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Feature Coverage
Longer-form reporting on plant operations, manufacturing technology, workforce strategy, and capital decisions.
No independent study gives one break-even volume for binder jetting and MIM. The crossover is a calculation a sourcing engineer runs for each part. It depends on tooling amortization, how often the design changes, part size, sinter yield and whether the supplier's printer platform will still be supported.
EOS brought its six-laser M4 Onyx to IMTS 2026 claiming 30% lower part cost. The independent evidence supports a narrower case: printing wins on lead time and hard-to-source parts, while tooled, high-volume castings still hold on unit cost.
Stratasys' new F870 is aimed at meter-scale factory tooling. This article gives a per-tool rule for when a printed fixture beats a machined one, when aluminum still holds the datum, and why the hybrid usually wins.
During RIMPAC 2026, the amphibious assault ship USS Essex became the centerpiece of what the Navy calls the largest advanced-manufacturing demonstration in Department of War history. The headline number — 1,000-plus parts made underway — belongs to Firestorm Labs' containerized polymer platform, not the metal hybrid cell it is often conflated with. Here is what actually printed, what it means for contested logistics, and the read-through for the additive supply base.
The Department of War's FY2026 request carries roughly $3.3B tied to additive manufacturing across 16 programs, an 83% jump. But most of that is industrial-base money. The real signal is a cluster of spring-2026 awards — led by Velo3D's $9.8M DLA contract — that pay to qualify production parts, not print demos.
Newport News Shipbuilding has commissioned its first two AML3D ARCEMY X wire-arc metal printers and ordered four more, building toward a six-machine in-house fleet for ship-component fabrication. Here's what the deal actually buys the Navy's most demanding supply chain — and what the numbers really say once you sort the Australian dollars from the U.S. ones.