Insights
Technical explainers, industry trends, opinion pieces, and educational content from the AM community.
Continuous-Fiber Printing's Weak Interlayer
Continuous carbon-fiber 3D printing can match the tensile strength of conventional composites layer by layer, but interlaminar bonding and trapped voids between passes remain the process's defining weak point.
What Melt Pool Monitoring Can (and Can't) Catch in Metal 3D Printing
In-situ sensors watch the melt pool for the fraction of a second it exists, catching the keyhole instabilities that leave pores behind — but turning that detection into real-time process control remains the field's open problem.
Why 3D-Printed Ceramics Still Crack
Vat photopolymerization can print ceramic slurries to near-optical resolution, but debinding and sintering remain the steps that decide whether the part survives — and why shrinkage and cracking are still the field's defining problem.
Three Ways to Build in Metal
Laser powder bed fusion, directed energy deposition, and binder jetting reach full density through fundamentally different physics, each trading resolution, build rate, and cost differently.
Lattices That Design Themselves
Topology optimization and lattice infill are converging with additive manufacturing's own physical constraints, so that overhang angles and minimum feature size are now part of the mathematics that generates a part's shape, not an afterthought.
Why Two CT Scans of the Same AM Part Can Disagree: Porosity Metrology and the Partial-Volume Effect
X-ray computed tomography has replaced destructive sectioning as the primary way to inspect internal porosity in metal additive manufacturing, but its porosity numbers are only meaningful alongside the resolution and threshold used to produce them.
Melt, Deposit, or Bind: The Process Physics Behind Metal AM Selection
Laser powder bed fusion, directed energy deposition, and binder jetting each rely on a distinct thermal or chemical mechanism, and that mechanism, not the equipment, governs achievable density, microstructure, and part geometry.
Support Structures in Additive Manufacturing: Thermomechanical Origins and Design Mitigation Strategies
Support structures are not a slicer-stage afterthought. Their necessity, geometry, and cost are governed by distinct thermal and kinetic mechanisms in powder bed fusion, material extrusion, and vat photopolymerization.
Post-Processing for FDM and SLA: What Each Method Actually Does
Sanding, vapor smoothing, curing, painting - what each technique changes, and when it is worth the time.
Slicer Settings That Actually Matter
Your slicer has 200+ parameters. These are the handful that actually change how your part performs.
Design for Additive Manufacturing: What Actually Changes When You Print
DfAM is not about avoiding print failures. It is about making decisions upstream - orientation, overhangs, wall thickness, support strategy - before the slicer is ever opened.
Where to Actually Find Free 3D Models Worth Printing
Not all free model repositories are built for AM practitioners. Here is where to look - and what to watch out for.
3D Scanning and 3D Printing: From Point Cloud to Physical Object
A practical guide to 3D scanning technologies, from photo capture and photobooth scanners to structured light, laser, and infrared systems, and how they feed into real-world 3D printing workflows.
Polymer Additive Manufacturing: Beyond the Standard Classification
If you can only name a handful of polymer 3D printing techniques, it is time to expand your knowledge. AMPOWER has mapped over 16 distinct polymer AM processes, far beyond the seven categories in the ASTM/ISO 52900 standard.
FDM 3D Printing: A Complete Guide for Engineers
A comprehensive guide to Fused Deposition Modeling, how it works, material choices, print settings, and real-world applications.