An EU-funded research team has developed a 3D bioprinting technique that grows living bone, fat and muscle tissue in the lab, with uses stretching from leukaemia research to cultivated meat. The work comes out of PRISM-LT, a five-year project running until 2027 and coordinated scientifically by Massimo Vassalli, professor of bioengineering at the University of…
ugee, the Shenzhen-based digital creativity brand, has globally launched Funbox, its first desktop 3D printer aimed at children and beginners, priced at $269 and positioned as a home-grade, out-of-the-box machine for families. The printer targets the 4-to-12 age group and is built around three claims: enclosed safety, one-tap operation, and AI-assisted design that turns a…
Purdue University researchers have built a 3D printed, open-source alternative to the specialized groundwater-flow sensors that the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) owns in only small numbers, and they can assemble each unit for a few hundred dollars, a fraction of the cost of the commercial hardware it replaces. The patent-pending device is designed to drop…
Market intelligence firm CONTEXT has published its Q1 2026 analysis of global 3D printer shipments, and the numbers point to an industry growing fast but unevenly. Total hardware system revenues rose 32% Y/Y, industrial shipments climbed 18% across all major regions, and the sub-$2,500 desktop category now generates more revenue than every other price class…
Researchers at Trinity College Dublin‘s School of Engineering have 3D printed what they say is Ireland’s first cement-free geopolymer, a red-brown construction material made largely from industrial waste that contains no Portland cement and, by their preliminary estimate, carries around 70% less embodied carbon than conventional concrete. The material was put through a full industrial-scale…
Istanbul-based startup Kare 3D has opened a Kickstarter campaign for the Kare S1, a desktop 3D printer the company says can process both metal and plastic filaments. The campaign is seeking £52,275 and has raised £16,082 from six backers so far, with the funding deadline set for August 27, 2026. The project is structured as…
Additive manufacturing (AM) software provider Gravity Pull Systems has released an updated version of its Personal AM Assistant (PAAM) software, built to automate toolpath optimization for metal laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) systems. According to the company, the tool is intended to help AM users detect, measure, and reduce risks tied to toolpath behavior before…
A team at the University of Brighton is building a new class of inexpensive, environmentally conscious medical sensors that aim to make testing cheaper and more widely available. Over the past three years, researchers under Professor Bhavik Patel have reconsidered the fundamentals of how diagnostic sensors are designed and built. Rather than depending on intricate…
A graduate student at Yale’s School of Engineering & Applied Science has 3D printed a set of six custom hand prosthetics for a woman born with only one hand, at a cost of a few hundred dollars, a fraction of the $70,000 price of the last device she was fitted with. The prosthetics were designed…
The BMW Group is turning additive manufacturing from a prototyping tool into a standing pillar of its industrial production, with the first vehicle components made by Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing (WAAM) scheduled to enter series production in 2027. The push is being run out of the company’s Additive Manufacturing Campus (AMC) in Oberschleissheim, north of…
Precision machining additive manufacturing (AM) Mears Machine Corporation has ordered a fifth Sapphire XC metal 3D printer from metal AM company Velo3D, along with options to purchase two additional units. The Indianapolis-based company said the expanded fleet will support production programs across aviation, defense, energy, and space sectors where it has built a customer base…
A team at the University of Waterloo has built a digital manufacturing system that prints custom contact lenses in roughly 20 minutes, raising the prospect that a patient could be measured, have a lens designed, and walk out wearing it after one clinic visit. The approach pairs a purpose-built silicone material with additive manufacturing, and…
Researchers at MIT have developed a design framework that optimizes concrete structures while accounting for the physical limits of 3D printers. The research also reveals that printer hardware, not concrete, is the key bottleneck to achieving lighter structures. Concrete is the world’s most-used construction material and one of the single largest sources of carbon emissions.…
Swiss satellite and payload maker SWISSto12 has closed a $70 million (€61 million) Series C, funding it says will expand manufacturing as orders climb across commercial and government customers. The Series C lands after a stretch of steep revenue gains. SWISSto12 reported $140 million (€121 million) in 2025 revenue, and its cumulative contract value has…
Researchers at Concordia University have developed an inverse 4D printing of composites method for producing curved vertical-axis wind turbine blades from carbon fiber-reinforced epoxy. The process forms the blades on a flat mold, removing the need for tooling that matches the final curved geometry. The method, detailed in Polymer Composites by Emad Fakhimi and Suong…
Solukon, a German manufacturer of automated depowdering systems, has launched SPR-Pathfinder PRO, an upgraded software package for planning and simulating powder removal from complex laser powder bed fusion parts. The software is intended particularly for components with fine internal channels and densely packed surfaces. The PRO edition removes the previous voxel limit, increases the particle-simulation…
A new study in Science Advances finds that a rubbery material first engineered for 3D printing may resolve a problem that has long dogged materials science: producing printable elastomers that are simultaneously tough and durable. Researchers at EPFL’s Soft Materials Laboratory (SMaL) report that the same architecture giving their double network granular elastomers (DNGEs) exceptional…
Colorado-based defense company SkyDefense has introduced CobraJet, an AI-controlled vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft designed to detect, identify, track, and destroy hostile drones at speed. The autonomous multirole jet targets the growing threat that unmanned systems pose to critical infrastructure, borders, airports, military bases, and public venues. Inside the CobraJet Lineup The aircraft comes…
Insta360 and Bambu Lab’s MakerWorld have teamed up on the Luna Ultra Design Challenge, a global call for makers, designers, and creators to dream up fresh accessories, mods, and concepts for the Luna Ultra, Insta360’s flagship dual-lens 8K gimbal camera. The competition puts more than US$11,000 in prizes on the table, giving entrants a chance…
At sea, a broken component can’t simply be reordered and delivered the next morning. Some items take weeks to reach a deployed ship, and others are no longer produced at all. To ease that strain, the Wasp-class amphibious assault ship USS Essex (LHD 2), working alongside Combat Logistics Battalion 13 of the 13th Marine Expeditionary…
