3D Systems

3D Systems traces back to 1986, when founder Chuck Hull patented stereolithography, the process of curing liquid resin layer by layer with a laser. That original invention grew into one of the broadest additive manufacturing companies in the industry, built through years of acquisitions in printers, materials, software, and services. The South Carolina-based company today sells hardware across several distinct printing technologies rather than one, and its aerospace and defense business has become a meaningful part of that mix. On the metal side, the DMP Flex 350 and DMP Factory 350 direct metal printing systems turn out titanium and aluminum parts for structural and propulsion applications, often replacing components that used to be machined from billet or cast in multi-step processes. The company's LaserForm Ti Gr23 titanium alloy and its oxygen-free copper powders were developed specifically for parts that need to survive flight loads or manage heat in propulsion systems.

On the polymer side, stereolithography and Figure 4 resin systems produce investment casting patterns, letting foundries skip tooling steps for low-volume aerospace castings. 3D Systems groups its aerospace work into six areas it talks about consistently: passive RF hardware for satellite communications, lightweight structural brackets, propulsion and space launch components, heat exchangers, casting patterns, and parts for electric propulsion systems used in emerging eVTOL aircraft. The RF hardware business is a good example of how additive manufacturing changes what is possible rather than just how a part is made. Consolidating waveguides and other passive RF structures into single printed pieces cuts down on the joints and seams that cause signal loss, and the company says its printed hardware has flown on more than a dozen satellites since 2017. It makes a similar claim for structural titanium and aluminum parts in orbit, citing more than 2,000 flight components since 2015. None of that happens without qualification work, and 3D Systems backs its production with two facilities certified to the AS9100/EN9100 aerospace quality standard, one in Littleton, Colorado and one in Leuven, Belgium, which lets customers run parallel development and production paths on two continents.

The company also offers services beyond hardware sales: application engineering to help customers redesign parts for additive manufacturing rather than just reprinting a legacy design, training, and generation of material allowables data that aerospace engineers need to certify a part for flight. Its Oqton software partnership adds workflow and fleet management tools on top of the physical printers. 3D Systems trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker DDD and has gone through a difficult stretch financially, including a 2025 restructuring that trimmed its workforce. But the aerospace and defense segment, along with healthcare, is one of the areas the company has pointed to as a priority as it works to stabilize the broader business. For a defense-adjacent supplier base increasingly interested in printing parts on demand rather than warehousing spares, 3D Systems' combination of metal, polymer, and casting-pattern technology under one roof is a large part of its pitch.