3D Printing Trends to Watch for in 2026

As 2026 gets underway , we take a look at the top trends that we identified in 2025 across the industrial 3D printing and additive manufacturing (AM) landscape to inform the trends to watch for and accommodate this coming year. The context is important, in that this article is from our perspective as a UK-based industrial polymer additive manufacturing (AM) service provider. It is specifically not a broad overview of headlines, rather it is based on trends that we have noticed while working on AM projects with hundreds of companies.

The focus is on real-world industrial applications of 3D printing and the goals of reducing cost-per part while increasing efficiency and scale.

Observations & Insight

Automation (& ofc, AI)

It really doesn’t take a genius to figure this one out. In headline terms, the push for more automated workflows and processes has dominated manufacturing for decades. Within the AM ecosystem, automation is a key driver to support the transition from prototyping to repeatable, scalable production applications.

Digital Manufacturing: A digital approach makes sense on a number of levels, but beneath the headlines there are specific and distinct levels of activity that require a lot of work to make it work seamlessly. This includes building reliable and safe end-to-end digital workflows. It sounds simple, but even just considering some of the automation layers, such as integrating digital manufacturing execution systems (MES), build scheduling, nesting, inspection and post processing; the scale of the work involved to turn AM into predictable, high-uptime production is substantial. Beyond each layer of automation, or, rather, between layers there are still some missing links to achieve the productivity and throughput improvements that are the ultimate goal. One of the biggest challenges in automating AM processes is due to the fact that AM is typically used to produce custom parts in low/medium volumes. Traditionally, automation works well with high volume serial production where the up front cost and time of investment required in building the automated system pays off.

The rapid emergence of AI, however, is enabling progress with automating AM systems and workflows and thus eliminating one of the largest bottlenecks to scaling the technology, namely manual labour for time-consuming tasks previously too complex to be automated effectively. There is still work to be done here, and we are working on a couple of the missing links ourselves utilising AI, software development and our on-the-ground expertise. Watch this space this year!

Digital Inventory & On-Demand Spares

Increasingly our customers are adopting a more agile, on-demand manufacturing approach to reduce warehousing costs while also mitigating supply chain disruptions, and ensuring legacy part availability without physical stock. These were key drivers in 3D People’s development and roll-out of its PartsVault digital inventory integration into its service. The key advantages are secure digital part files, local production for spare parts and logistics savings. This is a pragmatic approach to overcome the time and cost issues of physical warehousing including stockpiling spare parts that may never be used. Now, customers can safely store digital files and utilise our services to print parts on demand. Moreover, this strategy effectively eliminates minimum order quantities (MOQs) with zero inventory and infinite availability.

The Rise of Flexible Materials

We have seen a significant uptake of the production of functional, rubber-like parts using HP Multi Jet Fusion (MJF) and the TPU 01 material. This shift is notable as customers continue to move beyond prototyping with this material and are developing innovative production applications with custom elastomer lattices and complex geometries that traditional moulding cannot achieve.

Specific properties of TPU 01 such as high rebound, excellent durability and the ability to print complex flexible structures without support structures (and the post processing required to remove them) are all key drivers for customers adopting this production-grade flexibility that is available to them.

Vapour Smoothing: Finishing for Performance

One of the key areas that we have witnessed significant growth is for injection moulding-like smoothed finishes. We achieve this with the industrial, semi-automated vapour smoothing process. Vapour smoothing is a finishing process that seals the surface of the 3D printed parts, eliminating porosity and achieving properties comparable with injection moulding, while also improving aesthetics and cleanability. Customer education and awareness about this process has improved significantly across the board, but notably for watertight applications and we are seeing new sectors adopt AM for fluid-handling and sterile environment applications. In 2025 we produced 29,222 parts with a vapour smoothed surface finish, a considerable increase on the year before and we expect this number to go much higher in 2026.

Modular Design & Repairability

One trend that we have identified over the past year that may be seen as counter-intuitive to the traditional narrative around additive manufacturing is how some designers are moving away from massive single-piece prints toward a more ‘modular design’ approach. Breaking assemblies into smaller components allows clients to reduce unit costs which subsequently enables easier repairs and optimised digital inventory.

From our point of view this is also a win as smaller parts allow for higher nesting density in our machines, which also lowers costs, which we can then pass on.

Hybrid Assemblies: Metal Thread Integration

Throughout 2025 we observed a surge in requests for metal thread inserts within polymer AM components. Customers are seeking higher durability for repeated assembly/disassembly cycles. Talking to our clients, the driving force behind this is to bridge the gap between lightweight plastic parts and robust mechanical assembly requirements to achieve reinforced functionality. This hybrid approach integrates the strength of metal with the freedom of plastic. As a result, we are currently expanding our sourcing and installation capabilities to meet this functional demand.

Looking ahead

A raft of market reports focused on industrial 3D printing / AM are projecting continued double-digit growth into 2026 and beyond. Exact numbers differ from source to source but the continual trajectory is upwards and our own fiscal year would support this. We have every reason to be optimistic this year and have some new research and development projects already underway to further improve our services.

Our optimism is further supported by witnessing how the manufacturing industry is increasingly adopting AM as a manufacturing solution. Month on month we are seeing more and more technical drawings with specs for AM materials from the beginning. In the past, our first sight of such drawings were almost always designed for a traditional process, before being tempted over to AM due to urgent deadlines or prices for smaller quantities.

We are, unsurprisingly, also confident in predicting the continuation of the Automation / AI drive. AI will increasingly support part design (generative design) but we believe it will also become more and more integral to process control, quality assurance and predictive maintenance. This is just one of the keys that we see unlocking the reliability and repeatability needed for higher volume manufacturing.