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Food-contact status is not a property of a material, it's a property of a finished part made through a proven, documented process. A certificate on a powder...
Studio 3e8, a startup from Somerville, Massachusetts, has revealed the Mesa 1, a desktop metal printer that includes its own sintering furnace. A Kickstarter campaign opens on 1 December 2026 with prices from $3,500. The company says the system works without lasers, binders, loose powder or support structures.
Bambu Lab is adding Aimia, an AI modelling studio, to the MakerLab tool area of its MakerWorld platform. According to the provider, Aimia turns a short text description or a photo into a printable 3D model within a few minutes, and no modelling skills are required. The tool is not yet open to users: interested people can only join a waiting list for now. The workflow is described as four steps, starting with a text description as the first input. The report gives no further detail on pricing, availability dates or model quality. For desktop users, the release could lower the barrier to creating custom parts, though the output still needs checking before printing.
Researchers at the Centre for Print Research at the University of the West of England are developing a hybrid process that places seed crystals into platinum components during printing. The project, named neo-gemstone and led by Sofie Boons, aims to grow rubies and sapphires inside the jewellery settings after printing. The team plans to use leftover and offcut gemstone material as starting feedstock. The report is a short teaser, so no details on process parameters, timelines or results are available yet. The work is at research stage and shows how additive manufacturing could combine printed metal structures with crystal growth for jewellery.
Sculpteo has designed and produced protective feet for the Plum' Case guitar case from French maker Luxbag, using Multi Jet Fusion and TPU. The feet add grip, absorb shocks and hide scratches without adding much weight to a case of about 4.2 kg. Production needs no dedicated moulds and suits small and medium runs.
A Tom's Hardware review of the Formlabs Form Studio 1, the company's first consumer-level resin printer, praises its walk-away printing, large touchscreen and cartridge-based resin handling. The printer starts at 699 US dollars and is built around Formlabs' own Alpha resins, though an open material mode allows third-party resins with extra calibration. The reviewer notes a somewhat flimsy hood mount as the main hardware weakness.
A Texas jury found that Bambu Lab's first generation X1, P1 and A1 printers infringe Stratasys patents on prime towers and bed leveling, and awarded Stratasys $27.6 million. No injunction applies, and the verdict covers only US patents, while a European court earlier rejected Stratasys' injunction request. Bambu Lab says it will seek post-trial review and appeal.
Make: 3D printing tested the FilaDC i10 from Inslogic and Sunlu, a $199 cabinet for up to 10 spools. It combines PTC and molecular sieve dehumidification at room temperature instead of hot air. The reviewer saw earlier stringing disappear on five dried spools and found it quiet and easy to set up.
Tom's Hardware has reviewed the Anycubic Photon P1 MAX, a larger resin printer that replaces the Mono M7 Max and shares its design with the smaller Photon P1. It uses a 12K monochrome screen, a heated vat and a screen cover called Wave Release. The reviewer rates it well, but notes early firmware with a leveling glitch.
A Hackaday article compares PETG and PLA filament for FDM, covering polymer chemistry, degradation and recycling. The author also printed a cable chain from an undried PETG spool bought in March 2023 and stored carelessly. The print came out cleanly, with no brittleness and no stringing, which fits the literature on PETG stability.
At the Open Sauce maker festival in San Mateo, a Tom's Hardware reporter found desktop UV printers from xTool, EufyMake and Morpho, a flash-cure resin printer from UC Berkeley and new FDM machines from Prusa Research, Snapmaker and Elegoo. The report shows how UV printing, an industrial technology, is moving to small businesses and home users.
Prusa Research is upgrading its XL, Core One and Core One L printers to second-generation "+" versions, adding a nozzle wiper and finer belts across the range. Current sales units already ship with the changes and open orders are converted, with no price rise. Upgrade kits for existing owners are due on the webstore by September.
Sovol has opened a Kickstarter campaign for the M1D, an open source desktop 3D printer with two independent nozzles and seven swappable toolheads. The campaign has passed 2.8 million dollars against a goal of about 191,000 dollars. Early bird prices start at 1,299 dollars, with shipping expected from November.
ELEGOO has introduced the H1 HT Filament Dryer, a spool dryer that reaches 85 °C and is meant to work with any FDM printer. It targets moisture-related print defects, especially with PA and PC. The company positions it as a further piece of its FDM ecosystem.
HeyGears started a Kickstarter campaign on 23 July for the G1 Series, a modular desktop system that combines full-colour 3D printing with UV printing of textures and flat graphics. Super Early Bird pricing begins at $1,999. The company targets creators, customisation shops and small production studios who want coloured parts without hand painting.
A UC Berkeley team has released OpenCAL, an open-source design for building a computed axial lithography printer, which forms a whole part in a rotating resin vial within minutes. The kit costs about 1,400 dollars and can be assembled in an afternoon. It moves a process that has mostly stayed in academic labs into makerspaces and small workshops.
Bambu Lab has released PLA Pure, a PLA filament made from five ingredients, each taken from the EU 10/2011 positive list for food-contact plastics. The material also carries UL 2904 GREENGUARD emissions certification and passed EN 71-3 toy safety testing. It costs 24.99 dollars with spool or 21.99 dollars as a refill.
Koobz, a US on-demand footwear maker, runs its production on a fleet of Bambu Lab printers, mainly the H2D series, printing complete shoes in recycled-grade TPU. According to a Bambu Lab case study, the fleet has grown from about 50 to roughly 100 machines, with more than 500 planned by the end of 2026. The company says it avoids tooling and can compete on cost with overseas factories.
ELEGOO says the multicolor system for its Centauri Carbon desktop printer has not yet reached the performance it wants, and it cannot promise a release date. Hardware design is finished and firmware is still being tuned. Owners can claim a coupon or a warranty extension.
ELEGOO says its Mars 5 Ultra resin 3D printer has won a 2025 Red Dot Award: Product Design. The company names tilt-release, auto-leveling, section-based exposure and an AI camera as the features behind the recognition. The printer targets beginners who want to start with resin printing.
Elegoo has launched Nexprint, an online platform where users share and download 3D models. It links to Elegoo Slicer and OrcaSlicer and rewards creators for original designs. The platform is in an early stage.
Elegoo has launched a Fiber-Reinforced Filament Series for FDM printers with three materials: PETG-CF, PETG-GF and PAHT-CF. Prices in the US start at 9.99 dollars for 0.5 kg. The company cites low familiarity and high cost as the main reasons users have not tried such filaments, and says more variants are in development.