Since the industrial 3D printing community convened at RAPID + TCT 2024, the additive landscape has shifted noticeably. Industry consolidation is accelerating, and the drive for industrial reshoring has placed additive manufacturing (AM) squarely in the spotlight. It’s fitting, then, that the 2025 edition of RAPID + TCT brought the event back to Detroit, a city where the spirit of American manufacturing has always run strong.
Now in its 35th year, RAPID + TCT 2025 marked the largest event in the show’s history. More than 10,000 visitors gathered at Huntington Place to explore the future of industrial 3D printing, joined by over 500 exhibitors spanning hardware, software, materials, and services. For the first time, the event colocated alongside SME’s AeroDef Manufacturing, SAE’s WCX, and America Makes’ TRX, uniting leaders across manufacturing, technology, and government.
AM Comes of Age
This year, RAPID + TCT expanded on the Executive Perspectives series launched in 2024, hosting five panels over the three-day event. These conversations tackled a range of topics, offering a candid take on the state of industrial 3D printing today.
Speakers acknowledged the macroeconomic headwinds of recent years but challenged notions of decline. “There is no going back. Additive is here to stay,” said Glynn Fletcher, President of EOS. That doesn’t mean the sector doesn’t have work to do to prove its value at scale, though. As Fletcher noted earlier in the panel, “For too long, the industry has been described as cool. When we start talking about cost-effective, then, I think, we’ll start to talk about the true path to success.”
A clear theme emerged around customer alignment. Several panelists called on the industry to move past internal preoccupations and re-prioritize the end user. “The competition is not us,” remarked Yoav Zeif, CEO of Stratasys. “The competition is the status quo.” Collaborative ecosystems, improved pipelines, and end-to-end data integration were identified as keys to unlocking AM’s next phase. Across the board, optimism prevailed — tempered not by hype but by a shared sense that this is a decisive moment in the technology’s evolution. If the sector can focus, work together, and deliver, the next decade will be transformative.
Detroit’s Next Mission
With the addition of AeroDef Manufacturing as an event colocated with RAPID + TCT, the program carried a renewed sense of historical weight. AeroDef occupied a dedicated section of the show floor, with over 75 exhibitors and its own stage featuring daily sessions on aerospace and defense applications.
Held in Detroit, the city long known as the “Arsenal of Democracy,” AeroDef echoed the region’s deep manufacturing legacy while looking firmly to the future. In his opening address, Major General Michael Lalor reflected on how Detroit’s wartime manufacturing, powered by not just the Big Three but a vast supplier network, helped define American industrial resilience. That same “can-do” spirit, he argued, is alive in today’s Motor City and is just as critical now as it was then. “Whereas we were the arsenal of democracy before,” he said, “...we will be the arsenal of innovation.”
Built to Deliver
On the show floor, RAPID + TCT 2025 offered no shortage of buzz-worthy moments. In Massivit’s booth, attendees were greeted by a to-scale 3D-printed replica of the iconic Joe Louis statue in Huntington Place, accompanied by a time-lapse of the printing process. Bambu Lab, a rising force in desktop 3D printing, used its prominent footprint to spotlight its new H2D hybrid platform alongside its eye-catching, modular Cyberbrick system. Meanwhile, HP turned heads with the Blazin Rodz Chevelle — a 2,800-horsepower car featuring over 75 multi-jet fusion-printed parts.
However, what stood out most was the shift in conversation. Exhibitors moved beyond technical complexity to highlight how their solutions solve tangible problems and align with established workflows. This was an event about evolution, not disruption. The consensus? Industrial 3D printing doesn’t need to reinvent every phase of the production process to be transformative — it just needs to keep delivering where it counts. And more than ever, it is.
Talking Shop
That same spirit carried through to the conference program, where conversations focused on tangible progress, cross-industry collaboration, and workforce development. This year’s event boasted more than 200 expert speakers and over 140 sessions across tracks such as healthcare, aerospace, ecosystem, and materials.
The partnership with AeroDef opened the door for RAPID + TCT attendees to engage with crossover content focused on aerospace and defense manufacturing. Sessions like “The Casting Crisis: How Next-Generation Technologies Are Restoring U.S. Manufacturing” reflected the urgency and creativity manufacturing leaders are bringing to long-standing challenges. With over 70% of foundries across the U.S. now closed, traditional supply chains are no longer viable on their own. The solution? Foundry Lab’s DMC-3, a system that combines 3D-printed molds with a digital casting process.
While sessions like these tackled supply chain resilience and industrial strategy, others zoomed in on deeply personal impacts, particularly in healthcare. In “Building Healthcare-Industry Collaboration,” Trish Weber, assistant director of the 3D Printing and Training Center at Clarkson College, shared how their point-of-care 3D printing program is transforming patient outcomes, education, and research.
Applications ranged from the practical to the unexpected. One patient requested a 3D-printed model to better understand their brain aneurysm diagnosis. In another case, a custom blood pressure cuff holder was designed for a gorilla at the local zoo who required weekly testing.
Startups, Solutions, and Standouts
The event also provided plenty of reasons to celebrate the people and ideas shaping the future of industrial 3D printing. At this year’s AM Pitchfest, six finalists presented breakthrough technologies — from Kupros, Inc.’s Cu29, a conductive filament for embedding electronics directly into parts, to Hyphen Innovations’ EDGE™, a fatigue testing system designed to accelerate materials qualification. The winning pitch came from Solideon, whose autonomous, deployable microfactories promise to build anything, anytime, anywhere.
Meanwhile, SME’s AM Industry Achievement Award was presented to John Barnes, founder and president of The Barnes Global Advisors and co-founder and CEO of Metal Powder Works, honoring his decades of leadership in the field. Barnes accepted the award with humor and humility, referencing the classic Seinfeld line: “You know, if you take everything I’ve accomplished in my entire life and condense it down into one day, it looks decent.” He added, “My career so far has been better than decent, because it included working with so many great people. So thank you.”
Healing With Hardware
What emerged across this year’s event was a message that aligned closely with the tone of the Executive Perspectives panels. The industrial 3D printing sector is no longer preoccupied with what could be done but with what is being done. From aerospace to automotive to IndyCar racing, speakers shared concrete stories of how AM is solving problems traditional manufacturing can’t — through agility, customization, and material efficiency.
However, it was the healthcare sessions that perhaps best illustrated just how far the technology has come in delivering real, actionable solutions. Leaders from major medical institutions and device manufacturers described how AM is transforming care, from point-of-use surgical planning at the Mayo Clinic to customized spinal implants that support bone growth and repair.
This last example wasn’t an abstract conversation — it was a personal one. “In December of 2023, I became a patient of my own product,” said John Davidson, President of Acuity Surgical, recounting his recovery after back surgery with a 3D-printed spinal cage. He went on to tell the audience how, just two months later, he felt confident enough in his progress to go skiing. The message was clear: this is not a technology in search of an application. It’s a tool being put to work.
RAPID + TCT 2026 will take place from April 14 to 16 at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center.