What came out of Australia's big 3D printing forum in Adelaide
Around 200 people met in Adelaide this week to talk about growing 3D printing in Australia. The message was clear: we're good at research, but need to get better at turning it into parts people buy.
The Additive Manufacturing Cooperative Research Centre (AMCRC) held its 2026 Additive Manufacturing Forum at the National Wine Centre in Adelaide this week. Around 200 people from industry, universities and defence turned up.
The AMCRC has $57 million in government funding to put into research and local businesses. In its first year it has signed up around 70 industry partners and 12 universities, and backed early projects on wear-resistant coatings, 3D printed dental training models and making titanium powder here in Australia.
Good at research, slower to sell it
A panel with people from submarine builder ASC, Adelaide University, ARM Hub and Defence SA agreed on a familiar problem. Australia does the research well but doesn't turn enough of it into products. They want clearer signals from government about what it plans to buy, especially for smaller firms, and more local supply such as metal powder production.
It's the pathway, not the printer
RMIT's Professor Milan Brandt made the point that buying a printer is the easy bit. The hard questions are whether a part can be inspected, cleaned, qualified and made the same way every time, and whether anyone will actually pay for it. Another speaker described testing, qualification and supply chain as the stage where many local projects stall.
There was also a push to stop claiming 3D printing is automatically greener. The argument was that each job needs real lifecycle evidence, not a blanket claim.
What it means on the shop floor
For anyone in maintenance or manufacturing, that lines up with day-to-day reality. A printed part earns its place when it fixes a real problem: a bracket that's no longer made, a jig that saves time on the line, or a tool that does the job better than what's on the shelf. The questions are the same for a submarine part or a nylon guard. Will it fit, will it last and can you get an identical one next month?
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