“I’ve been wearing this badge for 30 years, and I’ve seen more change in the last 18 months than over the last three decades,” Brigadier General Beth A. Behn, commanding general of the U.S. Army TACOM, noted during the first Executive Perspectives panel of RAPID + TCT 2026. The discussion, which was moderated by Dr. Brett Conner, chief manufacturing officer at SME and included executives from Siemens, Stratasys and Velo3D, focused on the growing role of industrial 3D printing in defense, driven, in part, by strong demand signals from the current administration.
The conversation wasn’t the event’s first foray into the impact of additive manufacturing (AM) on the aerospace and defense industries. The day before, conference attendees gathered for a series of presentations spanning everything from medical AM in the military to 3D printing on board the International Space Station (ISS). Those sessions set the tone for a week that would draw heavily on three areas where AM is being deployed with considerable success: healthcare, aerospace and defense. These verticals felt particularly relevant as RAPID + TCT made its debut in Boston, a city known for its strengths in both the life sciences and aerospace and defense manufacturing.
Making the Case for Clinical Adoption
The decision to host North America’s largest AM and industrial 3D printing event on the East Coast proved to be a good one, with RAPID + TCT 2026 attracting more than 10,000 attendees and over 260 expert speakers. After a first session focused on defense, the next day’s Executive Perspectives panel turned to healthcare. The conversation, which was moderated by Laura Griffiths, head of content for The TCT Group, included participants from Materialise, 3D Systems, HP and Carbon.
The panelists kicked off the session by sharing examples of real-world healthcare applications their companies had worked on. These included bioabsorbable airway splints that allow infants with tracheobronchomalacia to breathe independently (Materialise) and pressure-relieving wheelchair cushions (Carbon). In the past, the cost of these AM-enabled solutions has at times proved prohibitive. Increasingly, however, payers are recognizing the health economic impact of these applications, speakers noted. While additively produced medical devices might carry higher upfront costs, the long-term savings from improved outcomes, faster recovery and fewer complications are helping drive broader adoption — a win for patients and providers alike.
The Knowledge-Sharing Imperative
Throughout the four-day program, cross-sector collaboration emerged as a key theme, surfacing across conference sessions, Main Stage discussions and the show floor. This year’s conference spanned nine tracks, including Essential AM, Aerospace, Defense, Energy, Healthcare and Consumer Products. While attendees could opt to stick within one vertical, there was plenty of opportunity for relevant crossover. For example, in a Meltio-led session, Application Engineering Manager Giorgio Olivieri discussed the company’s use of industrial 3D printing to develop ice cleats for South Korean K2 Black Panther tanks. Although the use case focused on a defense application, its potential implications extended to a wide range of vehicles, among them agricultural and commercial trucks.
Meanwhile, in a panel led by the Additive Manufacturing Users Group (AMUG), speakers explored how cross-industry knowledge sharing can accelerate the adoption of industrial 3D printing. As Senvol President Annie Wang observed, companies are generally open to exchanging insights, even when navigating the boundaries of proprietary information, because “when they share, the whole industry grows.” In fact, the panelists saw the cross-industry transfer of knowledge as a critical imperative. As Authentise’s Andre Wegner pointed out, the industry hasn’t always excelled at sharing “tribal knowledge.” If that doesn’t improve, the risk is that outside players will step in to capture and operationalize that data themselves, he argued, pointing to Jeff Bezos’ reported efforts to raise $100 billion for an artificial intelligence (AI) manufacturing fund.
AI Meets AM
Unsurprisingly, AI was another recurring theme at RAPID + TCT. This was perhaps most notable in the 2026 edition of Pitchfest. Now in its third year, this event featured five finalists, each with five minutes to present, followed by four minutes of questions from the jury. The pitches offered a snapshot of how AI is being applied in AM-enabled production environments.
Skody AI positioned its platform as a “Google Maps” for factory operations, leveraging AI to provide visibility into production flows and supply chains. Meanwhile, Dawn Industries outlined how it is bringing AI to the factory floor through its Virtual Intelligent Mentor (VIM) technology. The company’s glasses and head-mounted cameras, which earned Dawn Industries a runner-up position, capture processes, generate step-by-step instructions and deploy an AI troubleshooting agent that supports operators in real time.
The winning pitch came from Perseus Materials, a company that uses continuous-sweep additive forming to support the production of large-scale curvilinear beams and panels.
Demos and Drum Kits
Beyond the Main Stage, there was no shortage of activity on the show floor. RAPID + TCT 2026 featured more than 470 exhibitors and three expo showcases: The AeroDef Manufacturing Showcase, The StartUp Showcase and The Healthcare Showcase. Along with a curated selection of booths, these showcases hosted presentations at dedicated Knowledge Bars, including talks from Boston Children’s Hospital (Healthcare) and the Rhode Island APEX Accelerator (AeroDef).
Elsewhere, MatterHackers’ booth served as a base camp for its annual community quest, which challenged attendees to visit 19 partners across the show floor, including INTAMSYS and Pantheon Design. At the America Makes booth, attendees could watch as participants from the Additive in Steel Competition faced off. This year’s challenge tasked teams with designing and producing a functional everyday carry (EDC) multi-tool, then putting it through a series of tests, such as cutting through a seatbelt and opening a paint can, to retrieve (and drink) a bottle of soda.
Even outside of these interactive initiatives, the show floor made for a lively scene. At Formlabs’ booth, attendees could watch a robotic prosthetic developed by Psyonic cycling through its range of motion. Nearby, a 3D-printed foosball table from 3D Systems offered a diversion for those with a competitive streak. And conversations and demos were occasionally interrupted by impromptu drum solos coming from Polymaker’s booth, which was home to a Voxel Percussion drum set.
While there were plenty of industry veterans present at the event, newcomers were well represented, too. The 2026 Bright Minds Student Summit welcomed 129 high school students to the show to explore industrial 3D printing through hands-on demos and educational and networking opportunities, helping develop the next generation of AM talent.
Advice for a Young Engineer
The last day’s Executive Perspectives session took a slightly different approach. Earlier in the week, SME and TCT joined forces to host a combined awards ceremony. Among the most notable honors, Joe Allison of Gentle Giant Studios was inducted into the TCT Hall of Fame, and Max Lobovsky of Formlabs received the SME AM Industry Achievement Award.
Two days later, Lobovsky took to the stage for a fireside chat with a longtime mentor, Professor Neil Gershenfeld, director of the MIT Center for Bits and Atoms. It was a full-circle moment. Gershenfeld taught Lobovsky during graduate school, and the conversation traced how Lobovsky’s early interest in AM laid the groundwork for what is today one of the largest B2B 3D printing companies in the world.
The conversation ended on a reflective note when an audience member asked the speakers what advice they would give to a young engineer. “What’s common to Max and me is we both invented our own reality,” Gershenfeld remarked. “Figure out your story and invent your reality; don’t try to figure out how you fit into somebody else’s reality.” Lobovsky agreed. When Formlabs is hiring, he added, they are always keen to see examples of self-directed work. Projects developed in class are one thing, he said, but when candidates “pick something that they dove into on their own initiative… That’s far more impressive.”
RAPID + TCT 2027 will take place from April 13 to 15 at Huntington Place in Detroit.