We’ve turned the corner and arrived in 2018. What will this year hold for 3D printing technology?

First, the arrival of extrusion metal printing. Today’s extrusion printers are the most prevalent and, arguably, the most user-friendly 3D printers on the market. Now, after years of there being zero metal extrusion printers, there will be two in the new year from Desktop Metal and Markforged. These technologies promise new materials and a higher degree of user-friendliness for metal printing.

Second, stories will focus on other metal-injection, molding-based 3D printing systems that are bringing down the price of printing. Each of these, like extrusion metal printing, will offer a different take on building up a part “scaffold” and then sintering it in an oven as a secondary step to create a part.

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