In this weekend’s 3D Printing News Briefs, we are of course starting off with some Formnext news ahead of the big event this coming week.Then we’ll move on to the National Academy of Medicine and commercializing 3D printed tungsten carbide.We’ll end with a new desktop system and a 3D printed costume for a new movie.
Formnext 2026: Meltio Showcases Metal 3D Printed Part Inside Sports Car At Formnext this week, Meltio will be showcasing multiple parts made with its wire-laser metal deposition technology.Several industries, including oil & gas, shipbuilding, mining, aerospace and defense, and automotive have validated Meltio’s DED printing for manufacturing and repairing metal parts for real-world applications, and you can see some of them for yourself in Frankfurt.One is a stainless steel part by DMZ, which developed a high-performance exhaust header that has maintained its condition after more than 10,000 km on the road, 600 of which were on a race track.
DMZ used Meltio’s technology to print complex geometries that optimized exhaust gas flow in a combustion engine.The part is installed inside an Abarth 595 sports car, and you can see it for yourself at Meltio’s Formnext Booth C119, Hall 12.0.DMZ also used Meltio’s DED printing to reinforce the metal portion of a car’s steel wheels.
Additional steel was deposited in key areas in order to increase the wheel’s stiffness.Meltio says that the optimized steel wheel has the same natural frequency as the alloy version, and also has a major weight advantage.Finally, IMET3D needed to replace an obsolete component after a critical centrifugal pump failed.
Instead of replacing the entire system, the industrial customer used Meltio’s wire-laser metal deposition to repair the part.It was redesigned and printed with 316L stainless steel, which also improved its corrosion resistance.At Formnext, you’ll be able to see Meltio’s M600 printing live at the booth, as well as the DMZ sports car use case, and other advanced applications.
3D Systems Celebrates 40 Years at Formnext 2026 Chuck Hull 3D Systems will celebrate its 40th anniversary at Formnext, along with 43 years of SLA 3D printing, invented by co-founder Chuck Hull.He will be making guest appearances at the company’s booth, and visitors can see and touch the original 3D printed part.But Hull is also recognizing the contributions of others who helped build the additive manufacturing (AM) industry, noting that the “drive of entrepreneurship and innovation by everyone is what has made this industry grow.” After SLA was commercialized, Scott Crump invented and patented FDM 3D printing in 1988, and co-founded Stratasys with his wife Lisa Crump.
Carl R.Deckard, who passed away in 2019, thought up the idea for SLS 3D printing while attending The University of Texas at Austin in the 1980s.He worked with his professor and mentor Dr.
Joseph Beaman to continue developing the idea, and DTM Corporation licensed the technology from UT Austin to commercialize it; DTM was acquired by 3D Systems in 2001.Joe Allison joined 3D Systems in 1987, filing 12 patents for the company over three years.He went on to form Solid Concepts, and is now the CEO of Gentle Giant Studios.
Hull and 3D Systems also acknowledge Formlabs CEO Max Lobovsky; Stratasys CEO Yoav Zeif; Medical Modeling Founder Andy Christensen; Emanuel Sachs, the inventor of binder jetting, and many others.“The 3D printing industry has grown steadily to more than $16B at the end of 2025 after more than 40 years of existence in large part thanks to Chuck Hull and 3D Systems.Chuck’s dedication to this industry, and in turn 3D Systems’ ongoing development of many foundational technologies, is commendable,” said Scott Dunham, Executive Vice President of Research at Additive Manufacturing Research.
“Our projections for additive manufacturing estimate an industry of at least $65B by 2035, which is incredible when put into the context of beginning from one man’s idea for a rapid prototyping technology.” Celebrate the last 40 years, and the future of additive, at 3D Systems’ Booth D11, Hall 11.0, from 5-8 pm on November 18th.Wyss Institute’s Jennifer Lewis Elected to National Academy of Medicine Jennifer Lewis was elected to the National Academy of Medicine (NAM), one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine.Her NAM membership follows appointments to other prestigious academies, including the National Academy of Science, National Academy of Engineering, National Academy of Inventors, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering.
Credit: Wyss Institute at Harvard University Speaking of giants in the AM field, Jennifer Lewis, Sc.D., a Core Faculty Member at the Wyss Institute at Harvard University, was recently elected to the National Academy of Medicine (NAM).This is one of the highest honors in the medicine and health fields, and membership is awarded to individuals who have demonstrated outstanding professional achievement, and commitment to science.NAM has about 2,600 total members, including 300 international members, and Lewis is one of 100 newly elected members.
It collaborates with the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) and the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) to offer independent, objective analysis, and expert advice to help inform public policy decisions in the U.S.NAM works to address challenges at the intersection of health, medicine, science, and public policy in order to inspire solutions that foster meaningful progress across sectors.So it makes sense that Lewis was chosen for membership.
She is the Hansjörg Wyss Professor of Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard’s John A.Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and is a leader of the 3D Organ Engineering Initiative at the Wyss Institute.Here, she helps to advance biological inks and multimaterial 3D printing to create vascularized human tissues from the ground up.
She was recognized by NAM for her exciting and groundbreaking work in the 3D bioprinting of soft and living materials, and for working to enable new opportunities for disease modeling, drug discovery, and therapeutic repair by leading the development of techniques to create vascularized organoids and human tissues.HP & Hyperion Growing Commercial Availability of Tungsten Carbide AM Recently, HP Additive Manufacturing and Hyperion Materials & Technologies announced a Strategic Preferred Partner Agreement in order to advance commercialization of tungsten carbide (WC) AM, as well as make rapid prototyping and production-ready parts more accessible to industrial customers around the world.Last month, Hyperion installed HP’s Metal Jet S100 printer at its Barcelona production facility.
The platform uses Hyperion’s new CarbiForm line of ready-to-print WC powders, designed specifically for binder jet 3D printing.CarbiForm has been tested to work with HP’s Metal Jet system when it’s paired with Hyperion’s sintering operations.By combining Hyperion’s knowledge in WC manufacturing, sintering, and finishing with HP’s scalable AM platform, the two companies have built an integrated path that starts with application development and goes all the way to qualification and serial production.
HP and Hyperion will work jointly with customers to find and qualify AM applications in which tungsten carbide could add value, like designs that might be uneconomical or difficult to complete using traditional methods, such as consolidated components, customized solutions, and complex geometries.“This preferred partner agreement allows us to combine our decades of hard-materials experience with HP’s highly scalable additive manufacturing platform.The result is a new manufacturing option for customers looking to create complex, high-performance tungsten carbide components and bring them to production with confidence,” said Biju Varghese, Chief Technology Officer at Hyperion.
HP will highlight this technology at its Formnext Booth D41, Hall 12.1, and Hyperion representatives will be available to answer any questions.Creality’s Falcon T1 5-in-1 Desktop Laser System Transforms Multi-Material Crafting If you’re interested accessible digital fabrication, maker tools, and new ways to make creative products, then Creality’s new Falcon T1 may be the system for you.This 5-in-1 laser engraving system isn’t a 3D printer, but it does fit into the broader desktop digital fabrication space, bringing multiple laser processing capabilities into one desktop platform.
Creality says the Falcon T1 is the world’s first desktop laser system with five expandable laser modules, and so can replace up to five dedicated single function maker machines.The modular desktop system lets users quickly and easily swap between 20W/40W Blue Diode, 20W Infrared, 60W MOPA, and 5W UV laser heads.Just like the Bambu Lab R1 laser engraver and cutter and the SALTGATOR injection molding machine, the Creality Falcon T1 offers a more versatile way to work with multiple materials for desktop crafting, and can also pair with 3D printing.
Creality says the new Falcon T1 delivers engraving speeds up to 10,000 mm/s, and features built-in AI color engraving models for MOPA lasers to ensure one-click color selection.It’s said to offer 8x faster image rendering, and supports 3D relief path generation, image-to-3D conversion, and internal engraving slicing, thanks to the web-based AI Craft suite.The system should be safe for home use, as it was built with a fully enclosed Class 1 laser safety design and ensures smoke-free operation and no optical hazards.
The Falcon T1 also features intelligent positioning, automated path planning, and intuitive vision system monitoring.But really, the most exciting part is the integration of five distinct laser wavelength and power options on one compact chassis, which means that makers and DIY enthusiasts don’t need separate desktop machines for metals, organic materials, or glass.Creality also offers a fully integrated accessory ecosystem to back the Falcon T1, with add-ons like automated conveyor feeders for continuous material processing and an AP1 air purifier.
You can get the Creality Falcon T1 5-in-1 laser engraving system now, starting at $1,999.Wētā Workshop Creates Custom 3D Printed Wicker Suit for New Movie There’s a new movie out in theaters right now, aptly named “Wicker,” about a spinster fisherwoman (Olivia Coleman) living in a medieval community.Marriage is everything, so she is mocked by the other villagers.
Naturally, she visits the local basket weaver (Peter Dinklage) and asks him to make her a wicker husband (Alexander Skarsgård).It’s making a lot of moviegoers…thirsty, we’ll call it, partially because it’s a very sexy film, and partially because Skarsgård in wicker is very appealing.Except he’s not actually covered in wicker—the actor is wearing a practical suit and prosthetic makeup, and it shouldn’t surprise anyone that 3D printing was used to bring the character to life.
New Zealand-based Wētā Workshop, which has plenty of experience with 3D printing for the movies, started with a full-body scan of Skarsgård, in order to sculpt pieces specific to his body.Ten 3D printed pieces make up the facial prosthetic, and they’re all glued to Skarsgård’s face.The costume was made up of 50 individual 3D printed appliances that were painted to look like wicker, before they were stitched onto a semi-flexible spandex suit.
“It’s a volume of thermoplastic elastomer; you shoot a laser into it and where that focal point of the laser is, it fuses the powder and you can build intricate weave and complex geometry,” prosthetic makeup designer Joe Dunckley explained.“The powder in the bed holds the strands apart while they set.” If you want a wicker body of your own, Regal has released free 3D print files so you can make a collectible popcorn bucket that’s modeled after Skarsgård’s “wicker” torso prosthetics! Subscribe to Our Email Newsletter Stay up-to-date on all the latest news from the 3D printing industry and receive information and offers from third party vendors.Print Services Upload your 3D Models and get them printed quickly and efficiently.
Powered by FacFox Powered by 3D Systems Powered by Craftcloud Powered by First Mold Powered by Xometry 3DPrinting Business Directory 3DPrinting Business Directory
Read More
