3D Printing: A Summary of 2017

2017 was an eventful year in 3D printing and additive manufacturing. 3D printing startups received hundreds of millions of dollars in investments, announced intentions to build 3D printed supercars and flying cars, and well-established names like GE and HP made their moves into 3D printing. 2017 was also the year of metal 3D printing instead of the usual plastics, with many brands vying to create metal 3D printers.

January

Markforged announced the Metal X, to enter the metal 3D printing market. The printer uses new special 3D printing technology, and has a print volume of 250 x 220 x 200 mm. The Metal X costs just under $100K, which is actually cheap in a market where machines can each millions of dollars. Full article here.

A team of researchers at MIT have conducted several experiments on graphene, a form of carbon crystal. By compressing it, they were able to create a super-strong variant with a density of 5% which was 10 time stronger than steel. Full article here.