Nasdaq-listed launch and space systems company Rocket Lab Corporation and global satellite network operator Iridium Communications have signed a definitive agreement for Rocket Lab to acquire Iridium, valuing Iridium shares at $54 a piece through a combination of cash and stock and putting its enterprise value at roughly $8 billion. The combination creates a single,…
Google is opening up its newest wearable to the maker community, releasing hardware blueprints for the Fitbit Air just weeks after its launch and inviting owners to design and 3D print their own accessories. The move builds on the device’s already-swappable design, and independent makers have already started publishing printable projects, with Google now extending…
Italian additive manufacturer Valland, together with the Politecnico di Torino, the Politecnico di Bari, and the Fontana Group, has confirmed under Italy’s Accordi per l’Innovazione-backed ToZero project that recycled automotive aluminum scrap can be turned into powder suitable for laser powder bed fusion (LPBF), cutting a demonstrator part’s carbon footprint, though a lingering print-speed gap…
Researchers from Auburn University and NASA Marshall Space Flight Center have demonstrated that conductive metal structures can be printed in microgravity without liquid inks, using a compact, self-contained system that generates, deposits, and sinters metal nanoparticles on demand. The work, published in npj Advanced Manufacturing, presents results from a two-day parabolic flight campaign and represents…
3D printing footwear company Zellerfeld has announced a partnership with Volumental to connect precision foot scanning directly into its on-demand shoe manufacturing platform. Under the arrangement, foot geometry captured through Volumental’s in-store and mobile scanning experiences feeds into Zellerfeld’s 3D printing pipeline, allowing each shoe to be produced to the specific contours of an individual…
Austal, Curtin University, and the Additive Manufacturing Cooperative Research Centre (AMCRC) have launched a $600,000 joint research project aimed at helping Australia’s maritime and defense sector determine where additive manufacturing (AM) actually makes sense to use. The 18-month project will produce a structured framework for evaluating components against operational, commercial, technical, and regulatory criteria, moving…
Digital manufacturing firm VulcanForms is set to build a facility of up to one million square feet at its existing Devens, Massachusetts site. The Massachusetts Economic Assistance Coordinating Council (EACC) approved $21.26 million in state tax credits for the project under the Economic Development Incentive Program (EDIP), a performance-based initiative that ties credits to job…
In additive manufacturing for space hardware, the parts easiest to print are often the hardest to certify. A forging and a weld seam unified into one printed piece sounds like pure upside, until someone has to prove it will not fail under pressure in orbit. That was the case Andrew Thompson, Manager of Northrop Grumman’s…
A new flight test vehicle from the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) shows what happens when AI, supercomputing, and 3D printing get folded into a single design pipeline. Called Aires Tide, the proof-of-concept aircraft was engineered to test whether national security hardware can move from blueprint to airborne test article on a…
Designer Rameshwari Jonnalagedda has created Minimal Matter, a system of 3D printed terracotta components built around the mathematics of minimal surfaces, the same geometric principles found in soap films, leaf veins, and cellular membranes. Rather than producing a single fixed object, Jonnalagedda has built a flexible framework: depending on how its geometry is tuned, the…
In additive manufacturing (AM) in aerospace and defense, documentation overhead is one of the most persistent barriers to getting parts into production. Boeing was sitting on a substantial backlog of technical data packages for casting and 3D printed parts, at a cost its engineering teams could no longer absorb. Authentise, a Philadelphia-headquartered digital workflow management…
There’s a jig sitting in a drawer at most aerospace and automotive shops. Making it meant calling a machinist, waiting weeks, and paying for a block of aluminum to be carved down into something used maybe 50 times before the design changed. Additive manufacturing was supposed to fix that. And it has, at small scales.…
With AMAA: Aerospace, Space & Defense returning to place mission-critical additive manufacturing applications under the spotlight, our pre-event series returns to focus on speakers from across the sector examining where 3D printing is moving from design freedom into functional hardware. Among them is Ryan Watkins, a Research Engineer specializing in mechanics at NASA Jet Propulsion…
Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa) researchers are using Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing to repair fatigue cracks in bridges and steel structures, printing customized metal reinforcements directly onto damaged components rather than replacing them entirely. The process, known as WAAM, works by feeding a welding wire through a robotic arm that deposits…
UC Santa Barbara has secured $1.15 million from the National Science Foundation to acquire a nanoscale 3D printing system based on two-photon photolithography (2PP), technology that moves additive manufacturing beyond flat layering into true three-dimensional structures at resolutions down to 10 nanometers. The grant, led by electrical and computer engineering professor Galan Moody alongside four…
SHINING 3D Dental, dental division of Chinese company SHINING 3D, officially brought the Ceramix-Nano to market on June 18, stepping into the growing race for compact, clinic-ready ceramic printers with a device that sits on a countertop and delivers permanent restorations before a patient leaves the chair. The machine produces crowns, veneers, inlays, onlays, and…
Israel-based Massivit has unveiled RapidWings, a global network of local, on-demand sovereign production facilities designed to overcome composite manufacturing bottlenecks in defense. Already operational in Israel, the network is now actively recruiting certified manufacturers in the US and Europe. “Defense is a necessity worldwide. By cutting manufacturing times, RapidWings’ proprietary technology could save defense and…
Queen’s University Canada engineering students have spent three years developing a mechanical, electronics-free 3D printed prosthetic for above-elbow amputees, filling a design gap that left migrants on the Thailand-Myanmar border without options. Biomedical computing student Emese Elkind has led a Queen’s engineering team working with the Burma Children Medical Fund (BCMF), an NGO near the…
Aerospace’s most rigorous supplier audit program spent 35 years perfecting its understanding of conventional manufacturing processes, and now applies the same scrutiny to additive manufacturing. Our series on additive manufacturing in aerospace continues with Richard Freeman, Principal Staff Engineer at the Performance Review Institute (PRI), which administers the Nadcap program. Freeman, who spent over a…
When a warship cannot leave port because a decades-old part no longer exists anywhere in the supply chain, the daily cost to the taxpayer is in millions. The UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) has spent £6.25M on Project Tampa (including up to £5M with industry), a four-spiral defense additive manufacturing program designed to address obsolescence…
