Formlabs launches ‘biggest print disaster’ contest on reddit

Massachusetts-based 3D printing company Formlabs is running a contest to find the worst 3D printing disaster. The company is using the competition to promote its official subreddit, r/FormlabsOfficial, which was launched this summer.

“We’ve all seen these cases,” Formlabs explains in a post. “The print that came out looking like a Cronenberg fever dream, the support structure that fused into an abstract sculpture, the resin bath that became a crime scene. Time to share the pain.”

Members of the subreddit are encouraged to submit up to three photos of their crime (committed on any 3D printer), along with a short explanation of what went wrong. Importantly, Formlabs is also asking contestants to explain what they learned from the experience. The top prize for this honour is a $500 discount voucher, with runner-up prizes including a $250 voucher, a $150 voucher and two merch packages. Submissions are open until September 28, with winners set to be announced September 30.

Formlabs’ move to establish an official Reddit channel recognizes a growing reliance on the platform for accurate, user-provided information free of marketing speak and AI summaries. An unofficial Formlabs-related channel at r/Formlabs has existed since 2021, though its visitor numbers have now been eclipsed by the official forum. The popular r/3DPrinting subreddit, launched in 2010, attracts nearly a million weekly visitors.

Other recent developments in the Formlabs universe include the August appointment of Dan Riccio, Apple’s former senior vice president of hardware engineering, as a strategic advisor, and the launch of the large-format Fuse X1 SLS system in June. The $84,999 Fuse X1 features a 330 × 330 × 565 mm build volume and a packing density above 30 percent, and shipments of the new system are expected to begin in Q4 2026.

The company has also promised not one but three new printer platforms over the next 12 months following its strongest quarter to date in Q2 2026. The company has historically introduced a new generation of the Form SLA printer every two or three years, the last of which was in 2024, while this year’s X1 was the first new Fuse SLS system since 2022.

Since coming onto the scene with the Form 1 in 2011, Formlabs has become one of the biggest names in resin printing. Until the Form 3 series, the company used laser-based stereolithography (SLA) hardware, but the Form 4 series signalled a move to its proprietary Low Force Display (LFD) Print Engine, a form of masked stereolithography (MSLA). During testing last year, we were impressed by the Form 4.