Stratasys has been awarded $7.8 million through the 2026 America Makes and Department of War Organic Industrial Base Modernization Challenge. The 24-month project will develop on-site quality assurance for the F3300 and F900 industrial FDM platforms. The aim is to generate process data during the build and so reduce reliance on post-build inspection and qualification.
Key facts
Award value is $7.8 million over 24 months
Funded through the 2026 America Makes and Department of War OIB Modernization Challenge
Targets the Stratasys F3300 and F900 industrial FDM platforms
Goal: real-time process data to cut post-build inspection and qualification
Context In-situ quality assurance means capturing process data while the part is being built, so that anomalies can be found and documented during production instead of only through inspection afterwards.
What does the funded project cover?
The award comes from the 2026 America Makes and Department of War Organic Industrial Base (OIB) Modernization Challenge, which supports projects that advance additive manufacturing for defense manufacturing modernization. Stratasys will use the 24-month funding to develop monitoring capabilities for its F3300 and F900 industrial FDM platforms.
The monitoring is meant to give greater visibility into the process, identify potential anomalies during production and generate the documentation needed to support quality decisions.
Why in-process data matters for qualification
Stratasys names part verification as a key barrier to wider production use: manufacturers in highly regulated industries often depend on extensive post-print inspection and qualification before parts can be deployed. Capturing quality data during the build is intended to lower that inspection burden, shorten qualification cycles and make it easier to add capacity.
John Wilczynski, Executive Director of America Makes, described the work as building trust in the process and creating data to support qualification on established polymer production platforms. Stratasys says the result should serve defense, aerospace, commercial aviation and other markets that require traceability and process control.
What it means
For manufacturers adopting AM, qualification effort is often a larger cost than the print itself, and it is usually repeated application by application. In-process data on an established FDM platform could, if it proves acceptable to customers and auditors, lower inspection cost per part. The project is funded for 24 months and no release date is given, so planning should not assume availability soon. Smaller European suppliers in aerospace should watch whether the resulting documentation is accepted outside the US defense context.
Frequently asked questions
How much funding did Stratasys receive and for what?
Stratasys was awarded $7.8 million over 24 months to develop on-site quality assurance capabilities for its F3300 and F900 industrial FDM platforms.
Who provides the funding?
The award comes through the 2026 America Makes and Department of War Organic Industrial Base Modernization Challenge.
What problem is the project meant to solve?
It targets the effort of verifying part quality: capturing data during the build is intended to reduce post-print inspection and shorten qualification cycles.