The vertical integration pattern is visible as Beehive Industries commits $50 million for 30 EOS M4 Onyx machines to internalize drone engine production, while Divergent opens a second US factory alongside its 12-laser Monolith One launch. Norsk Titanium secures a $4.2 million US Navy contract for submarine components and AML3D commissions two ARCEMY X units at Newport News Shipbuilding, confirming that defense procurement gravity now favors captive metal AM capacity over pure-play hardware OEMs. For Western machine vendors, the strategic imperative shifts from unit shipments to qualifying as the embedded production partner inside these newly built, captive lines.
Defense-Driven Metal AM Production Capacity Expands Across Multiple Verticals
Multiple named contracts and capacity expansions in metal AM for defense programs: Beehive Industries orders 30 EOS M4 Onyx machines ($50M) for drone engine production, Divergent unveils the 12-laser Monolith One and opens a second US factory, and AML3D commissions two ARCEMY X DED systems at Newport News Shipbuilding. The week also included Norsk Titanium ($4.2M US Navy submarine parts), Fabri ($13.5M for AM+casting), Meltio's US defense distribution, and LIG D&A's Korean defense AM center.
Beehive Industries orders 30 EOS M4 Onyx machines ($50M) for Frenzy-8 drone engine production. The order, disclosed via a TCT Magazine report, follows a $29.7M USAF contract in April 2026 to qualify the Frenzy 8 engine and a prior $12.46M contract in October 2024. Beehive’s installed base will grow from a reported handful of systems to 30 units, a step-change in its production capacity for small expendable turbine engines. Separately, Divergent unveiled the Monolith One, a 12-laser, 2kW LPBF system with a 700mm build volume, and said it is deploying 70 units across two California factories. The machine launch comes alongside Divergent’s opening of a second US factory and follows a string of defense contracts this year, including a cruise missile component deal in March and a partnership with General Atomics in April.
AML3D completed commissioning of two ARCEMY X DED systems at Newport News Shipbuilding, triggering a final payment and closing out a $9.9M AUD order from HII first announced in March 2026. The commissioning milestone advances a US Navy shipbuilding program that has also seen HII order a second Nikon SLM NXG 600E for large-format PBF work. In the same week, Norsk Titanium received a $4.2M DoD award to produce submarine titanium parts via wire-fed DED, testing AM as a solution for naval production bottlenecks. The award is small relative to Norsk’s prior defense work but adds another data point to the shipbuilding AM pipeline.
Fabri raised $13.5M to automate investment casting using 3D-printed wax patterns and robotics, with the company reporting it is already shipping parts to Lockheed Martin and RTX. The round, covered by Tectonic Defense, funds a hybrid AM+casting model rather than a pure-play AM approach. Meltio expanded its US defense distribution by qualifying four partners for wire-laser DED under ITAR and CMMC compliance, targeting on-site repair and spare part production. LIG D&A opened South Korea’s first defense-dedicated metal AM center with a $6M investment for missile and drone lightweighting, a rare dedicated facility in the Korean defense ecosystem. SSAB launched Armox 500 AM Powder, described as the first protective steel powder for AM, at Eurosatory.
Stratasys Acquires Markforged; Nano Dimension Pivots Away from AM; TDK Acquires Fabric8Labs
Three acquisition events reshaped AM's corporate landscape: Stratasys acquires Markforged from Nano Dimension for $42.5M, adding continuous carbon fiber FFF. Nano Dimension explores merger with Infinite Epigenetics ($890M deal) to exit AM. TDK acquires Fabric8Labs for electrochemical AM targeting consumer electronics. Zellerfeld also acquired foot-scanning leader Volumental.
Stratasys Acquires Markforged; Nano Dimension Pivots Away from AM; TDK Acquires Fabric8Labs
Stratasys completed its acquisition of Markforged from Nano Dimension for $42.5M in all-cash, adding continuous carbon fiber FFF capability and an aerospace/defense customer base to Stratasys' polymer portfolio. The transaction closes at a roughly 63% discount to the $116M Nano Dimension paid for Markforged in April 2025, per the company's prior disclosures. The deal comes alongside Stratasys' broader operational buildout this quarter - a 200,000 sq ft Americas headquarters opened in Minnetonka in June, and the company has released new FDM and PolyJet materials across rail certification and medical applications since May.
In the same week, Nano Dimension disclosed it is exploring a merger with AI health diagnostics firm Infinite Epigenetics in an $890M deal, a transaction structure that would effectively exit Nano Dimension from additive manufacturing after divesting its AM businesses. The Markforged sale follows Nano Dimension's acquisition of both Desktop Metal and Markforged in April 2025, a consolidation that the company later acknowledged in its delayed 10-K filing had created "integration complexities." Separately, Nano Dimension continues to develop its DragonFly electronics-printing platform under a narrower AM footprint.
TDK Corporation acquired Fabric8Labs, an electrochemical AM specialist, for an undisclosed sum (prior reporting by 3DPrint.com had estimated the deal value at up to $400M). TDK gains room-temperature electrochemical deposition technology capable of producing pure copper parts directly on PCBs and silicon substrates, targeting consumer electronics thermal management and data center cooling applications. The acquisition fits TDK's pattern of adding AM-enabled thermal solutions to its $16.6B components portfolio; the company had no prior AM equipment business.
Also this week, Zellerfeld acquired foot-scanning leader Volumental, gaining access to 66M foot scans and an AI fit engine to personalize 3D-printed shoes at scale.
New Materials and Alloys Target Defense, Aerospace, and Dental Qualification Pathways
Multiple materials launches and process innovations targeted certification-ready production: SSAB launched Armox 500 AM Powder (first ballistic-grade steel powder for LPBF), SeAH SST introduced superalloy powders (625XP, 718XP) with a 6,000-ton Texas plant plan, Formlabs released Tough 1000/2000 Resins for HDPE/PP/ABS replacement, and 3Dresyn launched Circular RePrint Bio depolymerizable resin. ORNL/GM tested DuAlumin3D aluminum in a heavy-duty truck engine, and Varai Innovation unveiled GIM process using 3D-printed molds.
SSAB launched Armox 500 AM Powder, described as the first ballistic-grade steel powder for LPBF, at Eurosatory this week. The release positions a new material category - protective steel - for additive qualification pathways in defense, a segment where SSAB has been steadily building its AM powder infrastructure. Earlier this month the company tapped SMS group to build a gas atomization plant in Sweden and invested in a 350-tonne powder production expansion in Oxelösund, indicating that the Armox launch is backed by upstream capacity commitments rather than a standalone announcement.
In the same week, SeAH SST launched 625XP, 718XP, and NiX XP superalloy powders for AM and confirmed plans for a Texas plant targeting 6,000 tons annual capacity, alongside a European distribution partnership with Remelt Sources. The company began Nadcap certification preparations four days earlier, positioning the new powders for aerospace and defense qualification - a parallel materials-governance play to SSAB's protective-steel entry. Both launches target certification-ready production rather than material availability alone, consistent with the broader shift toward process-conformance infrastructure (ISO/ASTM 52948:2026, SAE AIR7359) that has emerged as a competitive axis in 2026.
On the polymer side, Formlabs released Tough 1000 and Tough 2000 Resins for SLA, targeting HDPE/PP/ABS replacement in functional prototyping and production tooling. The company also launched Form Cure L V2 and PreForm 3.54, extending the production-oriented workflow it introduced with the Form 4 platform. Separately, 3Dresyn launched Circular RePrint Bio, a thermally depolymerizable resin for SLA/DLP/LCD at €700/L that enables closed-loop reuse - a different route to material sustainability than the durability targets Formlabs emphasized, though both address end-use-adjacent qualification rather than prototype-grade materials.
ORNL and GM tested DuAlumin3D aluminum in a heavy-duty truck engine prototype, reporting 15% weight reduction and 10% fuel efficiency improvement - an engine-level application rather than a structural bracket or component swap. The test places DuAlumin3D in the category of AM aluminum alloys moving through automotive qualification pathways, a slower-paced vertical relative to aerospace or defense but one where the economic stakes (production volume) are higher. Separately, Varai Innovation unveiled its GIM process at ME2026 in Bangkok, using 3D-printed photopolymer molds for metal and ceramic injection molding - a process-innovation story that links AM tooling to conventional forming, rather than a direct material launch like the others this week.
This Week in Brief
Funding
- Foundation Alloy - Foundation Alloy raised $22 million in Series A funding for solid-state molybdenum production for defense and aerospace.
- Anycubic - Anycubic closed a Series B round of hundreds of millions of RMB for multi-color FDM and resin printer expansion.
Product & Technology
- Innospace - Innospace received KASA's 'Space New Technology' designation for its bipropellant methane engine after a 420-second test.
- COBOD - Havelar used a COBOD BOD2 printer to build a 500 m² municipal office in nine days with a four-person crew.
- Czinger - Czinger delivered the first customer 21C hypercar, featuring metal 3D-printed chassis and transmission components.
- Creality - Creality launched the Nexbie brand for 3D-printed footwear, offering seven models priced between $120 and $270.
- Havelar - Havelar 3D printed a 500 m² recycling center office in nine days on budget using a COBOD BOD2 printer.
- Rheinmetall UK - Rheinmetall UK adopted a miniFactory Ignite FFF printer to produce ULTEM 9085 air ducts for Challenger 3 tanks.
- Arridex - Arridex commissioned West Africa's first multi-technology industrial AM facility in Lagos, integrating LPBF and Cold Spray.
- HANGUK MOLD - HANGUK MOLD showcased CFRP lightweight parts and large injection molding technology at Manufacturing Expo 2026 in Bangkok.
- Coherent Corp. - Coherent secured a $50 million CHIPS LOI to expand its 6-inch InP photonics fab in Texas for AI optics.
- APPLE TREE - Apple Tree began selling the Formlabs Fuse X1 SLS 3D printer in Japan, the first local availability of the system.
Partnership
- Mecwin Technologies India - Mecwin Technologies India partnered with Fraunhofer IWKS to build a sintered NdFeB magnet plant for EV and defense.
- Hasco - Hasco, Arburg, and Polar-Form won first place for a Domino 2K injection molding project using 3D-printed hot runners.
- ALPHR Technology - ALPHR Technology partnered with TRI to distribute testing and inspection systems across the UK and Ireland.
- Q5D - Q5D and Molrix secured a 20-month contract to deliver three robotic wire harness cells to the U.S. Army.
Compiled from 39 sources across AMPulse's news index. Week 25 of 2026.