American contract manufacturers that specialize in 3D printing, such as Endeavor 3D, are ramping up … [+] facilities in anticipation of a rush to manufacturer in the U.S.Endeavor 3D
“America will be a manufacturing nation once again,” President Trump declared in his inaugural address. How, exactly, American companies will bring manufacturing back home to the U.S. in the near term, is the question. Leaders of the top 3D printer manufacturers are confident their companies can help.
“What’s great about a 3D printing facility is you can get it off the ground pretty quickly,” says Phil DeSimone, CEO of Carbon, which manufactures 3D printers used in a wide range of industries, such as footwear, sports equipment, and medical devices.
Sportswear company Adidas uses a fleet of Carbon 3D printers in factories in Asia to produce the midsoles of its popular 4DFWD running shoe. While the same parts could be produced in U.S.-based factories with Carbon printers, the rest of the shoe, or the extended supply chain, is in China.
This points to the biggest challenge in reshoring manufacturing, the fact that, no matter how much of a product is produced in the U.S., there are often parts and replacement parts sourced overseas. Yet, this could be where 3D printing, aka additive manufacturing, shines.
The Promise of Additive Manufacturing in Reshoring Efforts
Today, few end-use products are entirely 3D printed, but where 3D printing can replace the overseas supply chain is mold tooling, spare parts, and the type of low- to mid-volume production needed in the aerospace and medical industries.
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“We view a more protectionist trade environment as an opportunity, since [additive manufacturing] is uniquely suited to solve many of the challenges posed by these changes,” notes Yoav Zeif, the CEO of 3D printer manufacturer Stratasys. For example, it provides the ability to move to a digital inventory which allows manufacturers to produce parts in local markets, while also reducing costs and supply chain risks.”
Stratasys machines are found at companies like General Motors and used for producing tools, fixtures, prototypes, and final car parts for its motorsports wing.
“Everything that’s onshoring instead of offshoring is a positive trend,” says Alex Monino, senior VP of personalization and 3D printing at HP, which makes a wide range of 3D printers used in all types of manufacturing. John Deere, for example, turned to HP’s metal 3D printing to create a low-volume of engine parts needed for a specific model of tractor only sold in cold-weather locations.
“Especially when you talk about moving from centralized manufacturing to distributed; that’s where additive manufacturing excels versus concentrating all manufacturing in one place,” Monino adds.
Bridging Supply Chain Gaps Through 3D Printing
Distributed manufacturing enables companies to make parts closer to where they’re needed, eliminating shipping and establishing redundancies to mitigate supply chain risks. For example, Vestas, the world’s largest wind energy company, turned to 3D printing critical parts in-house at its various facilities across several countries using the same brand of 3D printer, a Markforged X7, and a central database of parts.
“From the tariff side, it naturally has a benefit to get people to make the end product, where it’s needed,” says DeSimone. “You could have micro-factories making geo-specific products instead of these colossal factories overseas.”
Sports equipment giant Rawlings 3D prints a component of its REV1X baseball glove on Carbon 3D printers at Sybridge Manufacturing in Chicago, but then these parts are shipped to the Philippines for assembly.
Tariffs and Trade Policies: Catalysts for Additive Manufacturing
3D printer manufacturer, Nikon Advanced Manufacturing opened a new 90,000-square-foot facility in … [+] Long Beach, Calif., on Jan. 14, 2025, that will expand its 3D printing capabilities.Nikon Advanced Manufacturing
“I can’t see a scenario where [reshoring American manufacturing] is not going to help additive manufacturing,” says Glynn Fletcher, president of EOS North America, a Germany-based 3D printer manufacturer. “The increase in an American-first type of approach will tend to bring the most sensitive type of manufacturing back into the United States, such as space and defense.”
In anticipation of more government contracts, the EOS M 290 metal 3D printer is now partially manufactured in a facility in Texas, with more models to come. EOS machines are used at some of the U.S.’s largest contract manufacturers working in the space, defense, and power generation sectors, such as Sintavia, Incodema3D, I3D Mfg., and Beehive.
The U.S. defense industry is investing hundreds of millions of dollars exploring advanced manufacturing technologies to remove its reliance on overseas production.
“One of the reasons that the United States and its allies were successful in winning the Cold War was the massive technological superiority of the defense industrial base,” says Hamid Zarringhalam, CEO of Nikon Advanced Manufacturing, which makes metal 3D printers used to produce everything from rocket engines to induction coils to aircraft fuel system components. “Now, there are gaps in defense industrial base, and, especially when we’re talking about defense, it needs to be not only on our shores, but with technology developed and manufactured by the United States or its allies.”
Nikon Advanced Manufacturing just opened a facility in Long Beach, Calif., and began manufacturing its NXG XII 600 metal 3D printer in South Carolina in 2024. Defense contractor Lockheed Martin recently added a Nikon SLM machine to the expansion of its Grand Prairie, Texas facility.
Contract Manufacturing: A Bridge to Adoption
For American companies that are not ready to adopt additive manufacturing in-house, a growing market of 3D contract manufacturers are ready to step in to produce parts or be a bridge manufacturing solution until US-based facilities are up and running. In fact, the global additive manufacturing services market totaled $1.9B in Q3 2024, representing a 14% year over year growth, according to data from Additive Manufacturing Research.
“If there were really high tariffs that prevented products from being made overseas, companies will all have to start making facilities here,” says DeSimone, “and overall, that would be a good thing for the [additive manufacturing] industry.”
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