The AM adoption race is on at Formnext Asia Shenzhen 2026

Formnext Asia Shenzhen 2026 is following a path similar to the early editions of Formnext in Frankfurt: rapid growth, plenty of excitement, many new companies joining in, and a community growing at high speed. The main difference is the scale and key applications. While Formnext in Germany was driven by aerospace, automotive, energy, and medical applications, it remained largely limited to prototyping and some tooling, with direct AM production scale-up still more of a dream than a reality. Formnext in China is driven by consumer products, desktop 3D printing, and industrial components (and tools), with the bonus that, in China, AM for serial and even mass production is already a reality.

AM technologies have had more than ten years to evolve since the first Formnext in Germany, yet adoption has not scaled significantly in the West, while here in China it is massive and widespread. Whether that translates into real and usable commercial applications remains to be seen. In the meantime, the show is a whirlwind of exciting innovations, new business models, revolutionary AI-driven software capabilities, and breakthrough products breaking through cost barriers.

For a rapid overview of the key technologies seen on the show floor, refer to the video above. For a more in-depth analysis of key trends and market dynamics, read on.

Message to the EU: get AMove on

Interestingly, visiting a Chinese additive manufacturing show prompts several considerations about the state of the European AM market. Europe today is the most unintelligible AM market and yet the most sought-after.

The message to 3D printing companies in Europe is clear: get a move on. The US is already perceived as further ahead in the AM adoption race, with South America and MENA seen as small but dynamic opportunities, ready to grow and less constrained by past manufacturing practices. The European paradox is that the EU is still the largest AM market overall by revenue, and the market Chinese companies want to target as domestic sales get increasingly competitive and saturated. It’s the market everyone wants to be in, but it’s also perceived as unbearably still. That perception is not far off, but with some important considerations to make.

The Chinese market’s dynamics are very clear. AM adoption is strong, with multiple service companies hosting hundreds of industrial machines and production farms with thousands of desktop machines. This was driven partly by government support (the Chinese government has clearly identified AM as a strategic technology and has been actively supporting it) and partly by the Chinese natural embrace of new technologies, from EVs and other means of transportation to commercial drones, space, and high-tech consumer products. Many Chinese consumers love 3D printing because it’s new, and anything new is seen as inherently great. At the same time, the manufacturing transition cannot happen overnight here either. The desktop 3D printer market still has significant room to grow, as it seems to have passed the inflection point, but the industrial market is getting saturated by many companies offering similar products.

In my speech about global opportunities for Chinese 3D printing companies, I highlighted how VoxelMatters’ data shows that Chinese companies dominate unit sales, but US companies, in particular, generate more revenue as a percentage of units sold. The next opportunity for Chinese companies is to do for industrial machines what they’ve done for low-cost desktop systems. That takes technological development but also, and perhaps even more importantly, much bigger investments in Western-markets-targeted marketing and branding.

The US follows similar dynamics but seems further removed. Tariffs and geopolitical tensions make it more difficult for Chinese AM companies to enter the US market. At the same time, US AM market dynamics are more similar to Chinese ones in terms of rapid adoption. US companies are open to innovation and have, in fact, been innovating rapidly and at scale in the AM segment, and especially on the high-value industrial side, even more so than Chinese ones. AM adoption has also been receiving significant private funding, even after some AM companies failed to deliver on their initial promises. Today, most private funding goes to AM adopters (especially, but not only, in the defense field), but these companies are unlikely to adopt Chinese hardware or materials (or turn to Chinese AM services for parts).

So Europe remains the key market for Chinese companies to expand to. However, AM adoption in Europe is limited by at least three identifiable factors. One is that institutional support is almost non-existent, although some things will hopefully change soon, as initiatives like Addliance and AM Europe begin to strengthen their networks and lobbying activity. Another is that Europe, unlike MENA or South America, already has a strong manufacturing industry built on legacy subtractive and formative technologies and is more resistant to adopting new ones. This is, of course, a generalization, and there are virtuous exceptions, but the point stands. Industrialization of AM will not happen without institutional support, and that support is not nearly sufficient at this time. The third factor is that Europe does not enjoy the kind of private funding the US does, which brings us back to the first two points.

The result is that EU companies are not buying AM machines to transition their production. EU hardware companies mostly target niche, highly regulated, or ultra-high-end segments (defense, aerospace, medical, motorsports, luxury automotive) or sell into the US directly, often moving production there, as EOS and Nikon SLM and some others did successfully and several others attempted to do. Because they cannot buy machines, most European adopters turn to Chinese service providers, who offer extremely competitive prices driven down by domestic competition. One possible best-case scenario for AM is that Chinese manufacturers make their machines so cost-competitive that it becomes feasible for European companies to install large AM production facilities and bring AM production back to the EU using Chinese-made systems on mass-produced items and European systems on critical and sensitive products. The other scenario is that EU companies keep buying AM parts from China and nothing changes, an outcome unlikely to stimulate market growth or technological evolution.

Ride the AM trains (or fall behind)

What are the technologies and applications currently driving production adoption and growth in China (and that may one day do the same in Europe)? At Formnext Asia Shenzhen, they all emerged very clearly. Let’s take a look.

Metals and industry

The most consolidated trend seen at Formnext Asia Shenzhen is the huge offering of metal PBF systems and their evolution. While past efforts focused on larger systems and multiple lasers, this year most development has centered on strategic materials such as copper and other refractory or complex alloys, as well as on the availability of smaller and more affordable systems. Addireen has emerged as a leader in copper 3D printing, especially as Trumpf (now ATLIX) has had to slow its own development as it transitions into a standalone company. Addireen’s booth featured some genuinely impressive copper parts, and the company is strengthening its offer and capabilities by establishing a massive copper AM service facility.

Leading metal LPBF companies like BLT and Farsoon (and HBD) continue to offer massive production capabilities and a huge range of systems, with domestic new entrants like Charmray and Shenzhen-based Han’s Laser (and several lesser-known others) making the segment even more competitive. Han’s Matrix3D Technology launched its dual-laser M420G for mass production of copper and thermal management components at the show. The list closes with Kings 3D and UnionTech, which offer the widest range of both polymer and metal 3D printers. Kings 3D in particular showed both a small-format, affordable metal LPBF system and a brand-new green laser system, while UnionTech’s biggest innovation focused on polymer 3D printing for footwear production, as covered further down.

The other interesting development area is metal binder jetting. Where Western companies failed, Chinese companies seem to be succeeding at running massive plates of production runs for relatively small parts, something that a company like Höganäs/Digital Metal (whose technology has passed many hands and is now owned by Nano Dimension) envisioned as many as twenty years ago but never brought to reality. Now Chinese companies like EASYMFG and newly emerging competitors like DEW are making it real. This is also a segment where the only large Western company able to compete in China is HP, which is massively present in China with both MJF and, increasingly, metal binder jetting. The company is confident its technology is complex enough that Chinese competitors won’t be able to replicate it anytime soon, and many Chinese (and APAC) service providers are embracing both MJF and MetalJet technologies, probably even more rapidly than in the West.

The final area of rapid development for Chinese companies is metal powders. Companies like CNPC, VMP, AVIMETAL, and state-run GRIPM/GRINM have established and are already expanding facilities with more than thirty large VIGA/EIGA atomizers, resulting in a massive supply of AM powders and increasingly competitive prices. They all see the EMEA market as a key opportunity for growth, but they still need to identify the areas open to adopting their materials. Some highly regulated areas will always require EU-made (or NA-made) powders, but there are many potential areas for expansion, especially in consumer products, as well as some automotive and energy applications that could be ready and open to adopt as prices come down.

Consumer 3D printing

Another massive growth area is consumer 3D printing. This is simply huge, and it actually represents the largest revenue area in all of additive manufacturing today, for several reasons happening at once. The first is the leadership of the “Big 4” companies: Creality, Bambu Lab, ELEGOO, and Snapmaker. These companies keep developing increasingly powerful desktop systems in terms of capabilities (multicolor, multimaterial, high-temperature), accessibility, and reliability. The result is that consumers can print complex parts with a single click, and professionals can build farms with thousands of printers to offer mass production capabilities. This is already happening and happening at scale. The proof is that you can find 3D printed toys almost everywhere now (after Formnext, I went on holiday to a Greek island and found 3D printed souvenirs in a remote shop at the top of a mountain).

The next, and perhaps even more powerful, trend is the emergence of the “Big 3” of AI 3D modeling: Tripo, Meshy, and Hi3D. All three had impressive booths, with Meshy focusing on its multicolor capabilities (and a collaboration partnership with Flashforge on the upcoming sub-$5,000 multicolor material jetting desktop system, featured at the booth), and both Tripo and Hi3D focusing on accuracy and part-splitting (Meshy as well) with the newest versions of their engines.

The competition here is fierce, with all three companies developing new features and capabilities of their AI modeling engines at incredible speed. VoxelMatters has interviewed Tripo’s founder and worked with both HI3D and Meshy (upcoming) on reviews. The main difference with AM hardware here is that these are digital mass-market tools, and they are scaling (and evolving) at skyrocketing speed. Tripo had a banner outside Formnext that recalled the Sony PlayStation, Activision, or Electronic Arts banners outside the LA Convention Center for E3, as video games scaled from niche to mass entertainment.

Interestingly, these tools find their primary outlets in both video games and 3D printing. Through them, anyone can 3D model an object from a prompt or a 2D photo in seconds, and those models can be 3D printed in a matter of hours to get a finished product. They are not yet able to fully address industrial design, but their evolution is so rapid that they may soon get there, potentially spurring another wave of adoption, even beyond desktop material extrusion, as platforms from Flashforge, Sailner, Mimaki, and even Stratasys inevitably become more affordable.

The third concurrent development is the massive availability of filament (and pellet) materials and accessories at ultra-accessible prices. Beyond the traditional market leaders SUNLU and eSun, along with BIQU for custom accessories, a wave of competing filament companies, some quite structured and capable, has emerged. Up-and-coming names include NAGA (Golden Camel), R3D Print, Kingroon, Ningmay, INKLOUD, and several other more domestically focused companies. Their massive presence is even more impressive considering that all the major desktop 3D printer manufacturers sell their own lines of filaments. However, demand is so great that all the leading third-party suppliers continue to grow, even as new companies enter the segment.

Shoes!

And that brings us to the final, and in some ways most striking, trend seen at Formnext Shenzhen: shoes. Footwear 3D printing was the biggest attraction at this edition of Formnext Asia Shenzhen. Last year it was mostly PollyPolymer presenting its integrated capabilities, including high-speed DLP machines, resins, and shoe design along with shoe 3D printing services. This year, PollyPolymer is emerging as the leader in a sector now populated by numerous competitors. Some of the biggest challengers include large 3D printing and 3D printing material companies such as Creality and eSun (via the iSUN brand), both of which have launched dedicated footwear 3D printing divisions with their own hardware and materials.

Even more striking was the number of new entries and startups offering a fully integrated package: a high-speed DLP 3D printer, resin materials, and dozens of designs that are literally pret-a-imprimer. The overall quality of the designs is improving rapidly. I tested a pair from Creality but also saw several others that closely resemble standard footwear people could wear to the office. Plastic shoes are less soft in the upper and generally less elegant than standard ones, but the lattice lets the foot breathe more, especially in hot weather such as Shenzhen’s, and the midsoles are quieter and more flexible.

New companies at the show included Speedluma, Ruian Douchan 3D Technology, Bluecore 3D (Flexifab), and Yidimu, offering mostly DLP and a couple of FFF/FDM-based options, but now even the more established players are getting involved. Powder-based options remain more limited, with some models shown by TPM3D, a Chinese leader in SLS 3D printing, and a high-end model presented by HP. Meanwhile, Kings 3D and UnionTech are getting serious about production, the former showing several innovative designs and the latter showing a massive printer capable of producing as many as twenty-four full-size shoes (twelve pairs) in one build.

But the leader, at least in China, remains PollyPolymer, both in terms of partnering designers (we particularly liked the models from GEEXFOOT and even bought one) and in moving well beyond shoes, printing anything from full-size shoe-shaped chaise lounges to an entire modular floor. For Western companies, where the only ones able to emerge after enormous challenges scaling up footwear production are Carbon (via the adidas partnership) and Zellerfeld, it’s another wake-up call. The Chinese are moving fast, and 3D printing is here to stay. Get on board or get left behind. It would be a shame, since most of the technologies and ideas behind this revolution began in Europe and the US.