3DExpress: Justin Bieber Launches Sneaker with Zellerfeld at SKYLRK’s Tokyo Pop-Up

This week in 3DExpress, 3D printing is making strides in medicine, aerospace, consumer goods, and materials science. CurifyLabs introduced a 3D printed compounding system that produces pet-friendly medications, offering a faster, more consistent alternative to manual preparation. In aerospace, Saab unveiled a five-metre AI-designed fuselage printed almost entirely in metal, demonstrating how software-like iteration could transform aircraft production. Researchers at the University of Science and Technology of China achieved high-precision 3D printing of high entropy ceramic nanolattices, creating ultralight, ultra-strong structures with features as small as 150 nanometres. Meanwhile, additive manufacturing continues to influence culture and design, from sneakers to toys, showing the technology’s reach across industries and applications.

Saab has taken additive manufacturing to a new milestone with the reveal of a five-metre aircraft fuselage that is both fully 3D-printed and designed by AI, created in partnership with Divergent Technologies. The experimental structure, produced using Divergent’s advanced additive production system, marks the first time an airframer has attempted to build a large, flight-ready fuselage without traditional tooling, with Saab aiming for a first test flight in 2026. The project builds on Saab’s digital engineering work from the Gripen E fighter programme, where model-based design and rapid software updates reshaped development cycles. Now, that same philosophy is being applied to physical hardware through what Saab calls Software-Defined Hardware Manufacturing, using optimisation algorithms to generate organic load-bearing forms that humans could not draw. The result is a highly integrated structure made from just 26 printed metal parts, replacing hundreds of components and eliminating thousands of fasteners. Saab sees the demonstrator as an early signal of a future in which aircraft can be redesigned, printed and assembled with software-like speed—potentially transforming upgrade cycles, enabling mission-specific variants and reshaping how next-generation crewed and uncrewed aircraft are built.

USTC Develops First High-Precision 3D Printed High-Entropy Ceramic Nanostructures

Researchers at the University of Science and Technology of China have developed a new micro and nanoscale 3D printing method that enables high entropy ceramics to be formed into complex structures with unprecedented precision. The team created a highly transparent, high-loading photosensitive resin and combined it with femtosecond laser two-photon printing and sintering to produce fully dense ceramic architectures with feature sizes as small as 150 nanometers. Because high entropy ceramics typically excel in extreme environments but are difficult to shape at tiny scales, most applications have been limited to powders and bulk materials. The new approach addresses that limitation by providing a repeatable, high-fidelity printing process that yields ultralight, ultrastrong nanolattices with exceptional specific strength and energy absorption. The researchers say the work marks an important step forward for microstructured ceramics and could expand their use in emerging areas such as MEMS, microphotonics, and advanced aerospace components. The achievement also extends the group’s ongoing progress in micro 3D printing of glass, ceramics, and metals, further positioning the technology as a next generation platform for high-performance microdevices.

Their proposed method for fabricating high-entropy ceramic micro three-dimensional structures. (Credit: University of Science and Technology of China)