AM Weekly · Week 43: US defense AM funding goes to qualification and distributed logistics: America Makes $12.4M MIAMI, Automation Alley $7.5M, 3D Systems Littleton

Supply-side capital formation connects Jingye Future Smart Manufacturing’s planned $700M site, VMP’s CNY 100M Series C+, and Zhongyuan Advanced Materials’ undisclosed Series C++. Jingye plans 400 metal printers alongside MIM and powder production; VMP plans 10,000 tonnes of annual powder capacity. None of these announcements names customer orders or utilization targets, and neither Jingye nor VMP discloses its powder output’s intended AM share. For machine vendors and investors, the financing supports capacity ambitions, but underwriting equipment revenue still requires orders, and underwriting returns requires utilization.

US defense AM funding goes to qualification and distributed logistics: America Makes $12.4M MIAMI, Automation Alley $7.5M, 3D Systems Littleton

Several US defense AM items this week were about qualifying materials, securing workflows and adding domestic floor space, not about buying machines. America Makes picked Northrop Grumman and Fastech teams for a $12.4M program on replacing legacy weapon-system alloys with metal AM materials. Automation Alley received a $7.5M Phase 1 contract, administered through NCDMM, to validate secure distributed manufacturing against CMMC/NIST requirements. 3D Systems opened a 50,000 sq ft Littleton, Colorado centre ahead of the December 2026 effective date of the NDAA sourcing rule. The Army reported a printed field-repair bracket costing 10 cents, but did not cost validation or materials.

America Makes selected teams led by Northrop Grumman and Fastech for the Maturation Initiative for Additive Metals Interchangeability (MIAMI). External coverage describes MIAMI as a project call worth $12.4M in funding, run by America Makes and NCDMM. The winners were announced on Oct 12, 2026. The teams will study whether metal AM materials can replace legacy weapon-system alloys and cut the qualification testing those substitutions require. The $12.4M is not a machine purchase. It funds the question of whether additively produced metal can be treated as interchangeable with incumbent alloys. Coverage places MIAMI within a larger $25.6M America Makes funding announcement. The sources available here do not say how the $12.4M is split between the two teams.

In the same week, Automation Alley received a $7.5M Phase 1 contract, also administered through NCDMM, to validate a secure distributed manufacturing model. 3DPrint.com put the award under its headline that the Pentagon's AM buildup has shifted "from technology to logistics". That framing belongs to the publication. The contract summary itself says validation, and this is a Phase 1 award, so any later phase or production follow-on would be a separate decision.

Separately, 3D Systems opened a 50,000 sq ft Industrial Technology Center in Littleton, Colorado on October 21. The release says the site gives its Air Force DMP-1000 program and its Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) nuclear materials work more US floor space, and it times the opening ahead of the December NDAA sourcing rules. Both programs have prior disclosures:

DMP-1000: in August the Air Force added $9M to complete the GEN-II DMP-1000 large-format metal demonstrator, bringing total funding to $27.4M.
SRNL: in late August, 3D Systems and SRNL signed a CRADA to develop radiation-tolerant AM materials.

Both are development-stage programs, not production contracts. The summaries available here do not give equipment counts, headcount or utilization targets for the site. The opening also falls during a leadership transition: CEO Jeff Graves said in August that he would step down by year-end, and the board is searching for a successor.

The smallest number of the week came from the U.S. Army, which reported a printed helmet battery bracket costing 10 cents and made in under an hour. In this field repair, printing locally meant the unit did not have to replace a whole assembly. The Army's own article, titled "A magic bullet still needs zeroing", leaves the material choice, validation and total cost unresolved. The 10-cent figure should be read as the cost of the print step, not as a validated repair cost that includes qualification, inspection or the cost of the part failing.

Chinese metal AM capacity and powder supply: Jingye's planned 400-printer site, VMP's 10,000-tonne powder expansion, Zhongyuan and Jiuhe rounds

Jingye plans a RMB 5 billion (about $700M) site in Guangdong that combines 400 metal printers with MIM and powder production for smartphone parts, including foldable hinges; 3dadept and 3dprint.com both reported it. VMP closed a CNY 100M Series C+ to add 10,000 tonnes a year of titanium, copper and aluminum powder capacity. Powder maker Zhongyuan closed an undisclosed Series C++, and Jiuhe raised a Pre-A+ round for an integrated alloy-and-printing business. All of this is planned capacity. None of the rows names equipment suppliers, a commissioning date, customer orders or how much of the powder will go to AM.

Jingye Future Smart Manufacturing, a Jingye Group subsidiary, plans a $700M precision-parts site in Guangdong. The site would house 400 metal 3D printers alongside metal injection molding (MIM) and powder production, and its output is aimed at smartphone parts, including foldable hinges. 3dadept reports that partial output is targeted before the end of 2026. Other coverage describes a RMB 5 billion project in Fengshun County with 20 metal powder lines and 100 MIM lines. One report puts the figure at $747 million, and some describe the 20 lines as production lines rather than powder lines. 3dprint.com's report on the facility calls it a prospective equipment account with no confirmed supplier orders, and none of the coverage names a printer OEM.

Separately, VMP closed a CNY 100 million Series C+ to fund an expansion of 10,000 tonnes a year of metal powder capacity. That breaks down as 3,000 tonnes of titanium, 5,000 tonnes of copper and 2,000 tonnes of aluminum powder. VMP did not say when the new capacity will come online, and the reporting does not say how much of it is meant for AM rather than other powder-metallurgy uses.

Ningbo Zhongyuan Advanced Materials closed an undisclosed Series C++ with Haitong Innovation. Founded in 2018, Zhongyuan makes gas-atomized superalloy, aluminum, tool steel and titanium powders for AM. According to our company database, it raised a Series C of ¥100M+ from national funds in 2024 and completed a 30-line atomization base in Luzhou in 2025, in addition to an earlier 14-line subsidiary in Changsha. The company has said it is preparing for a listing. The new round's size was not disclosed.

Jiuhe Advanced Science raised a Pre-A+ round of tens of millions of yuan for a business that develops its own alloys and also prints parts. The company reports aerospace deliveries and an aluminum alloy with yield strength above 500 MPa. Jiuhe was founded in Beijing in March 2024 and closed its Pre-A in October 2025. Earlier this month (2026-10-11), it was reported to have ten large metal 3D printers in a 4,800-square-meter Beijing facility. That is a much smaller footprint than the fleet Jingye has announced.

Each of the four announcements involves powder production in some form, but the disclosures stop at planned capacity and capital raised. None names equipment suppliers, customer orders or utilization targets, and only Jingye gives a timeline. Neither Jingye nor VMP says how much of its powder output is meant for AM. Until those figures appear, the 400 printers and 10,000 tonnes are best read as announced intent, not demand that has been shown to exist.

Bioprinting: Precise Bio reaches five corneal implant patients as ARPA-H commits up to $19.8M and DARPA $649K

Precise Bio has treated five patients in a planned 15-patient Phase 1 trial of bioprinted corneal endothelial implants at Rambam, with results expected in 2027. ARPA-H awarded the Terasaki Institute up to $19.8M for immune-compatible liver bioprinting. DARPA gave Virginia Tech $649,252 to study bioprinted living metamaterials. A Zhejiang University rat study reported nerve conduits approaching autograft performance at 16 weeks. This is a mix of an early, uncontrolled clinical step and research funding. None of it shows clinical readiness yet.

Precise Bio has treated five patients in a planned 15-patient Phase 1 trial of its bioprinted corneal implants at Rambam Medical Center in Haifa. The implants are made from donor-derived cells, and the company expects results in 2027. Earlier coverage dates the trial's opening procedure to October 29, 2025, using the company's PB-001 implant, and Precise Bio's own milestone record shows more patients treated in February 2026. That puts enrollment at one-third of target about a year into the trial. No safety or efficacy data have been published yet. Precise Bio has raised $27.5M in total, most recently a Series C. Its investors include ZEISS, and it has a strategic partnership with Carl Zeiss Meditec. Commercially, it remains an early-stage company focused on one indication.

Separately, ARPA-H awarded the Terasaki Institute up to $19.8 million for liver bioprinting that the immune system would accept. Earlier reports say the contract comes under ARPA-H's PRINT program. Penn State's Lance Lian will develop hypoimmune stem cells for the project, which combines large-scale cell culture with liver-tissue bioprinting. The "up to" figure is a ceiling, not money already spent. Funding programs like this are usually released in stages tied to milestones.

At a much smaller scale, Virginia Tech received a $649,252 DARPA award for Jordan Budhu to study organic bioinks and printed tissues with electromagnetic functions. The award runs two years, with a conditional third year. This is basic research into "living metamaterials," and it has no stated clinical or product goal.

In the same week, researchers at Zhejiang University reported bioprinted nerve conduits that approached autograft performance at 16 weeks in a rat study. Their fabrication platform combined structural polymers with tracks of living Schwann cells to bridge 10 mm nerve gaps. This is preclinical animal work. The headline of the cited article says the conduits "match" autografts, while the study summary says they "approach" autograft performance, which is the more cautious wording.

Taken together, the week brought one small clinical trial still enrolling and three research items: two funding awards and one animal study. None of them shows that bioprinted tissue is ready for routine clinical use. This fits the view that bioprinting's commercial core is still research tools and tissue models, not transplantable products. The Rambam readout in 2027 is the next dated event that could produce human data.

This Week in Brief

Funding

Fujian Humanoid Robot Innovation Center - Fujian Humanoid Robot Innovation Center closed a Pre-A+ round of undisclosed size after showing 30 robots with 3D-printed bodies, and plans annual capacity of 10,000 units.

Product & Technology

isento - isento released PIB#5, its fifth-generation FDM-printable humanoid with redesigned hands, centralized wiring and Raspberry Pi 5 control, with free design files for educational use.
HORKOS - HORKOS reported the first industrial sale of its NX70 DUO wire-laser DED and machining system but has not disclosed pricing or delivery timing.
Terra Drone - Terra Drone completed its first formal delivery to Ukraine's government and credits 3D printing with supporting the Terra A1's JPY480,000 production cost.
Admatec - Admatec launched the Admaflex Discovery, a $92,500 ceramic printer for academic research with open material development and an upgrade path of undisclosed cost.
Melotte - Melotte reduced weekly quality-data preparation by 89% with amsight and cut defect investigations from three to four hours to typically 30 minutes or less.
Prodways - Prodways won an order from a U.S. aerospace customer for approximately 10 MOVINGLight printers, with delivery scheduled for 2027.
Cummings Aerospace - Cummings Aerospace showed one operator controlling two Hellhound S3 drones on separate preplanned missions; its target of at least 100 aircraft per month remains unverified.
Coral Construction Technologies - Coral Construction Technologies plans to print 870 unique nave elements for a church complex in Neratovice, Czech Republic, which is targeting a 2028 opening.
Formlabs - Formlabs released Nylon 11 Pro Powder for Fuse SLS with a 30% refresh rate and five times Nylon 12's elongation; it requires nitrogen.
Evology Manufacturing - Evology Manufacturing purchased an EOS M 400-4 for larger metal parts in response to space-sector backlogs, which brings its planned EOS fleet to 10 systems.
Tel-mic - Tel-mic is expanding its 3D LAB with a paint booth and 1,600 x 1,600 mm printing capacity, and expects full operation before year-end 2026.
OECHSLER - OECHSLER aims to produce two million AM components in 2026 using 40 Carbon DLS printers running around the clock, with consumer lattice parts as its main application.

Partnership

Lincsolution - Lincsolution secured a Hanwha Aerospace space-component order as it expands into AM production services, but has not disclosed volumes or qualification status.
MadeHere - MadeHere received a Japanese naval contract to assess reverse engineering and replacement options for discontinued parts that threaten equipment availability.
AMAZEMET - AMAZEMET signed a five-year MOU with Fusion for Energy covering fusion materials, manufacturing methods, heat-flux testing and qualification.

Compiled from 29 sources across AMPulse's news index. Week 43 of 2026.