September 19, 2026·Hobby
3D Printed Assistive Technology Gets User Briefs
3D printed assistive technology is the brief of MakerWorld
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Blog
News, guides, and maker stories about desktop and small-format 3D printing.
September 19, 2026·Education
3D Printed Bone Scaffolds Mix PCL and Carbon Dots
3D printed bone scaffolds from Tehran mix PCL with carbon dots from black cumin; more filler aids cells but cuts compressive strength about threefold.
Read article →September 18, 2026·Hobby
Bambu Lab Patent Verdict Puts Purge Towers on Trial
Bambu Lab patent verdict awards Stratasys $27.6 million over purge tower 3D printing claims; a second Texas trial is not yet scheduled. Appeals expected.
Read article →September 18, 2026·Everyday 3D
Prusament PLA Lightweight Foams RC Parts Down 65%
Prusament PLA Lightweight is an actively foaming PLA Prusa says can cut printed mass 65% for RC aircraft, drones, cosplay, and floaters. Dry it first.
Read article →September 17, 2026·Use Cases
3D Printed Synthetic Skin Moves Onto a Print Farm
3D printed synthetic skin leaves the lab as UltiMaker and Bioactivx scale a Singapore cleanroom print farm after HSA approval for Bioactiv Matrix burns.
Read article →September 17, 2026·Everyday 3D
Drawing to CAD Turns Paper Into Printable Parts
Drawing to CAD from Backflip AI turns 2D engineering drawings into Fusion models shops can edit and 3D print as spare parts when the original file is missing.
Read article →September 16, 2026·Education
3D Concrete Printing Enters a Polytechnic Classroom
3D concrete printing arrives in UW-Stout classrooms as Alquist robots extrude walls; a new certificate trains students who placed rebar in a campus planter.
Read article →September 16, 2026·Use Cases
3D Printed Ceramic Implants Hit 500 at KLS Martin
3D printed ceramic implants hit a 500-unit mark as KLS Martin lists LithaBone TCP on IPS Gate for patient-specific, resorbable bone scaffolds in surgery.
Read article →September 15, 2026·Everyday 3D
Recycled Plastic 3D Printing Frames a Wetland Bridge
Recycled plastic 3D printing turns bottle waste and fiberglass into MIT-tested trusses. Atlas supplied a 40-foot Army Corps wetland bridge in Massachusetts.
Read article →September 15, 2026·Use Cases
Carbon Fiber Composite 3D Printing Draws $40 Million
Carbon fiber composite 3D printing drew $40 million as Impossible Objects scales CBAM 25 for aerospace, drones, and factory-rate composite parts, TCT reports.
Read article →September 10, 2026·Everyday 3D
Recycled Titanium 3D Printing Reaches Apple's Hinge
Recycled titanium 3D printing puts a Grade 5 hinge cover on Apple’s iPhone Duo. TCT infers laser powder bed fusion from earlier Watch and iPhone Air parts.
Read article →September 10, 2026·Use Cases
Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing Hits a BMW Car
Wire arc additive manufacturing heads for a 2027 BMW: a WAAM aluminum structural part said to be 30–40% lighter than die-cast, still in qualification.
Read article →September 9, 2026·Hobby
Full-Color 3D Printing Moves Onto the Desk
Full-color 3D printing hits the desk: Flashforge’s CJ270 jets CMYK, white, and clear resin with Xaar Irix heads for studio-scale models.
Read article →September 9, 2026·Use Cases
Stratasys F870 Puts Large FDM on Auto Floors
Stratasys F870 brings meter-class heated FDM to auto floors: Toyota and Rivian cited as early users for tooling and manufacturing aids.
Read article →September 8, 2026·Education
3D Printed MRI Coils Fit Kids in Minutes
3D printed MRI coils from USC aim to fit infants in minutes: silver-ink sensors on stretchable elastomer for clearer pediatric scans.
Read article →September 8, 2026·Use Cases
High Speed Sintering Prints Full Door Panels
High speed sintering news: Hyundai installs two ExOne VX1000 HSS polymer printers to build full-scale PA12 parts, including door panels.
Read article →September 7, 2026·Education
Ice 3D Printing Uses Vacuum, Not a Freezer
Ice 3D printing news this week: Amsterdam physicists froze a water jet in vacuum, with no freezer, into sacrificial templates for lab channels in PNAS.
Read article →September 7, 2026·Everyday 3D
Multicolor 3D Printing Cuts Purge Waste at IFA
Multicolor 3D printing news from IFA 2026: Creality’s K3 multi-channel flagship and award-winning M1 filament recycling aim to cut purge waste on the desk.
Read article →September 4, 2026·Hobby
PrusaSlicer 3.0 Preview Is Not Your Daily Driver
PrusaSlicer 3.0 preview is out this week: rebuilt UI, multi-tool profiles, and true offline mode. Keep stable version 2.9.6 for overnight production jobs.
Read article →September 3, 2026·Use Cases
Navy Funds Continuous Fiber 3D Printing Inside UAV Parts
Continuous fiber 3D printing news this week: Continuous Composites won a Navy Phase II SBIR to embed conductors inside load-bearing UAV composite structures.
Read article →September 3, 2026·Everyday 3D
3D-Printed Heatsink Trims Cooling Mass in APL Tests
3D-printed heatsink news: Johns Hopkins APL built SPEAR phase-change sinks in-house and reports more than 50% size and weight cuts versus baseline aluminum.
Read article →September 3, 2026·Education
3D Printing Education Turns Student-Led This Fall
3D printing education news: Bambu Lab’s 50 school ambassadors ran 41 summer events reaching more than 30,000 people as fall classes resume across North America.
Read article →September 3, 2026·Use Cases
3D-Printed Floating Titanium Lattice Stays Afloat
3D-printed floating titanium news: RMIT filled hollow lattice struts with foam so the metal stays afloat after cracks, even in two-week seawater tests.
Read article →August 31, 2026·Hobby
Four-Head Desktop 3D Printer Launches on Kickstarter
A four-head desktop 3D printer from LightMake launched on Kickstarter today: four independent heads, linear motors, and claimed 1-second swaps.
Read article →August 31, 2026·Education
Stratasys Expands 3D-Printed Prosthetics Partnership
3D-printed prosthetics are the student-lab job at UCF this week: Stratasys and Limbitless expanded a 12-year partnership and donated a refurbished F370.
Read article →August 28, 2026·Use Cases
Army Seeks Expeditionary Additive Manufacturing at Three Bases
Expeditionary additive manufacturing is what AMCOM asked for this week: three hangar printers for fixtures and non-flight-safety parts at three Army bases.
Read article →August 28, 2026·Hobby
Prusa INDX Toolchanger Starts Shipping This Week
Prusa INDX kits started shipping this week, so makers can order a CORE One+ (Gen 2) with 4 or 8 Bondtech tools and skip the usual purge tower on color swaps.
Read article →August 27, 2026·Education
3D-Printed Kirigami Cylinders Morph on a Rotary Printer
3D-printed kirigami cylinders on a Snapmaker rotary module snap from stiff tubes to soft vases this week, so STEM labs can program crush without swapping TPU.
Read article →August 27, 2026·Everyday 3D
FFF Quality Tradeoffs Need More Than One Print Profile
FFF quality tradeoffs in garage printing: Bayesian nets map nozzle temperature, speed, and layer height so shops pick a process window, not one lucky print.
Read article →August 26, 2026·Use Cases
FibreSeeker 3 UL Certification vs EU Safety Marks
FibreSeeker 3 UL and NTRL certifications not yet done; the printer already carries EU CE, RoHS, REACH, and WEEE files for machinery, EMC, and chemical safety.
Read article →August 26, 2026·Everyday 3D
3D-Printed Footwear Needs Dual Material and Gyroid
3D-printed footwear news: Hackaday’s clog guide uses TPU 90A, PLA supports, and 15% gyroid infill so home dual-material prints fail less this week in garages.
Read article →August 26, 2026·Education
3D-Printed Zirconia Crowns May Fit One Dental Visit
3D-printed zirconia crowns news: UT Dallas cuts ceramic VPP debinding from 20–100 hours to under 30 minutes, aiming at same-day dental visits this week.
Read article →August 25, 2026·Hobby
3D-Printed Robotic Skin Maps Touch Without a Taxel Grid
3D-printed robotic skin news: Hackaday covers a TPU EIT patch that localizes touch to 6 mm with 16 electrodes, no taxel grid, on curved robot parts this week.
Read article →August 25, 2026·Use Cases
AI Opens GRCop-42 3D Printing on Lower-Power Lasers
GRCop-42 3D printing news: WSU used AI to find six DED recipes, including 500 W infrared, so small labs can print NASA’s copper rocket alloy this week.
Read article →August 24, 2026·Everyday 3D
Wood PLA Nozzle Size Changes FFF Part Strength
Wood PLA nozzle size is a process setting: Fabbaloo covers a 2026 study where 0.8 mm tips gained 8.9% tensile strength versus 0.4 mm on wood-filled PLA.
Read article →August 24, 2026·Education
3D-Printed Acoustic Cavities Power Tiny Robots
3D-printed acoustic cavities turn speaker tones into thrust: EPFL boats steer without motors, and 150-µg microfliers climb on ultrasound this week in labs.
Read article →August 18, 2026·Hobby
Wave Overhangs Print Horizontal FDM Without Supports
Wave overhangs news: Hackaday covers a slicer that grows 90-degree FDM shelves from the part so desktop makers skip supports and waste less plastic this week.
Read article →August 18, 2026·Use Cases
Robotic 5D Printing Patent Tracks Moving Workpieces
Robotic 5D printing news: IBM’s patent filing describes two robots that keep a moving workpiece aligned while additive and subtractive tools share one cell.
Read article →August 17, 2026·Hobby
Laser Layer Adhesion Hack Nears X-Axis Print Strength
Laser layer adhesion news: a maker bolted lasers to an FFF printer so new plastic meets a molten layer, lifting ABS Z-strain toward X-axis strength this week.
Read article →August 17, 2026·Everyday 3D
Creality SPARKX i7 Nano Puts Four Colors on a Desk
Creality SPARKX i7 Nano ships at $299 with a 260×260×255 mm bed, CFS nano four-color kit on top, and a snap-on spool holder for small home desks as of Aug 15.
Read article →August 14, 2026·Hobby
Prusa XL+ Upgrade Brings Cleaner Starts, Faster Setup
Prusa XL+ upgrade news covers Core One+ Gen 2 and XL+ hardware: nozzle wipers, GT1.5 belts, faster starts, same prices, and owner upgrade kits this fall.
Read article →August 14, 2026·Use Cases
3D Printed Aircraft Spare Parts Fix Unsourceable Latches
3D printed aircraft spare parts from Lufthansa Technik and Materialise replace an unsourceable polymer latch with certified titanium for A330-class repairs.
Read article →August 12, 2026·Education
Recycled 3D Printing Filament Gets a Campus Extruder Playbook
Recycled 3D printing filament just got a low-cost campus extruder patent from NIT Rourkela. What closed-loop FDM recycling means for STEM labs.
Read article →August 12, 2026·Everyday 3D
3D Printable Elastomer That Survives Yank and Wear
3D printable elastomer research from EPFL shows double network granular elastomers can resist fracture and fatigue — what that means for soft parts.
Read article →August 11, 2026·Use Cases
Large Format Metal 3D Printing Gets an Air Force Boost
Large format metal 3D printing just got another $9M Air Force push. What the GEN-II DMP-1000 extension means for aerospace qualification and shop tooling.
Read article →August 11, 2026·Hobby
Interactive 3D Printed Objects Without the Electronics
Interactive 3D printed objects from MIT’s ShiftLens change appearance when you twist or press — no batteries. What makers can learn from optomechanical surfaces.
Read article →August 11, 2026·Everyday 3D
Large Format Desktop 3D Printer Upsizing at Home
Large format desktop 3D printer reviews of the Bambu Lab A2L show when a bigger open-frame bed helps home shops — and when strength still needs a different machine.
Read article →August 11, 2026·Education
3D Printing STEM Education Gets a Statewide NSF Hub
3D printing STEM education just gained an $8M NSF hub in Nebraska. What NE3D’s student pipeline means for labs teaching design-to-print healthcare skills.
Read article →August 7, 2026·Use Cases
Automotive Additive Manufacturing Moves Into Hyundai and Kia’s Tooling Stack
Automotive additive manufacturing just got a dedicated Hyundai-Kia hub for tools, parts, and digital spares. What OEM 3D printing centres mean for shops.
Read article →August 7, 2026·Hobby
Entry-Level Desktop 3D Printers Now Drive Half the Hardware Market
Entry-level desktop 3D printer sales now drive over half of global system revenue. What CONTEXT’s Q1 2026 data means for makers and print farms.
Read article →August 6, 2026·Use Cases
Shipboard Additive Manufacturing Proves Point-of-Need Printing at Sea
Shipboard additive manufacturing just printed 1,000+ parts and 12 drones at sea. What Firestorm’s RIMPAC run means for point-of-need production.
Read article →August 6, 2026·Everyday 3D
Large Format Desktop 3D Printers Bring Heated Chambers Home
Large format desktop 3D printer upgrades just got practical: Qidi’s Plus5 adds ~18% bed, 65°C heated chamber FDM, and multi-spool options for garage shops.
Read article →August 4, 2026·Education
STEM 3D Printing Camps Teach Design Before the Print
STEM 3D printing camps that teach Onshape CAD before the first print help students own the full design-to-prototype loop. Lessons from Mahidol’s Toy Maker workshop.
Read article →August 4, 2026·Hobby
Kids Desktop 3D Printers Bring Family STEAM Home
Kids desktop 3D printer launches are reframing family STEAM. What ugee’s Funbox means for home safety, open PLA, and the next step up.
Read article →August 3, 2026·Education
3D Printing Education Starts With Teachers — NMSU’s DREAM Workshop
3D printing education starts with teachers. What NMSU’s DREAM workshop for K-12 educators means for classroom STEM and lasting adoption.
Read article →August 3, 2026·Use Cases
Aerospace Additive Manufacturing Scales With Eaton’s UK Centre
Aerospace additive manufacturing just got another regional production cell. What Eaton’s new UK centre means for shops that need localized 3D printing production.
Read article →July 30, 2026·Use Cases
Continuous Carbon Fiber 3D Printing Enters Navy Training
Continuous carbon fiber 3D printing just entered Navy sailor training. What the Danville Schoolhouse rollout means for shops that need strong fixtures and point-of-need parts.
Read article →July 29, 2026·Everyday 3D
Heat-Stable PLA Filament Gets Tougher for Desktop Parts
Heat-stable PLA filament just got tougher for desktop functional parts. What Polymaker HT-PLA Pro changes for makers who need impact resistance without switching plastics.
Read article →July 28, 2026·Hobby
Desktop Full-Color 3D Printing Arrives for Makers
Desktop full-color 3D printing is arriving for hobbyists and small studios. What the HeyGears G1 Kickstarter changes — and when strength still beats color.
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