Interviews

Long before co-founding Protopasta, Alexander Dick first encountered 3D printing in the early 1990s, when a neighbor brought home 3D prints from Ford. Years later, after earning a mechanical engineering degree, he landed a job operating what he describes as…

Metal 3D printers that use laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) typically cost six figures and take up a room of their own. A sealed build chamber, precision optics and a powerful laser all add size and cost. US startup Scrap…

Itzcóatl was the fourth ruler of Mexico-Tenochtitlan, and his name means “obsidian serpent” in Nahuatl. Today, it is also the name of a sculpture 3D printed with soil by Mexican artist Alfredo Salazar-Caro, co-founder of the Digital Museum of Digital…

Almost every 3D printer moves its printhead with belts and pulleys, an affordable solution that comes with certain limits. The belt stretches, vibrates, and loses rigidity over time. For years, the industry has had a faster and more precise alternative…

If you’ve been following 3Dnatives, you’ve probably come across Gil Lavi before. We first profiled him and his company, 3D Alliances, back in 2019, and again in 2024 when 3D Alliances launched IMPACT, a program to help additive manufacturing companies optimize their channel networks. If you…

As additive manufacturing continues to push the boundaries of design and production, one area where its potential truly shines is in furniture making. Combining form, function, and sustainability, 3D printed furniture is opening new doors for designers to experiment with…

Physical AI, the growing category of AI systems built to act in the real world rather than just process data, is one of the fastest-moving corners of the robotics industry. Companies building autonomous robots, automated lab equipment, and warehouse deployments…

When Ian Ramsdell, founder of Kupros, started asking electronics specialists about 3D printing copper, he faced plenty of skepticism. One expert, in Ramsdell’s recollection, insisted it could not be done and never would be: “Copper can’t be 3D printed, it’ll…

The promise of additive manufacturing has always been design freedom, yet engineers frequently face complex, manual design processes to turn a concept into a manufacturable part. The Zurich-based software startup nureo is changing this by bridging the gap between advanced…

Anyone who has swapped traditional braces for clear dental aligners knows the appeal: aligners are much more comfortable and inconspicuous, compared to wires in your mouth. As this consumer preference for a more discreet orthodontic experience drives a massive market…

For decades, hardware design has been dictated by a stubborn reality: the battery is a block. Whether designing a drone or a smartphone, engineers have had to build around the rigid, heavy constraints of traditional cylindrical or prismatic cells, compromising…

Jet turbine engineers need components that can survive some of the most extreme conditions imaginable, like emperatures exceeding 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit, and for years, no off-the-shelf alloy survived the task. The answer came from NASA Glenn Research Center in the…