Current news about additive manufacturing/3D printing November/December 2025

New York state renews AMPrint Center’s contract

Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT)’s AMPrint Center received a 10-year renewal contract from New York state to continue development of next-generation 3D printing processes, materials, and applications. The renewal funding will be distributed in two five-year increments, and the first allotment of $5 million will be used beginning this fiscal year.

The AMPrint Center was established in 2015 to help position New York state as a global leader in 3D printing technologies through industry, government, and academic partnerships.

New start-ups have matured in the state through AMPrint’s research, training, and support capabilities. Its team has also contributed technology to improve how high-performance materials, including metals and carbon fiber composites, are being used in 3D printing applications, says Denis Cormier, director of the AMPrint Center.

“The AMPrint Center is helping to breathe new life into this region’s world-renowned printing industry by applying its expertise to the rapidly growing 3D printing universe,” says Cormier, the Earl W. Brinkman Professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering in RIT’s Kate Gleason College of Engineering.

The center has an extensive range of high-tech 3D printing equipment being used for research as well as hands-on educational and training resources for students, faculty-researchers, and corporate partners.

This renewal grant is a result of the integral work provided by AMPrint to support and launch start-up companies and to help existing companies successfully adopt industrial grade 3D printing and additive manufacturing (AM) technologies in real-world applications. For example, AMPrint is helping Rochester-based 3D printer company Impossible Objects develop a machine that produces ultra-strong and lightweight carbon fiber composite components.

“There’s an acute need for high-speed 3D printers that can produce very strong, very lightweight components for drones and other applications,” Cormier explains. https://www.rit.edu/amprint

Desktop Metal assets acquired

Arc Impact Acquisition Corp. acquired selected assets of Desktop Metal Inc. and is relaunching the business as an advanced manufacturing platform combining binder-jet metal and ceramic additive manufacturing (AM) with production-grade polymers and artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted materials R&D to onshore critical U.S. production. The transaction was approved through the U.S. Bankruptcy Court as part of the Desktop Metal Chapter 11 restructuring process.

Arc Impact will focus on programs where domestic, scalable manufacturing is essential to economic competitiveness and national security – including heavy rare-earth-free permanent magnets, sodium-ion solid-state battery components, solid-state transformer parts for AI data centers and grid modernization, and other high-consequence applications.

The acquired portfolio includes Desktop Metal’s binder-jet IP and know-how (covering the Production System and X-Series platforms), Adaptive3D’s DuraChain elastomers and FreeFoam expandable resins – creating a comprehensive stack for end-use parts across metals, ceramics, and elastomeric polymers. The company will deploy these assets in a distributed R&D-as-a-Service network with universities, feeding successful prototypes into centralized, high-throughput manufacturing hubs.

Arc Impact will immediately build on high-impact government and commercial initiatives already underway. https://www.arc-pbc.com