China’s Global Laser Box Raises $28M for Metal 3D Printing

Chinese metal 3D printing company Global Laser Box (GLB) has raised nearly RMB 200 million ($30 million) in Series A funding. The round was backed by Qifu Capital, Changxing Investment, and Chuangshiji Investment. GLB plans to use the money to develop its selective laser melting (SLM) printers and software, expand production, and grow its business outside China.

Founded in 2023, GLB makes metal 3D printing equipment and also provides printing services. The company has production and service sites across China and says its products are sold in more than 60 countries. GLB is also trying to bring metal 3D printing to a much broader market. In June, it introduced the DP-C1, a desktop metal 3D printer aimed at individual users, small businesses, and print farms. The company says the machine is ready for mass production.

With the new funding, GLB plans to grow both sides of its business. It is expanding its industrial metal AM operations while also developing smaller and less expensive systems for a broader group of users.

Industrial 4 Lasers Big Size Slm Metal 3D Printer All Kinds of Metal Powder. Image courtesy of GLB.

Radian Forge Raises $2.5M for Naval AM

Virginia-based Radian Forge raised $2.5 million in seed financing to expand its manufacturing capacity for the U.S. naval, maritime, and defense industries. Veteran Ventures Capital led the round through its Fund II, with participation from the Virginia Innovation Partnership Corporation and existing investors.

Radian Forge uses large-format Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing (WAAM) to make large metal components. The process uses wire feedstock and an electric arc to deposit metal, allowing manufacturers to build parts that can be much larger than those produced on conventional powder bed 3D printers.

One goal is to make large metal parts faster for the U.S. maritime industry, where traditional manufacturing can mean long lead times. New funding will help expand production and support more naval and defense work.

The funding comes as the company is already expanding in Virginia. In February, Radian Forge announced plans to invest $10.5 million in its Portsmouth operation and create 53 jobs. What’s more, the location puts the company close to one of the largest concentrations of naval shipbuilding and repair activity in the United States.

Precera Medical Buys Additive Metal Services

Money is also moving into medical AM through acquisitions. Precera Medical has acquired the assets and business of Additive Metal Services (AMS), a Michigan company specializing in metal injection molding and sinter-based additive manufacturing. Financial terms were not disclosed.

The acquisition is the first strategic deal completed by Precera since private equity firm SK Capital launched the company in November 2025.

Precera makes medical devices for other companies, handling everything from prototypes to finished parts. Buying AMS adds metal injection molding and sinter-based 3D printing to those services. With sinter-based AM, parts are printed from metal powder mixed with a binder. They are then heated to remove the binder and turn the material into a dense metal part.

The acquisition adds AMS’s MIM and sinter-based AM capabilities. Image courtesy of Additive Metal Services.

The company says this will help medical device customers move from early design and prototyping through validation and commercial production without having to work with as many separate suppliers.

Precera CEO Dylan Hushka said, “This is the first strategic acquisition for Precera as we continue building a new era of precision manufacturing. By bringing together decades of MIM experience and specialized equipment with Precera’s capabilities in precision machining and automation, we are creating a scalable solution for critical components such as robotic surgery end effectors and distal components for interventional catheter-based devices with the tolerances, quality and process control these applications demand.”

BEAMIT Rebuilds After Insolvency

In Italy, BEAMIT is starting a new chapter after a major financial crisis and change of ownership. One of Europe’s better-known metal AM service providers, the company is now investing in new equipment under its new owner.

BEAMIT entered judicial liquidation on June 20, 2025. According to the Italian newspaper Gazzetta di Parma, the company had more than 160 creditors and over €30 million in liabilities. Still, parts of the business kept operating. BEAMIT had important work in aerospace, space, and defense, and its operations in Fornovo and Rubbiano continued while a buyer was found.

BEAMIT has 30 3D printing machines and 13 validated metal materials. Image courtesy of BEAMIT.

Italian company Rainshow Industries acquired BEAMIT’s Aeronautics, Space and Defense (ASD) business in February 2026, including the Fornovo and Rubbiano operations. The deal went through Italy’s Golden Power review, which covers acquisitions involving strategically important industries.

Now investment is starting again. BEAMIT recently installed an EOS M4 ONYX at its Fornovo site, reportedly the first system of its kind in the EMEA region. The facility already operates several other EOS metal 3D printers.

Rainshow has plans to expand further. The company wants to build a larger Italian manufacturing business around BEAMIT, combining additive manufacturing with other production processes. It also plans to add two facilities at the former Fiat industrial site in Termini Imerese, Sicily.

The new resins cost around $170 a liter. Dental resins typically cost from $85 to around $800 a liter; comparable tray and guide resins from Formlabs, for example, cost around $249. SprintRay´s try-in resin costs $360 per liter. Chinese dental resins tend to come in at around $80 to $160. LuxCreo and Dentsply Sirona resins, as well as similar brands, tend to be around $180 to $260. It depends on the resin, class, and more, but generally we’re seeing AmeraLabs offer a value play in the middle of the market. Independent, made in Europe, but affordable. To me, this is the most exciting segment of the resin market.

AmeraLabs SGR-28.

For a long time, you could either pay more for the resin supplied with your printer, or you could get a cut-price Alibaba resin and hope it would be safe. When a lot of companies entered the market, Dentsply, Henry Schein, and Bego tended to focus on the higher-end ones. This leaves quite the opportunity for a mid-market offering that builds on trust while not breaking the bank. With 3D printing becoming more quotidian, more labs printing more parts, and more open printers on the market, this could be a strong play.

AmeraLabs Co-Founder Andrius Darulis says,

“With CIT-25, SGR-28, and TRY-23, we are expanding our dental resin range with dedicated materials for daily lab applications. Each new resin is built to deliver the accuracy and reliability our dental customers expect.”

I’ve spoken to dentists about this, and it seems the initially adventurous ones now fall into two camps: those who wish to have easy solutions that just work (e.g. SprintRay) or those who want to drive cost out through low-cost machines. For the latter, they often opt for European or American resins, but then use them with low-cost systems from Elegoo and the like. For that group, this seems like a great play. There is, of course, a third group that is perfectly happy with their existing Formlabs or whatever setup, but the dental community has really surprised me at just how cost- and process-focused they are. We’re really seeing people go for easy workflows to save on assistant or practice time, or really go low-cost as dental 3D printing becomes more mainstream.

AmeraLabs CIT-25.

The TRY-23 by AmeraLabs is for 385 nm or 405 nm, has a 2 GPa strength, and can be used with Formlabs, Asiga, Phrozen, Elegoo, Prusa, and Anycubic printers. The resin is rigid and comes in the A1, A2, B1, and B2 tooth shade colors. The SGR-28 resin is sterilizable, and the firm says it has been developed for “freehand guidance, pilot-drill guides, single-implant cases, full-arch and full-mouth reconstruction (FMR) cases, as well as partially and fully guided surgery.” The material is also suitable for complex stackable “puzzle-type” immediate loading guides. Finally, the Custom Impression Tray CIT-25 resin has minimal shrinkage after curing, as per the manufacturer. They also say it doesn’t need separator sprays, which are sometimes required as a release agent to separate 3D printed parts from composites and foils used in procedures. I’m not sure if this is a big problem, but it seems useful and like it would save time. Each material is CE Class I marked and complies with EN ISO 10993-1.

As well as being biocompatible, the resins are “non-cytotoxic, non-sensitizing, and non-irritating” while being “free from TPO, THFA, MMA, BPA, and phthalates.” TPO can be harmful to reproductive health and is used in some 3D printing resins as a photoinitiator. THFA is a viscosity additive and is a skin sensitizer that is currently used in some 3D printing resins as well. Methyl Methacrylate resins are very common in 3D printing, but are a known risk that could cause respiratory stress. The NIH, in a paper on Bisphenol A release in 3D printing resins for dental use, found that when cured, the tested resins did not release BPA. But it’s a worrisome compound, especially when uncured parts are handled. Phthalates are endocrine disruptors, and the NIH and others have looked at their potential release in parts such as hearing aid shells.

One thing I super like is that it’s easy to download all the relevant MSDS and TDS for its resins; I appreciate a firm that has nothing to hide, especially when they’re trying to put stuff in my mouth. And as you can see, there are quite a few materials used in 3D printed dentistry and resins in general that you probably won’t want in your mouth. So working with a trusted name is paramount. If AmeraLabs can keep up the quality and safety standards while offering good pricing, then the firm could be building a Lithuanian success story in 3D printing.

Images courtesy of AmeraLabs

Last week, for the first time, the Chinese government held a National Advanced Manufacturing Conference, at which President Xi Jinping stated that China’s plans are to “continue making advanced manufacturing bigger and stronger, [and] enhance the autonomy and controllability ⁠of industrial chains.” This in itself isn’t so remarkable, as Chinese higher-ups say this sort of thing quite often.

But the combination of Xi himself making the statement, in that particular setting, and against the backdrop of the 15th Five-Year Plan that was approved earlier this year, dramatizes the occasion. Meanwhile, Chinese companies, including BYD, are currently in the process of “scouting existing car assembly plants” in Europe to find suitable options for foreign investment. As Reuters reports, all this is happening while the EU continues work on its ‘Made in Europe‘ bill that aims to set minimum ‘European content’ requirements for certain strategic goods produced in member nations; batteries are among those goods.

AI chip cold plate. Image courtesy of Farsoon

As for the latest Five-Year Plan, which covers this year through 2030, China views its objectives through the lens of the “New New Three.” In contrast to the “Old Three” (apparel, home appliances, and furniture) and the “New Three” (EVs, batteries, and solar), the “New New Three” are AI infrastructure, especially chips; robotics; and next-generation pharmaceuticals. The overlaps between all three of those targets are notable, as is the overlap of all three with China’s constantly accelerating AM prowess.

With that in mind, it’s also worth mentioning that Chinese Premier Li Qiang emphasized at the National Advanced Manufacturing Conference the goal of “deepening the ‘AI plus manufacturing’ initiative” and that “next-generation intelligent manufacturing should serve as the primary direction” for China’s overall advanced manufacturing strategy. All of this is a not-so-subtle allusion to a production philosophy centered around AM, with Chinese companies frequently referring to 3D printing and intelligent manufacturing as a tandem.

Chinese companies have also grown accustomed to view robotics and AM as a natural pair, with 3D printers seen as essential for producing robots and the incorporation of more robotics in AM processes being considered a key objective for long-term industrial progress. The US government has responded to China’s general robotics push by banning imports of new Chinese humanoid systems into the country.

That is the same approach that, when Trump imposed it with respect to Huawei and a few other companies in his first administration, ultimately led to Huawei’s decision to pivot to chips. In conjunction with another ban related to ASML semiconductor equipment sales into the Chinese market, Huawei’s chip buildout has resulted in Chinese semiconductor technology approaching performance parity with chips produced by global leaders. As I’ve explained in my posts on the overlap between 3D printing and advanced chip packaging, AM has been integral to the sort of breakthroughs at the heart of China’s semiconductor progress.

US AI giants have also recently called for “a slowdown” in AI, which they have presented as a measure needed due to “safety concerns.”  Chinese media sources immediately referred to this as a “Cold War” tactic. They have a point, although the geopolitical state of the world suggests it is more of a “hot war” tactic. At any rate, if US companies want a slowdown, it could have more to do with the West’s lagging in the infrastructure required for the AI infrastructure buildout, rather than the relative strengths of AI technology itself.

Image courtesy of Dewu Technology

That is, the West likely has less to fear from China in terms of the power of the latter’s AI models, and much more to fear from things like cooling hardware, critical materials, power generation equipment, etc. In this context, keep in mind that, all year, Chinese AM companies have been touting their ability to leverage AM for AI-relevant thermal management solutions. Chinese 3D printer OEM Dewu Technology, which recently closed a seed round, says that it has targeted the market for the smallest industrial metal components — above all, those in the 3C industries (computers, communications, and consumer electronics), which seem to be household words in China — by drastically reducing post-production costs. According to the company’s founder, their strategy is a direct response to market demand for electronics-relevant AM capacity.

Is China gearing up for yet another manufacturing showdown with the West and its allies? It certainly looks that way, but I will do my best to keep you apprised as the saga continues.

Featured image from TCT Asia, courtesy of Sangmin Lee/3DPrint.com

Using Visitech’s optical actuators, the company states that “The new module combines multiple laser diodes to deliver more than 30 W of optical power in image, more than double the output of the LRS McX 4K. Built around this native 4K DMD and Visitech’s proprietary optical actuator, the system addresses more than 35-million-pixel positions per exposure.”

The new unit is twice as powerful as the LRS McX 4K. Effectively, this means a single light engine can cover a larger print bed. Rather than having to get several light engines to work in concert, the new single unit can be used. The unit comes with Visitech’s LAMA Standard software. The LUXBEAM Additive Manufacturing Application (LAMA) was designed from the ground up as control software for manufacturing with 3D Printing or lithography. LAMA is included with your purchase and can emulate projectors. Using virtual projector simulations, you can test before you build. This should reduce the risks of developing Visitech-based 3D printing systems and speed up their development. Precisely simulating how their light engines behave can give developers more confidence that what they’re creating will work.

Visitech’s new LRS 8KA Laser 405 light engine for additive manufacturing. Image courtesy of Visitech.

It also lets you develop before the system is built and test before you even have a test rig. You can complete your firmware before the system is ready, or experiment much more quickly and widely. LAMA can also integrate with different 3D printers and motion control solutions. LAMA can be used with older and not-yet-released Visitech products. The API can be accessed via JSON on both Linux and Windows.

The company designed the units to be easy to service and to calibrate before use. Visitech is showcasing continuous innovation and pushing cutting-edge products out the door. The company is really making tools for massive 3D printing systems or very high-throughput systems. In making these architectures for additive and general lithography use, the firm is making true industrial tools that can work precisely with high uptime. The company wants to go way beyond current SLA and DLP capabilities to huge machines that can make millions of parts at scale.

We had a fascinating podcast with their CEO Øyvind Tafjord in 2025. There, he disclosed that they had a version of a light engine with no Chinese parts whatsoever. With all the tariff hoopla since then, you can see how prescient that move was. And imagine how difficult that would be. Also, in the podcast, he talks about really high-scale additive production and how to get to much higher-volume manufacturing.

With DLP and SLA, many people think in the same form factors and similar systems. But what if you made a five-meter-by-two-meter system that was just a few centimeters high for connectors? That kind of thing could be a great device for a great business. I’m really getting the impression that we could be doing more with light engines and the chemistry they activate. And with Visitech making the software and DMD solution in one package, a lot of the hard work has already been done.

Stratasys won a $27.6 million jury verdict against Bambu Lab in one of the 3D printing industry’s biggest patent fights. A federal jury in Texas found that four Bambu Lab-related companies infringed four Stratasys patents. The jury also rejected Bambu Lab’s argument that the four patents should not be considered valid. The verdict came on September 17 after a week-long trial in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. The $27.6 million award covers past damages.

Bloomberg Law also reported that the jury found Bambu Lab’s infringement “willful,” meaning it was not accidental.

The case was brought against four companies connected to Bambu Lab: Shenzhen Tuozhu Technology, Shanghai Lunkuo Technology, Tuozhu Technology, and Bambulab Limited. Together, they make and sell products under the Bambu Lab brand.

Airflow visualization inside the Bambu Lab P2S shows the printer’s new Active Airflow system. Image courtesy of Bambu Lab.

The case is part of a much larger patent battle between Stratasys and Bambu Lab that began in August 2024. At the time, Stratasys filed two separate lawsuits against Bambu Lab and related companies in Texas, accusing the fast-growing 3D printer maker of using technologies covered by Stratasys patents.

This first trial involved four U.S. patents: Nos. 9,168,698; 10,556,381; 9,421,713, and 7,555,357. However, the jury found that Bambu infringed all four patents and rejected its arguments that the patents were invalid.

Bambu Lab has also challenged Stratasys patents through the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. In June, Bambu Lab won part of a separate patent challenge against Stratasys, while Stratasys won another. One of the patents Stratasys successfully defended, No. 9,421,713, is also part of this case.

“Stratasys remains focused on delivering cutting-edge technologies to customers and protecting the intellectual property that underpins our innovation,” the company said in a statement sent to 3DPrint.com following the verdict.

A Fight Between Two Very Different 3D Printing Players

The dispute puts one of the oldest companies in the 3D printing industry against one of its fastest-growing newer competitors. Stratasys has been developing and selling 3D printing technology for decades and holds a large portfolio of patents.

Meanwhile, Bambu Lab entered the desktop 3D printing market much more recently but has quickly become a major player. Its fast growth has made it a major competitor in the desktop 3D printing market, which probably makes this case about more than $27.6 million.

At its core, the dispute is about who owns some of the technology used in today’s desktop 3D printers. For Stratasys, the verdict is a super important first win. But the legal fight is not over. This was only the first of two patent cases Stratasys has against Bambu Lab in the same federal court. According to Stratasys, the second case does not yet have a trial date.

Bambu Lab Responds to Verdict

Update, September 21, 2026: Bambu Lab has responded to the verdict, saying it disagrees with the jury’s decision and plans to continue challenging the outcome.

“We appreciate the time and effort of the jury in considering this matter. While we respect the judicial process, we disagree with the verdict reached in this case. The law provides Bambu with the right to seek post-trial review and to appeal, and Bambu intends to avail itself of these legal processes,” the company said in a statement sent to 3DPrint.com.

Bambu Lab also pointed to several other proceedings in its broader patent dispute with Stratasys. In Europe, Bambu said the Unified Patent Court’s Hague Local Division rejected Stratasys’s request for a preliminary injunction in April 2026 after finding that Bambu did not infringe European patent EP2964450. That patent belongs to the same patent family as U.S. Patent No. 9,421,713, the purge tower patent involved in the Texas trial. According to Bambu, Stratasys did not appeal the decision, while invalidation proceedings brought by Bambu against the European patent are still underway.

The company also provided more detail about the U.S. patent challenges mentioned earlier in this article. According to the company, the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) found challenged claims of U.S. Patent No. 9,592,660 invalid, and Stratasys did not appeal the decision. The PTAB also found challenged claims of U.S. Patent No. 8,562,324 invalid and later rejected Stratasys’s request for Director Review. According to Bambu, the window for Stratasys to appeal that decision remains open.

The outcome was different for U.S. Patent No. 9,421,713, which was involved in the $27.6 million verdict. The PTAB upheld the challenged claims of that patent, and Bambu has appealed the decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

Bambu intends to challenge the Texas verdict, while separate patent proceedings involving the two companies remain ongoing in the U.S. and Europe.

This episode of the 3DPOD is brought to you by HP Additive Manufacturing Solutions, leaders in industrial 3D printing. With multi-jet fusion and metal-jet technology, HP delivers speed, design freedom, and cost efficiency at scale, empowering manufacturers to produce sustainable end-use parts and transform how industries innovate.

The Suite lets you make shadow boards, clamping jaws, logistics trays, drill guides, robot fingers, and masking outlines to cover surfaces during spraying and the like. There’s also a Photo-to-Outline tool that lets you photograph a tool or part to easily create a custom outline. Over time, the company aims to grow its app library.

trinckle CEO Florian Reichle said,

“3D printing has enormous potential to support manufacturing processes and teams, but design is still too often the step that prevents people from acting on an opportunity. With the Additive App Suite, we want to empower everyone in the manufacturing environment to turn a process hurdle into a printable solution. Moving beyond beta means we can now inspire users worldwide, drive additive adoption, and continue expanding the Additive App Suite around real manufacturing needs.”

Victor Gerdes, Vice President, Global Software Product Strategy at Stratasys, stated,

“Manufacturers don’t need more ideas for where to use additive manufacturing. They need faster and easier ways to implement them. The exceptional market response to fixturemate in GrabCAD Print validated that demand, helping Stratasys customers reduce fixture design time by up to 92%, cut tooling lead times from weeks to hours, and lower part costs by as much as 80%. Those results challenged Stratasys and trinckle to think much bigger than a single application. Together, we set out to create the Additive App Suite, a growing portfolio of design automation applications focused on the most common tooling needs found across virtually every factory floor. Combined with Stratasys 3D printers, high-performance materials, and GrabCAD Print, the Additive App Suite enables manufacturers to dramatically scale additive manufacturing, reduce tooling costs and lead times, improve quality, reduce scrap, and ultimately increase throughput while producing better products at lower cost.”

Of course, you can also use the tool with other printers, such as desktop systems. You can download the files that you create directly from the online tool whenever you wish. The kinds of things you can make with the Suite are quotidian, everyday items. You can solve a real, part-sized problem quickly and inexpensively by combining the Suite with the nearest 3D printer. For in-house teams that run print labs, the Suite can save you time. You could quickly make many parts for many internal customers. The tool can also empower individual users to solve their own problems.

Rather interestingly, the Suite could also be used to offer value-added services. Imagine you’re a print farm printing dragons. You could offer to make end-effector tools online with a dedicated website. The work would be quickly made with Trickle, and you would print and ship the parts right after. I really believe in such direct-to-customer, web-based, and print-farm-enabled propositions in the future. Much broader than this, I really hope that more companies make tools that democratize the creation of 3D printed parts.

Here are seven AM developments from across the region from September 1 through 16.

China

Xinjinghe receives investment for Chuzhou aerospace AM hub

Xinjinghe received an equity investment jointly led by CMC Capital’s Huawen Qingneng fund and the Chuzhou local government, CMC announced on September 10. The investment supports an aerospace additive manufacturing hub in Chuzhou. The Huzhou-based company builds metal printers and provides printing services using laser powder-bed fusion and powder- and wire-fed deposition. CMC did not disclose the investment amount.

Japan

DIFF. launches personalized 3D printed shoes

DIFF. began formal sales of its DIFF.3D personalized shoes on September 1, priced at JPY 27,500 ($175) including tax. The Osaka company, established through a Mizuno startup program, uses three-dimensional foot measurements and its DIFF.ENGINE software to generate individual shoe designs for 3D printing. It quotes approximately ten days from confirmation of the foot data to delivery. Sales volumes were not disclosed.

DIFF.3D printed shoes. Image courtesy of DIFF.3D.

South Korea

Lincsolution plans KRW 30 billion convertible bond issue

Lincsolution disclosed a KRW 30 billion convertible bond issuance decision on September 14, corrected on September 16. Payment is scheduled for September 22. The company allocated KRW 17 billion to machinery and facilities at a second factory in 2027-2028 and KRW 13 billion to operations. The zero-coupon bonds mature in September 2031, with an initial conversion price of KRW 32,823 per share.

Vietnam

Rosatom and Petrovietnam agree on equipment for Vietnamese AM center

Rosatom‘s Fuel Division and Petrovietnam signed an agreement on September 9 defining equipment scope and a delivery schedule for an additive manufacturing center in Vietnam. It covers selective laser melting and direct laser deposition printers, heat-treatment and machining equipment, and laboratory analysis. Intended applications include drilling and pumping components. The agreement also addresses local metal-powder production, training and qualification; the center is not yet reported as operational.

Australia

CSIRO commissions Melbourne Powder Lab for AM feedstock development

CSIRO announced its newly commissioned Powder Lab in Clayton, Melbourne, on September 16. The facility offers industry access to a Tekna TEK SPHERO 15 plasma system for producing spherical powders and a NARA NHS-1 hybridization mill for coating or combining materials at particle scale. It supports metal, ceramic and composite feedstock development for additive manufacturing and powder metallurgy alongside CSIRO’s Lab22 facilities.

NHS-1 impact blending facility for the solid-state manipulation of metal powder and metal-X powder combinations. Image courtesy of CSIRO.

Titomic reports four US orders worth more than A$750,000

Titomic announced four US purchase orders totaling more than A$750,000 on September 2. Received over the preceding two weeks, the orders came from aerospace and defense prime contractors and an energy-sector customer, covering military and commercial space, aircraft, and oil and gas applications. The company did not identify the customers or disclose individual order values. The announcement reports orders, not recognized revenue.

SPEE3D appoints Bryan O’Connor as global CEO

SPEE3D named Bryan O’Connor global chief executive on September 8. Co-founder and outgoing CEO Byron Kennedy is relocating to the United States to develop the company’s business and partnerships there. O’Connor previously served as managing director of Moog Australia and general manager of Moog’s Asia-Pacific defense business. SPEE3D supplies cold-spray metal printing systems for manufacturing and maintenance applications.

Prepared by AMPulse

T-Pain’s own hits such as Buy U a Drank, I’m Sprung, and I’m N Luv (Wit a Stripper) established him as a significant star in the 2000s. Originally debuting as part of the Nappy Headz, T-Pain, before I’m Sprung, hit 8 on the Billboard charts in 2005. Fame, collaborations, and hit albums followed. His liberal use of autotune turned his voice into a half-synthesized vocal element and was widely criticized. Usher, Jay Z, and others bemoaned the use of autotune as artificial and made tracks critical of the practice, which swept through popular music at the time. In 2014, The New Yorker wrote that, “in 2011, he had come to be seen as an uncool novelty act—a goofy-looking dork who rode to fame with a production gimmick that not only sounded corny but concealed his true lack of singing ability.” Subsequently, the “apparent collapse of his career sent T-Pain, now twenty-eight years old, into a depression that left him unmotivated to make any more music.”

Vindication came through an NPR Tiny Desk concert, which laid bare that, shockingly, T-Pain had a very deep, expressive, raspy voice—in a good way, with real texture. Watch the concert if you’re only familiar with the gold grillz party song “T-Pain,” because it’s genuinely surprising. Later on, he made a startling appearance on The Masked Singer in 2019; contestants guessed  Hootie, Ceelo Green, Jamie Foxx, Tyrese, and Michael Vic. T-Pain said, once he was revealed, that “I didn’t have a chance to come into the game with my natural voice ” and that he loved his dogs.

Later, he released more serious albums and spent two years in Nashville, where he wrote songs for Luke Bryan and Dallas Davidson. T-Pain is also involved with video games, doing some work on GTA 6 and streaming on Twitch.

Now T-Pain has revealed that he has a 3D printing room. On Instagram, the singer showed off a room. He gives a shout-out to Polymaker, CookieCAD, Micro Center, and others before showing his Elegoo Storm Giga, which he uses to print body kit panels. He will later showcase some nine- or 14-day prints on that machine. That room is impressive because, in addition to housing the big printer, it also has a dedicated post-processing area. He then shows off another room with two H2Ds, five H2Cs, and five H2Ss. He doesn’t use vat polymerization units because of safety concerns.

Previously, he also 3D printed a basketball for a DraftKings promo.

In more detail, he shows how he’s outfitting his 3D printing basement at Micro Center. There, he says that he uses Inland filament and picks up a CMYK pack for lithophanes. He mostly uses Bambu Lab printers, and he’s made mounts for the AMS’s to fit them in his cabinet. In the video, we also see him pick up a Creality Sermocon scanner.

T-Pain mostly makes car parts for his car collection, which includes a lot of modded vehicles. He also makes custom vinyl-like toys to showcase during live streams. During a tour of his very extensive basement, he shows off his printers, but also a complete club-like room, extensive gaming facilities, and much more.

Now, first off, kudos to Polymaker, who gave T-Pain filament, and Micro Center, who sent him on a shopping spree. This is great engagement in today’s influencer world. T-Pain is known and somehow much more sympathetic than other celebrities. It helps that he’s kind of famous and has had dramatic shifts in fortune, of course. T-Pain’s current phase as a singer, songwriter, game voice actor, Twitch streamer, car nut, and builder of cool basements is interesting. It’s a nice change to see a baller-house, kind-of MTV Cribs setup, but a very nerdy one. It’s great to see him look to 3D printing and beyond to complement his other hobbies. I think sponsorship-wise this is a great play. T-Pain can bring in new people interested in gaming, cosplay, or cars that we couldn’t reach on our own. I’m not sure how deep T-Pain’s interest in 3D printing is. For now, he does seem very interested and genuinely is using the technology.

T-Pain with his freshly printed 3DBenchy. Image courtesy of T-Pain.

There are videos of him assembling printers, working on them, and playing with prints. He seems to be learning and curious about what else he can do with the technology. It’s great to see him take the tape off printers, watch assembly videos, and work his way through the hobby as we all have. In the past, when will.i.am was the Chief Creative Officer of 3D Systems, remember that? That was surreal, but it also felt fake and useless. By comparison, this feels real. In the video above, taken a year ago, we see T-Pain installing a Bambu printer, setting up the WiFi, calibrating his printer, and printing benchies. He’s putting in the time.

I came in wanting to filet him, really, and thinking this was some ridiculous celeb crossover event. But after seeing the world and life that T-Pain is building for himself by extending his celebrity, I don’t think that anymore. Instead, I think 3D printing is worthwhile for T-Pain, and T-Pain is worthwhile for 3D printing. I can really see how his exploration of 3D printing may lead more users to take it up as a pastime or business.

Eplus3D Helping Young-Will Aerospace with Nickel-Copper Alloy Validation

Metal additive manufacturing (AM) solutions provider Eplus3D supported Will-Young Aerospace in the completion of process validation for laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) printing of a nickel-copper alloy, using its EP-M400 metal PBF printer. These types of alloys are well-known for their good processability, corrosion resistance, and stable medium-temperature strength, so they’re often used in aerospace applications like landing gear parts, rocket engine pipe joints, hydraulic components, fuel pipelines, aircraft engine combustion chambers, and more. But, when it comes to processing them with metal AM, nickel-copper alloys need careful control of crack formation, part density, elemental segregation, and mechanical performance. Precise process control can help reduce or even altogether avoid these issues, and that’s why the Eplus3D EP-M400 works here.

Young-Will Aerospace needed to validate an LPBF route for aerospace nickel-copper alloy parts, and Eplus3D offered support with its EP-M400. The printer has a 400 x 400 x 450 mm build volume, a maximum build rate of 210 cm³/h, and up to six lasers. As the part manufacturing and process development platform, the EP-M400 supported coordinated optimization of equipment capability, scanning strategy, and process parameters around the material’s forming characteristics. In this way, it helped to set up a stable process foundation for printing the nickel-copper alloy components. The project ultimately achieved crack-free forming of the nickel-copper alloy parts, which reached a 570 MPa tensile strength—an 18% improvement in comparison to traditionally forged parts. It was a successful material printing trial, but the project also established a solid process foundation for special alloy application development.

Meltio Strengthening Support for U.S. Customers with Meltio Robot Cell

Spanish metal AM company Meltio is strengthening its support for industrial customers in the Americas with a new wire-laser metal deposition (W-LMD) system. The Meltio Robot Cell is used to print metal parts for various industries, and now the company has released one that’s assembled in the U.S. This was done through a strategic partnership with Meltio’s longtime U.S. partner, FORCE Automation, which has robotic integration experience and was a key partner in supporting the integration of Meltio’s technology with robotic arms in the U.S. market. The Meltio Robot Cell is a turnkey solution that controls the entire manufacturing process, which improves the performance of its industrial robotic arm in a more accurate, reliable, and safer way. The U.S.-assembled one was designed as a plug-and-play system for standard industrial environmental conditions, but only needing a single inert gas supply and one electrical power connection to work. It features autonomous operation and integrated monitoring, integrates the Meltio Engine, Meltio Space, and necessary accessories, and is compatible with Meltio’s open hardware platform. The U.S.-made Meltio Robot Cell reduces the typical shipping and customs delays that occur when importing the printer from Spain, and it addresses the needs of U.S. industrial customers in need of a standardized solution for metal AM.

“Meltio is committed to supporting the North America industrial base on its journey towards reestablishing technological sovereignty, and providing Meltio’s technology assembled in the USA, is just a first step towards improving access and service levels to an already established customer base using what is now better understood as one of the most flexible and user friendly technology that provides real solutions to real every day problems of obsolescence, logistics nightmares, and excessive costs of operation in many cases,” said Gabriel Ortiz, Meltio North America Sales Manager.

“The Meltio Robot Cell is based on an open hardware platform that enables Meltio’s metal 3D printing head to be integrated with robotic arms from any brand. The volume and work area defined within the Meltio Robot Cell workspace are designed to meet a wide range of manufacturing needs, while Meltio’s industrial-level additive manufacturing technology enables autonomous part production through integrated monitoring and safety features.”

Mosaic Manufacturing Launching 3D Printing Platform for Custom Orthotics

Mosaic Manufacturing launched its new automated 3D printing platform, Orion, developed specifically for custom orthotics production. Transitioning to digital orthotics production has been costly and difficult to implement, so Mosaic listened to the clinicians and manufacturers currently making orthotics, and purpose-built the Orion for labs and clinics. It’s meant to simplify, automate, and lower the cost of fabricating custom orthotics, keeping production consistent and efficient without making things too complicated or adding too much human labor. Mosaic says the Orion is an accessible, ready-to-deploy system with an open-architecture workflow and the ability to print both soft and rigid patient-specific orthotics with its proprietary materials. Because of its belt-based 3D printing and automated queue management, the printer can just keep making custom orthotics, overnight and on the weekends, without needing humans to move things along. The company says using Orion, orthotics producers can print up to 300 pairs a month, achieve material costs as low as $6 a pair, and reduce material waste and hand-finishing. Additionally, customers can move from digital scanning through design and production management by adopting the full Mosaic Stryde Software Suite; if they already have a digital workflow, they can connect Orion to a compatible CAD/CAM setup.

“The ask from orthotics manufacturers was clear: they want to move toward digital production, but getting there with the fragmented tools on the market has been painful,” said Mosaic CEO Mitch Debora. “They wanted an end-to-end, validated solution they could implement confidently and thrive with — and our team delivered. Orion makes digital orthotics production accessible today.”

Undergrad Student Inspired by Family Experience to Create Robotic Arm

Kai Clifford

Kai Clifford, a senior mechanical engineering student at Kennesaw State University, saw firsthand how difficult typical everyday movements can become for people who lose their mobility, like his grandfather. This inspired him to find a way to make rehabilitation more effective and comfortable, and he’s using 3D printing and robotics to do so. Clifford worked with Professor Ayse Tekes through the university’s Summer Undergraduate Research Program, and their research is centered around a 3D printed Reconfigurable Compliant Joint (RCJ) near the elbow. Typical rehab exoskeletons use rigid joints that have to closely align with the patient’s elbow, but when they don’t line up, the patient has to deal with discomfort due to unwanted forces. This sleeve-style robotic arm combines the 3D printed RCJ with a motor, wireless motion sensors, and a real-time control system to guide rehabilitation exercises for stroke patients recovering from upper-limb impairments. A Raspberry Pi processes the sensor information to figure out how the motorized actuator at the elbow should respond. Since the 3D printed joint is flexible, it’s able to better accommodate any differences in the patient’s anatomy and natural arm movement. Using 3D printing also means the RCJ can be redesigned to adjust the resistance for each patient.

“I’d say that it’s like adding a muscle on top of your muscle. The device gives the arm additional support to help it move through rehabilitation exercises,” Clifford says about his robotic arm.

“The reconfigurable compliant joint is what makes it different. If it’s unaligned with your joint, it’s going to try to realign with it.”

Next, Clifford will test how accurately the robotic arm follows a patient’s intended elbow movements, and how much torque it can provide. He also wants to make it more comfortable for patients to wear.

3D Printed Electrode Could Improve Large-Scale Renewable Energy Storage

Lithium-ion batteries are used in electric vehicles, phones, and many energy storage systems, but redox flow batteries (RFBs) could be safer for large-scale energy storage. That’s because they use water-based electrolytes, instead of the flammable materials used in lithium-ion batteries, to store electricity. A research team from the University of Waterloo are developing a new 3D printed electrode that could make RFBs even more effective at storing large amounts of renewable wind and solar energy. They were inspired by natural structures to redesign a major component of RFBs. Using 3D printing, they made porous RFB electrodes, which enables control over fluid flow and helps battery liquid move more efficiently. This will allow the chemical reactions which store and release energy to occur more effectively—very useful, as wind and solar power don’t always produce electricity exactly when it’s needed. The team tested different triply periodic minimal surface (TPMS) geometries in their electrode design, and determined that the “diamond” geometry increased performance by 52%. They produced the porous electrodes using digital light processing (DLP) printing, then heat treated them to form conductive carbon electrodes that can carry electricity. The researchers tested their electrodes in laboratory flow cell experiments, and in a working vanadium redox flow battery, to prove that the design could function.

“With 3D printing, we can design the internal structure of an electrode in ways that are difficult to achieve using conventional manufacturing. That gives us much greater control over how the liquid moves through the battery and reaches the surfaces where the energy-storing reactions take place,” explained Dr. Maxime van der Heijden, a chemical engineering professor at Waterloo who led the research team.

You can learn more about the team’s work in their published paper.