MadeInAdd CEO: ‘The Companies Adopting 3D Printing Fastest Aren’t the Ones You’d Expect’

You might expect large corporations, with the budgets and engineering resources to match, to be the first in line when it comes to adopting “new” technologies like additive manufacturing. According to Andrea Gorlezza, CEO of MadeInAdd, the opposite is closer to the truth: startups are outpacing established manufacturers, not because they have better access to the technology, but because they carry less weight from decades of using traditional engineering and manufacturing methods. MadeInAdd is a Milan-based AM platform that guides manufacturers through the full production journey, from design to finished part, across more than 50 additive technologies. We spoke to Gorlezza about where the barriers to adoption lie, how his company is working to dismantle them, and what role artificial intelligence plays in it all.

Why Italy’s Industrial Identity Maps Naturally onto AM

Gorlezza comes from traditional manufacturing, with 25 years of experience in the automotive, oil and gas, marine, and machinery sectors. With this background, he can more easily understand the hurdles to AM adoption, because he knows where legacy manufacturers are coming from. Gorlezza became CEO of MadeInAdd in early 2025, the company itself being founded a few years earlier in 2022 via a combination of institutional and industrial investors. The original idea was to position MadeInAdd as an Italian champion of AM technology, with a systemic effect across many industries, first in Italy, and then on a global scale.

Last week, Milan Design Week invited designers across the country to display their craft. The MadeInAdd team took advantage of the opportunity by exhibiting at Milan Design Week for the first time. “There is a very strong link between design and additive,” Gorlezza said at the show. “If you think of additive from the beginning, then you can better design your products. We’d like to make this link somewhat touchable, or physically accessible.”

Italy is a country that’s renowned for its craftsmanship, and bringing additive manufacturing into that fold is fitting. “Italy is the land of the tailors, right?” Gorlezza said. “You may know it also from the fashion sector or from the luxury car sector… or the many other industries where Italy is the key player worldwide. So, Italy has this strong heritage, and this fits so well with additive manufacturing.” Why? Well, for one, additive technology is great for creating custom products, much like a tailor.

Technology Isn’t the Problem: Convincing Engineers Is

However, convincing engineers of AM’s viability is a whole other story. Gorlezza explained that the technical equivalence of parts manufactured with AM as opposed to traditional technologies is still a big question in the minds of many engineers, “way more than one would think.” This knowledge gap is exacerbated by how fast 3D printing is advancing – even if an engineer was up to date on AM capabilities a few years ago, the technology has advanced considerably since then. MadeInAdd therefore plays the role of an educator, letting people know how technically strong, and repeatable, AM technologies have become.

For Gorlezza, one of the most persistent misconceptions about additive manufacturing is embedded in the name itself. “Additive manufacturing, it’s not just manufacturing,” he says. “Some people are a bit distracted by the fact that AM includes the manufacturing word, but it’s actually more than just manufacturing.” The full value of additive, he argues, only materializes when it is considered from the very start of the design process, not just at the production stage.

This is the principle behind MadeInAdd’s end-to-end model. Rather than operating as a bureau that receives files and prints parts, the company serves as an engineering partner that can enter at the design phase and stay through to delivery. “The full power of the additive technologies comes from designing the product… already keeping the possibilities of additive manufacturing in mind,” Gorlezza explains. Topology optimization, organic geometries, weight-to-performance ratios, aesthetic freedom: none of these advantages are accessible if the part was originally designed for a CNC machine or an injection mould.

Where the AI Ends and the Engineer Begins

Part of the difficulty in approaching AM for the first time is understanding what your options are, and deciding which materials and technologies are the right fit. MadeInAdd gives users access to 50+ AM technologies, and without guidance, the number of available processes could paralyze a decision, rather than accelerate it. To make choices easier, MadeInAdd offers its expertise through their in-house engineers, as well as its AI agent, Maddie. These resources help users match their choice to the specific technical and economic requirements of the application.

Maddie can answer questions at any phase of the AM process, but one of its most intriguing features is that a user can send it a 2D drawing or photograph to create an initial 3D model. Then, the platform can recommend different manufacturing options. But Gorlezza made clear that this process is evolving, and that the platform has limits. “If the customer has more specific requirements that go beyond what’s automatically possible on the platform, then our engineers step in,” he says. The AI handles accessibility and speed, while the engineers handle complexity and accountability.

The knowledge gap, Gorlezza insists, is temporary. ‘You need to bring these facts, these proofs, and it suddenly clicks,‘ he says. ‘It suddenly becomes clear that this is an option — and these are then followed, usually quite suddenly, by a larger step of adoption.’ Startups, unburdened by legacy, have already had that click. For the industrial giants still on the sidelines, MadeInAdd’s argument is simple: the technology is ready. The question is whether they are. If you want to learn more about MadeInAdd’s offerings, click HERE.

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*Cover Image: Andrea Gorlezza with “Maddie,” MadeInAdd’s AI agent. (Photo Credit: MadeInAdd)