Case Studies
Documented additive manufacturing projects - process, results, and lessons learned from a single build.
Ten Years Since the First Printed Pill
Aprecia's Spritam opened the door to 3D-printed medicine in 2015. A decade of polypill research has pushed drug-loading efficiency past 96 percent, work that is now waiting on the regulatory pathway that would let a second printed drug follow Spritam to market.
What It Takes to 3D Print Glass
Molten thermoplastic flows the moment it clears its melting point. Glass resists a printer for a different reason: its viscosity crosses several orders of magnitude before it counts as printable at all, and two MIT projects have found opposite ways through that window.
Printing the Circuit Into the Part
A decade after Voxel8 promised a single printer that could wire itself, 3D printed electronics settled into three narrower, more durable techniques instead of the one-machine dream it started from.
How 3D Printing Found Its Way to Orbit
From a plastic printer fixing its own faceplate on the ISS in 2014 to a stainless-steel bracket melted in microgravity a decade later, additive manufacturing's slow climb into orbit shows each generation solving exactly the problem the last one couldn't.
How 3D-Printed Implants Actually Get FDA Clearance
The FDA built its first dedicated review pathway for additive manufactured devices in 2017, after more than a hundred 3D-printed implants had already reached patients under general device rules, and the point-of-care question it raised in 2021 is still open.
The Warehouse That Never Holds the Part
Rail operators, navies, and heavy industry are starting to store spare parts as CAD files instead of steel, printing them only when a machine breaks. The economics only work for some parts, but where they work, they upend how a maintenance budget gets spent.
Where Printing Meets the Cutting Tool
Interleaving directed-energy deposition with in-envelope machining changes the residual stress budget that ultimately governs a hybrid-built part's accuracy and service life.
Where Additive Manufacturing Is Actually Winning Right Now
Past the hype cycle: the specific applications where AM has moved from demo to dependable production, and where it still falls short.
A $200,000 Problem - and a Student at Western University, Canada, Who Is 3D Printing the Solution
Graduate student Rebecca Kaaya Nansubuga is developing an open-source 3D-printed orthopedic surgical positioning table, bringing a $200,000 piece of operating room equipment within reach of any facility with a desktop printer.
Empowering the Next Generation: 3D Printing, Robotics, and the Future of Education
How a zombie-themed 3D printing workshop in Sri Lanka sparked creativity and problem-solving in kids, and what it means for the future of technology education.
Is 3D Printing Really Changing the Production Space?
How a custom 3D-printed jig solved a UV printing bottleneck for embossing logos on 10,000 glass tubes, cutting per-batch production time from 20 minutes to just a few seconds.
Lightweight Drone Frame Using Topology-Optimized FDM Parts
A student project using topology optimization and FDM to build a drone frame 40% lighter than a standard design.