence to advanced manufacturing and life sciences, these companies are making long-term commitments to grow here. That’s a strong vote of confidence in Massachusetts as a place where innovation can scale and businesses can succeed.”

    Manufacturing has become a bigger priority in the U.S. in recent years. Governments have pushed for more products to be made at home and for stronger supply chains. Metal 3D printing is becoming part of that effort because it can produce complex parts quickly and closer to where they are needed. There are no guarantees that every investment will succeed. But by supporting a project expected to create more than 1,000 jobs, Massachusetts is showing confidence that industrial 3D printing can play a bigger role in U.S. manufacturing.

    The announcement also comes just months after VulcanForms raised $220 million in private funding to expand its manufacturing platform. In recent weeks, it has strengthened its leadership team by appointing a new Chief Technology Officer as it prepares for its next phase of growth. In recent weeks, it has strengthened its leadership team by naming former Relativity Space executive Michael Kenworthy as its new Chief Technology Officer. Kenworthy has also held leadership roles at GE Aviation, Divergent, and Seurat Technologies, bringing experience in scaling advanced manufacturing technologies for aerospace and industrial production. The Devens project is the company’s biggest step yet. Together, those moves point to a company preparing for its next stage of expansion.

  • 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. I think that a great analogy to how this market will play out can be found in commercial vehicles. Whereas so far choices have been made mainly on volume, going forward, we will see more differentiation and specialization. Before, SLS machines were kind of sold like we were in an ice cream parlor. So much choice, but it boiled down to small, medium, or large. To me, deskside SLS is now at a point where different machines will serve different markets. We will see true change in operator profile, behavior, and utilization. What, therefore, is the future of the PBF-LB/P market? It’s a Game of Trucks.

    Road Trains (SLS Factories)

    The MGM C509 Quad Road Train is a colossal heavy-haulage combination operated by Australian logistics company MGM Bulk. Image courtesy of MGM Group.

    At the very tip of the market sit the Road Trains, big trucks that would be impractical in European cities and unusable in most other places. But, in the Australian outback, long journeys, straight roads, and isolated communities make huge truck-trailer combinations of up to 50 meters feasible,

    3D printing workflow. Image courtesy of Grenzebach

    Likewise, large, productive polymer manufacturing setups composed of several large multilaser systems are strung together by Grenzebach and others to produce very specific items at very specific quality levels. Rather than a service spitting out all sorts of stuff in PA12, this is a specific manufacturing solution tailored to one product, one industrialization, one industry, one use case. We don’t often see these in the wild, but they make millions of parts. Sometimes in materials that we don’t see anywhere else. Sometimes they’re like a line, and other times it’s more of a round-robin thing with robots connecting batch processes. Highly automated, highly customized, these road trains are going to become more popular, but never popular, costing millions to set up. They require quality, integration, and lots of capital to set up. Let’s call this the SLS Factories segment.

    DyeMansion, EOS & Grenzebach successfully implemented the first-ever automated AM production line for polymer parts at scale at BMW Group. Image courtesy of Grenzebach.

    Big Rig Versus Cab-overs and Rigids (Continuous Production, Full Frame, Large Part)

    The big rig in the US is a heavy semi-truck that looks like it was built in a world where CFD, wind tunnels, and even aerodynamics don’t exist. European variants of the same class come in a cab-over-engine (COE) configuration, reducing overall vehicle length while looking squished. Generally, in the US, trailer length is limited, while in Europe, it’s the length of the truck and trailer that is limited, making US trucks bigger and leading to more compact European models. Trips in the US are longer and mostly on highways, which makes US trucks more comfortable to stay in, while European ones are more maneuverable and comfortable to ride.

    The Peterbilt 579 UltraLoft (UL) is a flagship on-highway Class 8 truck. Image courtesy of Peterbilt.

    European trucks like Scania, DAF, and Volvo are more suave, designed by committee, safer, more reliable, more comfortable, and fuel-efficient. A US Peterbilt or Kenworth is a shiny, chrome-fueled homage to cars of the past. European trucks want to fit in and look appliance-like, eight-tonne dust busters. while the US ones want to wow, dominate, crush, and speed by. Both these variants are purpose-built for their environment and market.

    DAF starts production of XG Electric and XG⁺ Electric. Image courtesy of DAF.

    Japan has smaller trucks that are rigid without a separate trailer, using a cab-over truck layout. They don’t really have sleeper units. Although reliable, they offer significantly fewer features and less comfort and are meant for less extended and intensive use. Typically, they cost less and are meant for regional trips, a much more austere place to be, and are optimized, for example, for unloading car parts via the side.

    Hino Motors truck. Image courtesy of Hino.

    Continuous Production

    Likewise, in this segment, I expect a split. We will see highly productive, continuous production systems similar to the Farsoon HT1001P machine, where the 1000 × 500 × 450 mm build cylinders can be swapped automatically, with a new, preheated cylinder inserted in their place. This is, of course, much more efficient than the one-box approach, in which an expensive machine tool frequently spending its time heating up and cooling down. Add these times to the fact that the thing recoats two-thirds of the time, and we really don’t have a 3D printer market; it’s a recoater that spends a lot of its time preheating and cooling down. We sell recoaters not 3D printers.

    Farsoon, therefore, with its CAMS approach, cools down outside the machine tool and keeps the laser on for much longer. This is clearly more efficient, and to me, twin-scan, continuous-production variants with more optics will become standard for those who want to produce many small parts at the lowest per-part cost. This will be especially useful if the part is your final product and requires few post-processing steps. This approach requires a lot of automation in the machine, however, and will incur high additional costs. And if your complex machine breaks, you may as well go home.

    Big Rig comparison (metric units). Image courtesy of 3DPrint.com/Joris Peels.

    Full Frame

    What if you already have a considerable number of post-processing and conveyancing steps? What if you have to color, coat, or scan a part repeatedly? What if it needs to be inserted in another component, or it is a semi-finished product? Or what if quality and monitoring are of the utmost importance? Then you will look towards the P500 and future full-frame machines like it, which just produce small parts well. Together with Volkmann and other units, robots and the like, a round-robin type of production system will be made with multiple units. Less scaled than the factory and less of a line than the continuous production solution, these systems may very well be expensive and give unparalleled accuracy, surface quality, and repeatability.

    Large Part

    Comparison of leading industrial SLS platforms, showing build volumes, laser configurations, power, system weight, and machine footprint. Image courtesy of 3DPrint.com/Joris Peels.

    As we see in metals, we can also see large parts of systems emerge. The P700, in part, and the HT601P Series are like this. Here, companies want high-temperature performance, some kind of less-than-horrible performance in PEEK and the like, and the ability to make big parts. Here, one large part may be printed, and keeping it from warping or deforming is key. These will be specialized, but in areas like aerospace, large build volumes and the ability to make the largest parts with SLS will matter a lot to those who care about drones, hypersonics, and the like.

    In this way, we can now see parallels between a functional diversification based on utility. In this light, we can see that we are increasingly moving towards a more user-inspired SLS market. Join us next time when we talk about Sprinters and Kangoos!

  • Jaden Smith, Louboutin, and Zellerfeld Tease a New 3D Printed Luxury Shoe

    Jaden Smith may have just brought 3D printed footwear into one of fashion’s most famous red-soled shoes.

    It all started during Paris Fashion Week, where Christian Louboutin presented its Men’s Spring/Summer 2027 collection on June 24, led by Smith, who was named the house’s first men’s creative director in 2025. Instead of a traditional runway, guests walked into a vivid red terrain. Massive prehistoric stone-like formations, much like a modern Stonehenge, took over the venue. Some of those “stones” had “display niches” carved into them, almost like museum cases, where shoes, bags, and accessories were exhibited. Other shoes were displayed on top of the rocks, almost like sculptures or artifacts. Most of it was bathed in Louboutin’s signature color. This was a visually striking show, or we could say, an immersive setting built around ruins and fantasy.

    Inside Louboutin’s Men’s Spring/Summer 2027 presentation, in the form of monumental circular monoliths that reveal the collection’s key shoes and leather goods.

    But then came the social media posts. And that’s when the clues appeared. Smith posted a video that seemed to have been filmed backstage at the presentation. Dressed in one of his Louboutin looks, he slipped on a shoe with the brand’s unmistakable red sole, then took it off and folded it in half to show just how flexible it was. Shortly after, Zellerfeld, known for its fully 3D printed footwear, reposted the clip with a shushing emoji (à la “keep this a secret”) and an arrow pointing to the word “Soon.”

    Well, it wasn’t secret for long. A few days later, Footwear News reported that Smith had previewed a never-before-seen Christian Louboutin shoe that was 3D printed with help from Zellerfeld. In a statement sent to FN, Zellerfeld said the shoe “marks a major step for what a luxury dress shoe can become, not cut, stitched and assembled in the traditional sense, but shaped through next-gen manufacturing.”

    That’s all we know so far. What is still unclear is whether the shoe featured in Smith’s video was part of the presentation itself or previewed separately around the event. But, we could say that Smith’s latest Louboutin chapter seems to be opening the door to 3D printed luxury footwear, and Zellerfeld is part of that next step.

    Zellerfeld reposted Jaden Smith’s video with a “Soon” teaser before confirming its collaboration on a fully 3D printed luxury dress shoe. Image courtesy of Zellerfeld via Instagram.

    And what about the bright red shoes everyone saw in Paris? Could those have been 3D printed too? One of the standout pieces in Smith’s installation was the Claw Feet, a slip-on with claw-like toes and a smooth, seamless look. It actually shared a lot in common with other shoes we’ve seen 3D printed. Of course, we don’t have confirmation of this at the moment. Neither Louboutin nor Zellerfeld has said whether the Claw Feet were 3D printed. But after Smith’s flex test, Zellerfeld’s “Soon” teaser, and the company’s later confirmation that it had worked on a fully 3D printed luxury dress shoe, it’s hard not to wonder if visitors had already seen the collaboration without realizing it.

    Jaden Smith’s Claw Feet.

    Zellerfeld has spent the last few years pushing a different model for footwear. Instead of cutting, stitching, gluing, and assembling shoes from many parts, the company uses 3D printing to make shoes as single-piece or near-single-piece objects. That changes how footwear can be designed, made, fitted, and eventually (and much more easily) distributed.

    It has also been expanding the business behind that vision. Just last week, Zellerfeld announced a partnership with Swedish foot-scanning company Volumental, integrating its scanning technology into Zellerfeld’s production platform to manufacture custom-fit shoes. The deal followed Zellerfeld’s investment in Volumental and points to its strategy of building an end-to-end digital footwear ecosystem, from capturing a customer’s foot shape to producing a made-to-order 3D printed shoe.

    The entrance to Louboutin’s Men’s Spring/Summer 2027 collection took place at Palais Brongniart.

    Until now, most 3D printed footwear stories have been around sneakers, slides, concept shoes, and limited-edition collabs with celebrities, athletes, and designers. A luxury dress shoe is a different challenge. Mention a luxury dress shoe, and most people imagine fine leather, skilled artisans, and brands like Hermès, Berluti, John Lobb, or Louboutin. It’s a world built on tradition. A fully 3D printed dress shoe breaks away from that tradition. And Zellerfeld isn’t trying to replace traditional shoemaking with a cheaper alternative. Instead, the company says 3D printing opens the door to a new kind of luxury.

    The red sole adds another layer. So when Smith teases a red-soled shoe, and Zellerfeld reposts it with a “Soon” hint, the message is hard to miss. Something is coming, and it seems to be at the intersection of Louboutin’s luxury and Zellerfeld’s digital manufacturing platform. That could make this more than another celebrity shoe. Not that we don’t love a celeb collab. In fact, celebrity collaborations have helped bring 3D printed footwear into the spotlight, but this one could show how the technology is finding a place in luxury fashion.

    Then there’s the question everyone will probably ask first: How much would a shoe like this cost? Christian Louboutin’s men’s dress shoes often sell for $1,200 to $1,500, while most Zellerfeld shoes cost somewhere between $150 and $300. If this collaboration eventually goes on sale, it will be fascinating to see where the two worlds meet. Right in the middle? Or closer to the red sole than the 3D printer?

    Images courtesy of Maison Christian Louboutin unless otherwise noted

  • 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 not much else. So far, Chinese powder vendors have offered cost savings but not much else. Often they have no machine settings or practical guidance on using the powder.

    But we know that China is printing rockets and implants, and they will use a lot of machines for defense purposes as well. So there should be advanced powders, and there should be some Chinese powder vendors that know what they’re doing. But, kind of like Spanish wine, they really haven’t been exporting the good stuff. It doesn’t help that China has actively banned or dissuaded companies from exporting some powders and alloys over the last few years.

    But we know that developing 3D printing is part of the past 14th Five-Year Plan (from 2021 to 2025) and is a foundational technology for China’s future, alongside 5G networks and AI. In the current Five-Year Plan, 3D printing is integrated into advanced manufacturing, but it identifies alloy standardization under national standards and focuses on developing new high-temperature and high-performance materials. China is trying to develop leading alloys itself and has a sovereign 3D printing capability. This effectively means there is near-unlimited funding available in China for new Additive alloys, as long as they outperform existing ones.

    So we shall have to get used to new high-performance powders being available from and being developed in China. At the same time, this kind of an unlimited money fountain tends to bring out the worst in people and often unleashes a wave of claims that turn out to be hogwash. If you want a little more background, you can check out our “How China Works” article.

    So with that as context, Vilory Metal Powder (formally known as Jiangsu Vilory Advanced Materials Technology)  has announced a 3D printable titanium alloy that outperforms Ti6Al4V while being able to maintain ≥450 MPa at 700°C. The near-alpha titanium T70X uses Sn, Zr, Mo, Cr, Co, V, and Ni to reportedly reduce embrittlement up to 750°C. The company says this makes it a replacement for existing high-temperature Ti powders, such as TIMETAL 834, while enabling it to outperform at high temperatures. At the same time, the firm believes the powder is a lighter alternative to Inconel, weighing 45% less in high-performance parts.

    The company says that the material is commercially available. It indicates that the processing parameters are normal and that it takes standard heat treatment. The firm also says it has a “production-scale supply” available. One of the applications the company says is well-suited is “hypersonic control surfaces, leading edges, thermal shields,” which is nice to know. VMP also believes that the same material can serve in turbomachinery, turbine blades, compressor disks, and other aeroengine components. At the same time, it may be used in automotive applications. So the pricing shouldn’t be too painful then? For things like an afterburner heat shield, it can offer “lightweight + printable complex cooling channels.”

    VMP T70X. Image courtesy of VMP.

    The company states that, “Production-Ready. Not a Lab Curiosity. T70X is in commercial production at VMP, with powder specs that rival or exceed industry benchmarks.” Furthermore, the material is said to have “Low CTE + mid-temp strength retention,” which could be useful in “Engine nacelle thermal shields,” and to have “Lattice structures validated for this alloy family,” which could be useful there and elsewhere.

    Now, for a while I’ve noticed that alloys are never really perfect. We discussed this in our RCAA article, Goldilocks Flywheel. It’s therefore nice that they mention that it is not for corrosion applications, cryogenic ones, or medical implants. So what to think of Ti-Al-Sn-Zr-Mo-Cr-Co-V-Ni? It could very well be that through reducing aluminum content to 3.6–4.0% the company has managed to make a perfect cocktail. Can we call this Valconi, by the way?

    Alloying Element Function T70X range
    Sn α-strengthener without α₂ risk 1–5%
    Zr Solid-solution strengthening 1.5–5.5%
    Mo β-stabilizer and creep resistance 0.5–2.5%
    Cr, Co, V, Ni Grain boundary pinning ≤1% each

    So this kind of weird intermarriage between a nickel superalloy and titanium would seem to be a very interesting material indeed. It would also, at face value, seem to be the most obvious RCAA-like material to develop. So maybe the company is optimistic? And the ORNL & NASA people have all been asleep at the wheel? This lovechild of Waspalloy and Ti seems super-duper obvious for people to try to play with? But given China’s industrial might, its stated goal of developing these alloys, and its needs in aviation, rocket engines, aircraft engines, missiles, and hypersonics, it will eventually develop an alloy very similar to this one.

    Temperature TC4 TA15 IMI 834 T70X (VMP)
    500°C ~550 MPa 747 MPa ~800 MPa ~800 MPa
    600°C — — ~600 MPa ≥650 MPa
    700°C — — — ≥450 MPa

    “Listen very carefully, I shall say this only once, René.” This is a very important moment in our 3D printing market. Western powder suppliers will have to work harder to innovate faster. The Goldilocks Flywheel article poses some interesting dilemmas but also a huge potential for those who conquer new alloys using computational methods and additive manufacturing. It is 100% that many Chinese firms will try this. It will take a genius to make this alloy work, but a kid with PowerPoint could get $10 million to try to make this work. And very simple minds will be able to figure out that with AI, AWS, additive, and RCAA’s you may be able to make a future family of alloys.

    So real competition is coming, and it will be in advanced materials and rooted in real production cases. China is advancing not just in low-cost, bulk products but also in the most critical applications.

  • 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 to America Makes, but with a broader focus than just defense. AMCRC is funded to the tune of $57 million by the Australian government and is trying to help additive manufacturing grow and gain a foothold in the country.

    Now the AMCRC is working with Austal and Curtin University on a $600,000 research product. Austal is an Australian shipbuilder that employs over 4,000 people and has revenues of 1.82 billion Australian dollars ($1.29 billion in US). Austal has built patrol vessels for many countries and also builds ferries, submarines, and autonomous vessels. Curtin, meanwhile, is a leading university for mining, geology, geophysics, and architecture. 

    The research project will look through Austal’s defense supply chain to identify parts ripe for 3D printing. Running for 18 months, the idea is to develop “a practical, industry-ready framework capable of providing consistent methodology for assessing potentially thousands of components against operational, commercial, technical, and regulatory requirements.” This is similar to the US Army, Navy, and America Makes projects that we’ve seen in the US.

    This seems like a sensible move for Austal. This way, the company can reap the benefits from AM while learning to deploy it more widely. The partners also want to look to “support sovereign manufacturing capability.” Australia is very far from anywhere else and indeed extremely far away from the US. In the case of a long, drawn-out conflict or a very impactful one, Australia will have to make many parts itself. In Europe, these sovereign manufacturing exercises always have an air of tea, biscuits, and let’s run the flag up the pole. For Australia, on the other hand, this is a very serious thing indeed. Especially for large parts such as steam turbine components or superstructures, Australia would need to be able to repair them quickly and on its own if it were cut off from the US or if the part was too large for even the US’s enormous C5 aircraft. Generally, having a repair ability would also be very useful in the event of a conflict. And speaking up lead times for casting and forging is always a good idea. 3D printing and sustainment are generally a match made in heaven.

    Head of Research and Development at Austal, Sam Abbott, noted that,

    “The challenge is no longer whether additive manufacturing works. The challenge is knowing where it delivers the greatest value. This framework will help us quantify the demand for additive manufacturing across maritime and defence programs, allowing industry to make better investment decisions, build more resilient supply chains and accelerate the uplift of Australia’s advanced manufacturing capabilities.”

    Austal is already working as a prime contractor for the United States Navy’s Additive Manufacturing Centre of Excellence, so that experience should help. The Navy’s COE is doing a lot of work not only on qualification and the like, but also on actually getting 3D printed parts made and used. They’re currently looking for manufacturers of ball valve components and LPBF gate valve components. This is good news for Curtin University, which could gain a deeper understanding of practical scale-up and have parts made on the AM side.

    Austal and AMCRC work on R&D.

    The university’s Dr. Karl Davidson explained that,

    “By combining engineering, operational and commercial considerations into a single framework, we can help manufacturers make faster, more informed decisions about where additive manufacturing can deliver measurable benefits,”

    Meanwhile, the AMCRC’s Director, Simon Marriott, said,

    “Many organisations understand the potential of additive manufacturing, but struggle to determine where it makes commercial and operational sense.This project will deliver a practical solution that helps industry identify high-value opportunities, prioritise investment and build confidence to scale adoption.”

    This kind of collaborative work, rooted in real practice, is very valuable. Of course, a lot of hard work and discussion will still be needed for this to succeed. But if Australia develops a path from need to part, the country could see which parts it can make, which technologies it needs to invest more in, and which capacities it needs to develop further. Australia has worked with Spee3D on cold spray and with several DED vendors to develop local capacity to manufacture parts and machines. But, being much further from anyone and lacking the immense budgets the US has, the Australians will have to make more precise choices earlier on to truly build capacity. The AMCRC is doing important work here, and there will be much more of it should Australia truly want to develop a sovereign manufacturing capacity.

    Images courtesy of Austal

  • Caltech Uses 3D Printing to Rethink the Lithium-Ion Battery

    For more than two decades, lithium-ion batteries have powered almost everything around us. They are inside smartphones, laptops, electric vehicles, drones, and even many medical devices. Batteries have improved a lot over the years. But they can still overheat, use expensive materials like cobalt, and are becoming harder to improve. Instead of developing a completely new battery, researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) are focusing on the one we already use. Their idea is to redesign its inside with 3D printing. And the team’s work focuses on one of the battery’s most important components: the cathode.

    A Different Way to Build a Battery

    Most lithium-ion batteries today are built with flat, layered electrodes. It is a design that has worked well for years because it is pretty easy to make. But the Caltech team is doing things differently. Instead of making a flat cathode, they designed and 3D printed one with a tiny, carefully engineered structure. So instead of moving through a flat layer, lithium ions can travel through a more complex 3D network. The researchers say this could help the battery store and deliver energy more efficiently.

    That’s important because every time a battery charges or discharges, lithium ions have to travel between the electrodes. If that trip is shorter and smoother, the battery can work better.

    “If you make a battery that is 3D architected instead of planar, every lithium ion is going to have an active surface available to it as it’s transporting through the electrolyte,” says Julia Greer, Professor of Materials Science, Mechanics and Medical Engineering at Caltech, whose lab has been working to improve Li-ion batteries.

    Julia Greer, the Ruben F. and Donna Mettler Professor of Materials Science, Mechanics and Medical Engineering and executive officer for applied physics and materials science at Caltech. Image courtesy of EAS Communications Office/Caltech

    According to the researchers, those extra surfaces give the ions more places to move, helping the battery transfer energy more efficiently than a traditional flat design.

    The findings were published in the paper, “Structure–Transport Relationships in Microarchitected LiFePO4–Carbon Li Ion Battery Electrodes,” in ACS Energy Letters. The work was supported by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory through its President’s and Director’s Research and Development Fund, and Caltech.

    Goodbye to Cobalt

    One of the biggest changes is the material. The new battery component does not use cobalt, a metal found in many of today’s lithium-ion batteries. Cobalt is expensive, supplies are limited, and mining it has raised environmental and human rights concerns. Battery companies have spent years trying to reduce or replace it, and this research could help make that possible.

    The team also changed how that battery component is made. Instead of traditional manufacturing, they used a 3D printing method called hydrogel infusion additive manufacturing (HIAM) process, which was developed in Caltech’s Greer Lab. Here, HIAM was used to build a small, highly detailed structure. Creating the same design with conventional manufacturing would be extremely difficult.

    So rather than inventing a new battery material, the researchers found a new way to shape an existing one using 3D printing. Changing the shape of the component changes how the battery works. The new 3D design gives lithium ions more room to move through the battery, which could help it charge and discharge more efficiently while keeping the same basic lithium-ion chemistry.

    Schematic of the hydrogel infusion additive manufacturing process for LFP/C composite electrodes and representative images of the resulting lattices. Image courtesy of ACS Energy Lett. 2026, 11, 6, 4392-4400.

    The work is still at the research stage. And there is no indication that these batteries are ready for mass production, and many challenges remain before manufacturers could adopt a completely new electrode architecture.

    Scaling any new battery technology from the laboratory to millions of products is a long process that often takes years. However, the study points to a growing trend across advanced manufacturing. Instead of using additive manufacturing only to make battery housings, tooling, or production equipment, researchers are increasingly using 3D printing to redesign the battery itself.

    Microscope images (top) and a diagram (bottom) showing the 3D-printed battery electrode developed by Caltech researchers. Credit: Sun et al., ACS Energy Letters (2026). Image courtesy of ACS Energy Lett. 2026, 11, 6, 4392-4400.

    Demand for better batteries continues to grow as electric vehicles, AI data centers, renewable energy systems, and everyday electronics all need more power and longer battery life. Much of the attention has focused on new battery chemistries, but the Caltech team’s work points to another possibility, improving today’s lithium-ion batteries by changing how they’re designed. If the concept can be scaled beyond the lab, 3D printing could give researchers a new way to rethink battery design without replacing the technology that already powers millions of devices.

  • 3D Printing News Briefs, July 1, 2026: Prosthetics, Drug Delivery, & More

    We’re focused on healthcare and research in today’s 3D Printing News Briefs, including 3D printed prosthetics, patient-specific implants, drug delivery, and more. Read on for all the details!

    Students from Queen’s University Bringing Accessible Prosthetics to Thailand

    Queen’s students, including members of the Queen’s Biomedical Innovation Team (QBiT), continue to work on developing and fine-tuning designs for prosthetics that can be created using a 3D printer. (Photo courtesy Burma Children Medical Fund)

    Almost two decades ago, Queen’s University researchers Eva Purkey (Family Medicine) and Colleen Davison (Public Health) started traveling annually to a clinic in Thailand to help with health workshops and policy reform. They also started working with NGO Burma Children Medical Fund (BCMF), which helps underserved communities get access to surgical treatment. In 2019, BCMF launched a 3D prosthesis project, and Drs. Purkey and Davison worked with other Queen’s colleagues to get funding and set up a recurring partnership, in which students do 90-day placements within BCMF. Emese Elkind, a biomedical computing student at Queen’s, started with the program as a summer volunteer, and has now spent the last three years leading a team of engineering students from the Queen’s Biomedical Innovation Team (QBiT) in the design and development of accessible 3D printed prosthetics for migrants running from civil war.

    BCMF had access to open source prosthetic designs, as well as donated 3D printers, but they didn’t have an open source design for above-elbow amputees. Elkind wanted to solve the problem, and worked with the QBIT team to create a harness system that can independently move the elbow, as well as each individual finger, without using the kind of robotics or electronics that are hard to maintain in resource-limited areas like Burma and Thailand. Their work has received plenty of recognition and awards at North American engineering competitions, and they donated half of their prize money to BCMF to fund translation services, surgeries, transitional housing, and access to professional design software. Elkind says the experience has been “life changing, and has reshaped the way I think about engineering, where our job isn’t just to make new technology, it’s to solve real problems.” As she prepares to start her master’s program, Elkind is moving to a senior advisory role for the Queen’s and BCMF prosthetics project.

    CureWith3D Working to Support Personalized Healthcare in India

    Image: CureWith3D

    Clinicians these days are better equipped to plan operations with high precision and accuracy ahead of complex surgical procedures, thanks to technologies like CAD engineering, advanced imaging, and 3D printing. India-based company CureWith3D specializes in 3D printing and digital surgical planning, and reported that it’s working to strengthen its patient-specific healthcare offerings by offering custom 3D printed implants, surgical guides, and anatomical models, and Virtual Surgical Planning (VSP) services, to hospitals, healthcare institutions, and surgeons across the country. CureWith3D works with craniofacial, oncology, maxillofacial, reconstructive, and orthopedic surgeons to develop custom solutions for complex cases, using engineering know-how, radiological imaging, and high-quality additive manufacturing (AM) to fabricate drilling and surgical guiding guides, anatomical models for pre-op planning, and patient-specific implants. Its VSP services enable surgeons to simulate surgical outcomes and finalize designs before the surgery even starts.

    “As personalized medicine continues to evolve, patient-specific technologies are becoming an important part of modern surgical care. Our objective is to collaborate with healthcare professionals by providing engineering-driven solutions that help improve planning, precision, and patient outcomes,” said a CureWith3D spokesperson.

    MIT Researchers Develop Low-Cost Design for 3D Printed Electronic Nozzles in Drug Delivery 

    A zoomed-in view of the nozzles that emit the three-layered microdroplets. Credit: Courtesy of the researchers

    Triaxial electrospray emitters are specialized electronic nozzles that use electricity to dispense three separate liquids from microscopic nozzles, which generates a stream of three distinct fluid layers. These form into multilayered droplets, which can then solidify into layered microparticles. A good application example is a drug delivery nanoparticle, where the outer layer slowly erodes in the person’s stomach, and leaves a second material, which controls the release of the core material that delivers medicine. However, these are not easy, or cheap, to make, often requiring microfabrication processes inside semiconductor cleanrooms. But a team of MIT researchers used vat photopolymerization to 3D print arrays of these triaxial electrospray emitters, which feature 16 nozzles in a one square centimeter area. The one-step fabrication process can produce complex emitter arrays in just a few hours. Miniaturization is necessary for electrospray devices, because the voltage required to generate droplets is lower when the emitter is smaller. MIT’s 3D printed devices are just a bit larger than a U.S. penny, and cost-effective as well. They could one day help streamline and scale production of drug delivery microparticles, seal-healing materials, or biosensors.

    “We couldn’t make a device like this in a semiconductor cleanroom. This is only possible because they are 3D-printed. The particles these devices generate, whether they are used for a self-healing composite or to deliver medicine, can have a big impact in many applications. We want to democratize this technology so the benefits can touch many more people,” explained Luis Fernando Velásquez-García, a principal research scientist in MIT’s Microsystems Technology Laboratories (MTL) and senior author of the team’s research paper.

    “By making such intricate devices more practical, we can empower others to pursue entrepreneurial and scientific advances.”

    SUSTech 3D Printing Continuous Fiber Composite Honeycombs with Expansion-Forming Process

    Graphical abstract. Image courtesy SUSTech researchers.

    Composite honeycomb structures are lightweight architectures with low density, excellent energy absorption, and unique thermomechanical properties. That’s why they’re often used for things like vibration dampers, insulators, and energy absorbers in civil engineering, aerospace, and automotive applications. Conventional manufacturing processes, like co-curing, require multiple molds, lengthy procedures, and and high technical requirements, while methods like automated fiber placement are too expensive and not well-suited for fabricating small honeycomb structures. 3D printing, particularly fused filament fabrication (FFF) methods, is a good way to make continuous fiber-reinforced composites (CFRCs), and now CFRC cellular structures, like hexagonal honeycombs. But, according to researchers from the Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech) in Shenzhen, China, 3D printed CFRC honeycomb architectures have their own issues. Continuous fibers are often limited to out-of-plane stacking, which makes the structural design process less flexible and can result in “out-of-plane mechanical performance of sandwich structures with honeycomb.” So the team came up with a novel 3D printing method, which gets a little help from an expansion process, to overcome this issue and achieve composite honeycomb structures with tailored continuous fiber orientations.

    “Compressive tests were carried out to assess the mechanical performance of the CFRC honeycomb structures produced by the proposed method. The experimental results demonstrate that, compared to conventional 3D printing processes (0° fiber filled honeycomb), the expansion-aided method (90° fiber filled honeycomb) significantly improves specific compressive modulus, strength and energy absorption by 126.44%, 198.64% and 32.05%, respectively, with enhanced surface quality, reducing dimensional error by 82.76%. Furthermore, a predictive model for the out-of-plane compressive strength of CFRC honeycomb structures was developed, showing strong agreement with experimental data. The proposed technique holds considerable promise for the integrated fabrication of lightweight CFRC structures with complex fiber directions and superior mechanical properties,” the researchers wrote in their abstract.

    You can learn more by reading the team’s research paper here.

  • AM Solutions Targets Smaller AM Labs with New S1 Basic

    AM Solutions is releasing the S1 Basic, a small automated depowdering tool. The Rösler subsidiary is looking to make its products more accessible. The unit could be used in low-volume sites like some university labs, prototyping labs, research labs, and setups where space is a premium.

    Made for laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) setups such as Multi Jet Fusion (MJF). The system can run parts up to 100 × 100 × 100 mm in an automated cycle, while manually you can work with parts up to 350 × 200 × 200 mm. The unit is a 2-in-1 system that combines cleaning and resurfacing. These units are not only more compact but also save one extra conveyancing step per batch, should you use two different units instead. In addition to depowdering, the parts are resurfaced and then shot-peened. The company hopes the system delivers repeatable results through automated cleaning and resurfacing for many users. The chamber is 740 x 650 x 830 mm, while the machine measures 1800 x 800 mm. You can process about 7 liters of parts per batch.

    Head of AM Solutions David Soldan explained,

    “With the S1 Basic, AM Solutions expands its S1 family with a system designed to provide a cost-efficient and standardized entry into the automated post-processing of additively manufactured parts. The S1 remains the solution for more demanding industrial applications requiring an extended range of functions and performance capabilities. Our goal was to create a coherent system architecture that meaningfully covers both application levels.”

    The integrated blasting media recirculation system with powder separation ensures consistently high blasting media quality, reproducible processing results, and reduced operating costs. Image courtesy of AM Solutions.

    The unit recycles blasting media and removes powder using an automated sieve, keeping the process behind filters to safely speed up processing. The company believes that less powder remains on parts compared to other processes. The PLC is a Siemens S7-1200, and the company has worked on workflow and the UI to make life easier for operators. The noise level is kept at 75 dB(A), and the system includes features such as antistatic gloves.

    At 3D Print in Lyon, AM Solutions presented the S1 Basic for the first time. To the left, David Soldan, Head of AM Solutions. Image courtesy of AM Solutions.

    Rösler is a premium firm that has incredibly good, long-lasting post-processing solutions for many industries. Their AM Solutions unit has consistently made high-quality systems for batch-based processes. Some systems seem very pricey and very complex. For many users, this new, simpler system will be very attractive. Typically, people buy cheap blasting cabinets and then end up with very manual workflows for ages. This could update and automate that functionality. Especially in corporate prototyping labs and model shops, it is often too expensive for people to spend too much time on manual tasks that add little value. It’s much better for that person to be designing or working creatively instead.

    So there definitely is an attractive niche market here. This unit brings more competition to RusselFinex and its compact units. It’s also competitive with the entry-level DyeMansion Powershot C, for example. This emerging segment reminds me a lot of the Lexus LBX, a compact car on the Toyota TNGA-B platform. This subcompact/city car segment underpins the Toyota Aygo and Yaris. Small with a 1.5-liter engine, it doesn’t seem to have the mass and horsepower that we associate with luxury cars, and in the back, it’s comfortable but not huge. In the front, however, it’s a very comfortable place to be, and the car is a wonderful choice for those without kids or many passengers who want a city-centric ride. I couldn’t get my head around the small car at first, but it totally makes sense if you just want a small ride that still offers comfort and safety. To me, a similar positioning points to a new place for the S1 and other systems to be. Easy to use, reliable, work reducing, but with premium features. I, for one, think that in addition to the S1 basic and the regular S1, there could also be room for the S1 Luxury, which keeps the small form factor and adds more premium features.

  • Dawn Aerospace Raises $25 Million as 3D Printing Helps Power Reusable Spaceflight Ambitions

    The race to build the next generation of reusable spacecraft just got another boost. Dawn Aerospace has landed $25 million in Series B funding to help scale its reusable space transportation business. The company, now valued at $195 million, is betting that reusable vehicles will help reshape how often (and how affordably) we reach space.

    The new funding will support the expansion of Dawn’s satellite propulsion business, continued development of its Aurora reusable spaceplane, and work on Loop, the company’s planned in-orbit satellite refueling network. Dawn is targeting a Loop demonstration in 2028.

    For the additive manufacturing (AM) industry, the funding points to a growing trend: many of the most ambitious space startups are building critical hardware with 3D printing.

    Based in New Zealand and the Netherlands, Dawn Aerospace already has one foot in space. Unlike many space startups that are still pre-revenue, Dawn already generates revenue through its satellite propulsion business. Its propulsion systems are flying on dozens of spacecraft, providing revenue while the company develops something much more ambitious: Aurora, a reusable spaceplane.

    Unlike traditional rockets, Aurora is designed to take off from a runway, reach the edge of space, land back on a runway, and fly again with far less downtime between missions. The long-term goal is to make access to space look less like an occasional rocket launch and more like regular aircraft operations.

    “As a cash-flow positive company, raising capital is about accelerating the growth of programs we have extremely high conviction in, and that our customers are desperate for,” said Stefan Powell, CEO of Dawn Aerospace.

    Aurora in flight during one of Dawn’s test campaigns. Image courtesy of Dawn Aerospace.

    Behind the scenes, Dawn has been using 3D printing to develop critical space hardware, including rocket engine technology developed through projects with the European Space Agency (ESA).

    The announcement comes as investors continue to back companies working to make spaceflight cheaper and more routine. Reusability has become one of the industry’s biggest trends, helping cut launch costs and increase the number of missions. While companies like SpaceX have helped make reusable rockets a reality, Dawn is betting that the next step is a reusable spaceplane that operates more like an aircraft than a traditional launch vehicle.

    For many space companies, 3D printing has become much more than another manufacturing tool. It helps teams move from design to testing faster, while also making it possible to produce lightweight parts that would be difficult to manufacture any other way. For Dawn Aerospace, those benefits are especially important. Reusable spacecraft need to be as light, reliable, and efficient as possible. AM makes it easier to refine critical components and reduce the number of parts in a system, helping simplify production while improving performance.

    The Series B round follows Dawn’s $20 million Series A in 2022, which helped the company expand its satellite propulsion business and continue development of its spaceplane program. With the latest investment, Dawn has now raised at least $45 million in equity funding as it works to scale both businesses. The round was led by U.S.-based Balerion Space Ventures, with participation from both existing and new investors, including Japan’s ANA Future Frontier Fund, backed by airline giant All Nippon Airways (ANA), Japan’s largest airline, as well as entrepreneur and entrepreneur and angel investor Tim Ferriss, who previously backed companies such as Uber, Shopify, Facebook, and X. As part of the investment, Balerion General Partner Dan Wallman will join Dawn Aerospace’s board of directors.

    The company is also aiming for Aurora to become the first vehicle to fly above the Kármán line—the internationally recognized boundary of space—twice in a single day in 2027. If successful, it would mark another step toward Dawn’s goal of making spaceflight operate more like commercial aviation.

    The team behind Aurora, next to the rocket-powered aircraft, the first New Zealand-designed and -built aircraft to fly supersonic. Image courtesy of Dawn Aerospace.

  • Aires Tide Designed with AI, Supercomputers, and 3D Printing

    The Department of Energy‘s National Nuclear Security Administration (DOE/NNSA) is part of the US government that manages the US nuclear stockpile, helping to upgrade, improve, and maintain nuclear weapons, and helps to maintain the Navy’s nuclear propulsion program. This is a super-secret, super-sensitive part of the government that we don’t often see or hear from.

    Now they’ve introduced Aires Tide, a rapid implementation of a hypersonic vehicle that used the DOE’s Genesis Mission AI supercomputing capacity to make the vehicle, “15 times cheaper and seven times faster than traditional manufacturing.” The work was done by Los Alamos, Lawrence Livermore, Sandia, and the Kansas City National Security Campus.

    NNSA Administrator Brandon Williams said,

    “Aires Tide is a remarkable early demonstration of how NNSA is putting the Genesis Mission into action. “President Trump has made it clear that America must lead the world in artificial intelligence and use emerging technologies to strengthen our national security. By combining AI, high-performance computing, and additive manufacturing, we are pioneering a faster, more efficient model to design and produce capabilities for national security while keeping human judgment firmly at the center.”

    The Venado supercomputer at Los Alamos National Laboratory helped power the AI-driven design of the Aires Tide flight test vehicle. Image courtesy of NNSA.

    The Aires Tide vehicle was flight tested in May. The vehicle was tested at the US Army’s Dugway Proving Ground, being dropped from 32,000 feet. The design was made on the Venado and El Capitan. El Capitan is currently the world’s second most powerful supercomputer. The US$600 million system was built on the HPE Cray EX architecture and reportedly can run at 2.821 exaFLOPS. The computer uses 11,039,616 CPU and GPU cores, consisting of 43,808 AMD fourth Gen EPYC 24C “Genoa” 24-core 1.8 GHz CPUs (1,051,392 cores) and 43,808 AMD Instinct MI300A GPUs (9,988,224 compute units, 228 per GPU, which have a total of 639,246 stream processors, 14,592 per GPU). The 700-square-meter system is at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). The system was commissioned and built specifically for nuclear weapons design and testing. Named for the rock formation in Yosemite, this computer is near the precipice of computing today.

    The Venado is currently the 26th most powerful supercomputer in the world, down from 11th only a few years ago when it was launched. The machine has 481,440 cores and is made of 2,560 NVIDIA Grace Hopper Superchips and 920 NVIDIA Grace CPU Superchips. Although less powerful, Venado is in some respects a much more critical system. The Venado was made by HPE specifically for AI. Have you heard of AI? Well, these guys probably have the world’s best cat pictures. OpenAI and other Frontier models are being run on the machine, on its own network, for National Security use. So far, the system has also been used to find new materials, looking at frontier AI models themselves, and astrophysics.

    By using them in design, the NNSA is pushing forward at the intersection of engineering, science, and materials. If we look at Genesis, it’s a supremely ambitious initiative; just one element is: “Manufacturing Accelerating advanced manufacturing Turning design into production at the speed of need. Engineers and AI-driven digital twins share a continuous feedback loop between design, sensors, and fabrication, cutting qualification time and boosting efficiencies.”

    Now there are a lot of buzzwords there, but it’s really important nonetheless. If we can tie what is happening on the factory floor directly to the physics of materials and manufacturing, we can make it in a completely new way. A much more fluid and fundamental method of making could be introduced. We could change a material to offset a manufacturing tolerance issue, or change a design to make printing easier or to improve surface texture, not just before making that design in FEA, but by working backward from the physics of manufacturing and real-world performance. We’re talking about a new world beyond CFD and FEA.

    Now I’m aware that this sounds rather woolly, but Aires Tide is a very concrete result. We can use this new design system to cost-effectively design new vehicles more cheaply and quickly than we normally would. This is very important now, since the US has depleted its precision interceptors and needs to produce more missiles while lacking superiority in hypersonics. The new drone world, which we will talk about on the 30th, needs a more agile and faster US defense establishment. Aires Tide combines AI with 3D printing to quickly produce cutting-edge vehicles. That is great news for us, but it could also point to a future in US manufacturing for defense. We’re not sure what this vehicle is, but our guess is that it’s a hypersonic glide vehicle cruiser, which suggests this is a very important, cutting-edge development indeed.