Trends and Challenges for Composites in Additive Manufacturing: JEC World 2026

As with every major industry event, JEC World 2026 provided an opportunity to assess the current state of the additive manufacturing and composites sector. At this composites conference taking place in Paris, France, additive manufacturing was presented not as an isolated technology, but as a key component of advanced manufacturing. According to JEC Composites Magazine, the global composites market reached 15.9 Mt (million tons) in 2025. This figure demonstrates the demand at the fair for a transition from manual processes to large-format automated systems capable of managing the complexity of composites.

To understand the adoption of additive manufacturing with composites, it is necessary to analyze the behavior of the materials. One of the main challenges is anisotropy. Because the strength of the part follows the direction of the deposited layers, poor path design can weaken the structure. Added to this is the thermal challenge: temperature differences between layers generate internal stresses that can end up bending or detaching the part. So, real success is not so much about scale as it is about the ability of machines to control how fibers are aligned and how the material is cooled.

Photo Credit: 3Dnatives

To overcome these limitations in precision, which also affect the finish, the industry has turned to hybrid manufacturing systems, a trend that dominated this edition of JEC World with platforms such as those from Moi Composites and Belotti. The appeal of these systems lies in the versatility they offer. Instead of using two separate machines and processes, the hybrid system prints the part and, without removing it from the platform, changes a milling head to correct tolerances and eliminate the roughness inherent in printed layers.