3D Printing News Briefs, October 10, 2026: Drones, WAAM, Ceramics, & More – 3DPrint.com

We have a packed 3D Printing News Briefs for you this weekend! First, America Makes celebrated the recent National Manufacturing Day with 3D printed drones, and then it’s on to business for VulcanForms, Velo3D, and DEEP Manufacturing. XYZO launched its automated hybrid manufacturing technology, and Instruct3D commercially launched its Additive Build intelligence solution. We’ll end with a work of 3D printed art on a switchstation facade.

America Makes Offers Hands-On 3D Printing Drones Experiences

Image courtesy of America Makes via LinkedIn.

Last week was National Manufacturing Day, and America Makes chose to celebrate by launching a series of hands-on “3D Printing for Drones” experiences across five states. Held in collaboration with Innovate Learning, the concept was built on the success of a summer camp hosted at the Missouri University of Science and Technology, and is designed to introduce high school students to the combination of drones, 3D printing, and real-world engineering challenges. Last week’s half-day Design + Build + Fly activities were held in Alabama, California, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas, giving students the chance to participate in build-sprint modules, safety lessons, design thinking exercises, prototyping activities, and drone flight instruction. They had to think like real AM engineers, considering factors like weight, battery management, and manufacturability. The goal was to help the student participants build foundational technical skills and ignite their interest in 3D printing, and the initiative itself reflects the commitment of America Makes to strengthen the future manufacturing workforce.

“Manufacturing Day provides an important opportunity to introduce the next generation to the technologies, skills, and career opportunities shaping the future of American manufacturing. This programming brings together state-of-the-art 3D printing with drone competition in an exciting, kinetic way that engages learners and will keep growing momentum in the advanced manufacturing industry,” said Dr. Ed Herderick, Education and Workforce Development (EWD) Director at America Makes.

You can access the free “3D Printing for Drones” curriculum here. Select the Community Engagement Tools “Get Started” button, and you’ll be prompted to request an access code from America Makes.

VulcanForms Announces Appointment of New Chief Revenue Officer

Jeff Hemenway

Massachusetts-based digital manufacturing company VulcanForms, born out of MIT, developed an industrially scalable metal AM technology to fabricate components used in the aerospace and defense, consumer, medical, and industrial markets. It’s now been announced that, effective immediately, manufacturing and growth veteran Jeff Hemenway has been appointed the Chief Revenue Officer to help accelerate the company’s growth. He has more than 35 years of executive leadership and commercial experience across many of the industries that VulcanForms already serves, and most recently worked as Vice President of Sales at advanced manufacturing company Hadrian, where he helped to build up and scale its commercial organization and develop strategic partnerships. He also worked at Stratasys as Senior Vice President of Global Industry Sales after developing an important customer program to grow partnerships over multiple business segments. As VulcanForms continues to expand its production capacity and scale its digital-first manufacturing platform, Hemenway will lead its commercial strategy and growth.

“What attracted me to VulcanForms is the opportunity to transform the path from optimized design through scaled production. By integrating advanced design and engineering with automated manufacturing technology and scaled production, VulcanForms will help customers optimize part performance, accelerate industrialization, ensure quality and reduce supply chain risk,” Hemenway said. “I’m excited to build the strategic partnerships that bring these capabilities to our customers’ most important programs and create meaningful, long-term value for both our customers and VulcanForms.”

Velo3D Adds to Technology & Operational Leadership Team

Metal AM company Velo3D is also strengthening its leadership to advance production growth, hiring Vic Fryzel as Executive Vice President, Technology, and Robert Purnell as Senior Director, Operations. With their complementary expertise in manufacturing execution and platform performance, the two will work to strengthen Velo3D’s technology and operational leadership, specifically supporting production at the company’s Livermore Production Campus, Forge 1, and for its Rapid Production Solutions offering. Both are more than qualified to help Velo3D grow production at scale. Fryzel has over two decades of experience building and scaling hardware and software systems at massive companies like Google and Meta, and spent the last two years in the additive industry at Carbon, first as VP, Head of Software Engineering, and then Senior VP, Head of Engineering. At Velo3D, his job is to oversee the company’s technology roadmap across everything from data, AI, and materials to hardware, software, automation, and process engineering. Purnell, who served in the U.S. Marine Corp, has worked to scale manufacturing operations across the aerospace and semiconductor markets, with leadership roles at FormFactor, Boeing, and SpaceX’s Starlink. He leads the teams and operating systems as Forge 1 that are responsible for safety, quality, and delivery performance.

“Expanding capacity is only part of our strategy. We also need the technology and operating discipline to turn that capacity into dependable customer delivery. Vic is focused on platform reliability, repeatability and production economics, while Robert is focused on manufacturing readiness, quality and execution. Together, they connect our technology with how we manufacture and deliver for customers,” said Velo3D CEO Arun Jeldi.

Amid Reindustrialization Push, DEEP Manufacturing Reaches 18-Month Mark

DEEP Manufacturing’s Bristol facility. Image courtesy of DEEP Manufacturing.

Since launching 18 months ago, wire arc additive manufacturing (WAAM) specialist DEEP Manufacturing has been busy, growing from just one site to two facilities in Bristol and Houston for 24/7 certified production on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. It’s the first and only fully DNV-approved WAAM provider for pressure vessels for human occupancy (PVHOs), able to take a large-scale metal AM component, like cylinders, hemispheres, and propeller blades, all the way to a certified, service-ready part on a single site. That site is its Bristol facility, which is able to achieve this type of production with the help of DEEP’s new Rollerbot 2.0, CNC machining, and additional WAAM robots. The company has also expanded its material portfolio by adding carbon steel, stainless steel (ER316LSi), duplex and super duplex (UNS S32750), nickel aluminum bronze (ER CuNiAl), copper alloy (ERCuNi30), and aluminum (ER2319/2219). Most businesses that are able to print large-format metal components don’t have the capability to qualify and sign off themselves, which is what sets DEEP Manufacturing apart from traditional casting and forging routes.

“We’re not seeing a spike in demand for large-format additive manufacturing. We’re seeing the market arrive at where we always believed it was heading,” said Peter Richards, CEO at DEEP Manufacturing.

“The question was never whether this shift was coming, it was who would be ready to meet it. Eighteen months ago, this was a single site and an idea. Today it’s a facility that can take a component from design to raw print to a certified part ready to ship. That’s not just growth for us – it tells you how quickly this market has moved, and we’ve built to meet it.

“The next stage of growth is more systems, more sites, and pushing WAAM further into industrialisation, without ever compromising on the certification our customers depend on.”

XYZO Launches Automated Hybrid Manufacturing Platform

Image courtesy of XYZO.

UK company XYZO has launched its automated hybrid manufacturing technology platform for polymer parts. Instead of using AM as the sole production solution, this new commercial platform is driven by the technology, and combines it with precision machining, finishing, inspection, and process control in one connected workflow. The platform is modular, able to integrate additive processes like DLP, FDM, pellet extrusion, and drop-on-demand deposition, as well as CNC micro-milling, cleaning, curing, and other post-processing methods. It’s not a research demonstrator or experimental concept, but a commercially focused technology platform for applications in which manufacturing needs the flexibility of digital production but is unable to justify typical tooling. The idea behind it was to address a major limitation of AM: just printing the part is only one step on the way to achieving a finished component. XYZO’s new platform is meant to move from a digital design to a completed part through a controlled workflow, while decreasing manual intervention between each stage of manufacturing.

“For years, the AM sector has concentrated enormous effort on improving the printing process itself. But manufacturers do not ultimately need printed parts, they need finished parts that are accurate, repeatable, and economically viable to produce. XYZO grew from asking what happens if we stop treating additive as an isolated process and instead build the production system around it. The result is much closer to an automated production line driven by additive manufacturing than it is to another 3D printer,” said Kegan McColgan-Bannon, CEO at XYZO.

Instruct3D Launches Additive Build Intelligence for Metal AM

Another UK company, Instruct3D, has commercially launched its Additive Build Intelligence solution for high-value metal AM. The work, meant to give manufacturers more confidence in builds, is built on more than 20 years of AM research from the University of Sheffield, and combines physics-based optimization with end-to-end data intelligence and affordable sensor hardware. Explained to the attendees of ICAM 2026 in a presentation, Additive Build Intelligence uses camera-based data acquisition through its VertX hardware, but, as co-founder Rob Snell said, “Cameras are part of the system, but they are not the story.” Instruct3D doesn’t call itself an in-situ monitoring company; the cameras don’t just collect image and highlight anomalies. VertX captures critical process data, which the company’s AdditiveOS software platform turns into actionable build intelligence. This allows metal AM users to predict where possible build issues could pop up, learn what happened during the printing process, generate evidence for build verification support, and basically improve all future builds. It goes past process monitoring, and more towards predictable production that’s right the first time, every time. From the start, Instruct3D had commercial deployment in mind for the platform, with practical installation routes, scalable hardware-enabled software model, and affordable sensors.

“Metal AM does not need more disconnected data. It needs intelligence that helps manufacturers make better decisions before, during, and after the build. Additive Build Intelligence is about giving teams the confidence to build high-value parts more predictably, reduce trial-and-error, and move faster from development into production,” said Ben Thomas, Co-Founder of Instruct3D.

“Our ambition is simple, to unlock for the first time the true potential of metal AM by making every build more predictable, more provable, and more valuable.”

3D Printed Ceramic Artwork Integrated into Electrical Substation

Image: Studio Pim Top

Who’s to say that necessary energy infrastructure can’t also be aesthetically pleasing? Powerwall is a 40 square meter work of art, made up of 322 unique ceramic 3D printed tiles and integrated within the brick facade of a new switchstation in Beverwijk, the Netherlands. Designed by Powerhouse Company for energy infrastructure operator TenneT, it was created by Studio RAP as a large-scale relief inspired by invisible electromagnetic fields. It’s not unusual to see more of these electrical substations and transformer stations in urban areas these days, and the Powerwall project looked at how infrastructure can meet the necessary operational requirements, while also responding to and fitting in with the surrounding architecture.

The station itself is made up of a taller brick volume, which holds the primary electrical installation, and a lower metal volume contains secondary functions. Brick piers give the main facade depth, and the two parts are visually connected by sculptural metal lamellas. Studio RAP used computational design to develop the tiles that form the relief, and each one was printed in its Rotterdam workshop with in-house robotic clay 3D printing. This method allowed the architecture practice to vary the depth, form, and texture of the individual tiles, which were finished with a translucent turquoise glaze after they’d been printed and fired. It’s easy to see the 3D surface, as the glaze settles into the grooves of the relief. The tiles were assembled into one continuous surface on the brick facade, and as sunlight moves over it, the ceramic surface’s appearance is changed.

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