Case studies, practical guides, and tools for industrial 3D printing and additive manufacturing, from prototyping to mass production.

VBN Components has introduced Vibenite 500, pure tungsten for PBF-EB 3D printing with density above 99.7% and hardness of about 400 HV2, intended for high-temperature applications and radiation shielding.

A 250-gram FDM drone reached 413 km/h according to its designer, an uncertified figure. The case shows how 3D printing enables rapid iterative development cycles, combining aerodynamic simulation and field testing.

Oerlikon has started up the first ATLIX xBUILD 5000 at Huntersville, an LPBF printer with four 1 kW lasers and automatic build module changing, designed to reduce downtime between one production cycle and the next.

General Electric has patented a monitoring system for metal 3D printing that analyzes high-frequency oscillations of the light emitted during laser melting, separating them from the average signal, to detect defects in real time via machine learning.

PharmaTher has obtained exclusive rights for North America to the CraftMake 3D drug printing platform, aiming for a distributed on-demand production network with up to 50 installations in 12 months among pharmacies, hospitals, and manufacturers.

Marlin 2.1.2.9 is a corrective release that fixes bugs in the status LEDs of VIKI I2C LCD displays and in the compilation of I2C encoders, with updates to documentation and development scripts.

ShapeAnywhere launches a browser-based CAD with a Mesh → CAD feature in beta, which reconstructs editable parametric geometry from STL or 3MF files. The conversion remains limited to suitable technical shapes, not universal.

In Q2 2026 the global 3D printing industry grows, but listed companies show mixed results. Amid price pressures, leadership changes and Chinese competition, the sector's growth is not fully reflected in the financial statements of public companies.

EXPO3D Istanbul closed its first edition with 11,224 professional visitors and 127 exhibitors. In 2027, the trade fair will expand its focus from additive manufacturing to the entire production chain, including robotics, CAD/CAM software, and reverse engineering.

The additive manufacturing skills shortage risks leaving 2.1 million jobs unfilled in the USA by 2030. University of Tennessee and America Makes discussed training strategies to bridge the gap.

Researchers at ETH Zurich will use binder jetting 3D printing to create stone samples with controlled defects, studying in the laboratory the degradation of Molasse sandstones in Swiss historic buildings.

Design Museum Gent has a new entrance: a 250 kg gate in 3D-printed aluminium by the studio Unfold, which reproduces a textile curtain frozen in motion. Installed on 3 October 2026, it combines WAAM printing and traditional construction.