Seven Trends Reveal What’s Next for 3D Printing at TCT Shenzhen 2026-3DPTimes

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Seven Trends Reveal What’s Next for 3D Printing at TCT Shenzhen 2026

October 24, 2026 News Xu Fanglei | Author’s field report, October 19, 2026. Text and photographs republished with the author’s permission. 17

Xu Fanglei’s opening-day field report examines seven trends across metal and ceramic printing, specialized materials, industrial applications, footwear, AI design and desktop fabrication.

TCT Shenzhen 2026, held October 14–16 at the Shenzhen World Exhibition & Convention Center. Photograph by Xu Fanglei. Reproduced with the author’s permission; format converted and resized without changing content.

TCT Shenzhen 2026 opened on October 14 in Hall 15 of the Shenzhen World Exhibition & Convention Center in Bao’an, and ran through October 16. The event brought together equipment manufacturers, material suppliers, software developers, and companies working on end-use applications, offering a closer look at developments across China’s additive manufacturing industry.

Based on what I saw on the opening day, copper and copper alloy parts, robot structural components, flexible footwear, precision ceramics, and AI-generated 3D models stood out as areas worth watching.

Across the exhibition, a common theme emerged: companies are focusing less on what their printers can do in general and more on the specific products they can manufacture. Here are seven trends that stood out on the show floor.

Metal Printing Goes Big and Small

The SP450CU copper printing solution at the AmPro booth was a good example of equipment optimized for a particular material and its applications. The display brought together a copper printing system, copper powders, and printed copper parts, addressing needs such as heat dissipation and complex flow channels.

These solutions go beyond printing copper parts to include reliable processing of highly reflective materials, part consistency, and the economics of batch production. Buyers need to assess machine specifications alongside their target parts, material systems, and post-processing requirements to understand the actual production capability.

At the same time, SnowX presented its SnowPod desktop metal 3D printer. A sign at the booth stated that crowdfunding would launch soon. The system points to efforts to bring metal 3D printing into smaller workspaces and make the technology more accessible. It still needs to demonstrate commercial viability, particularly as the company prepares for crowdfunding.

From industrial copper printing solutions to desktop metal equipment, the show presented two paths for product development: building deeper expertise around clearly defined operating requirements, and lowering barriers to use through machine integration.

Together, these displays showed how metal AM equipment is developing in two directions: specialized industrial production and smaller, more accessible systems.

Materials Become More Specialized for End-Use Applications

The materials booths offered another way to understand application needs. AmPro’s copper powder display listed pure copper for infrared laser printing, high-thermal-conductivity copper, high-purity copper, and copper alloys such as CuCrNb and CuSnNi. At the CNPC POWDER booth, aluminum alloys including AlSi10Mg and Scalmalloy illustrated how material selection varies with operating requirements.

These displays connected material selection with thermal conductivity, strength, ductility, weight reduction, and compatibility with the printing process. Even within the same broad category of copper or aluminum alloy, the final part’s performance and manufacturing requirements can lead to different material solutions.

Polymers showed a similar degree of specialization. Polymaker displayed materials such as Fiberon PA612-CF15 and ASA-CF08, along with related printed examples. FusRock presented its flexible PEBA 95A material. Formlabs displayed a soft robotic gripper made with Silicone 40A Resin, using pneumatic actuation for compliant gripping.

From reinforced polymers to elastomers and silicone, materials are helping determine product structure and function. The variety of materials on display also showed how suppliers are responding to more specific requirements, from thermal management and lightweight metal components to flexible products and soft robotics.

Metal and Ceramic Printing Offer More Manufacturing Options

This year’s TCT Shenzhen displays covered a range of technologies, including selective laser melting, electron beam processing, binder jetting, nanoparticle jetting, and vat photopolymerization.

XJet presented solutions based on the Carmel 5000X, along with samples including precision ceramics and metal accessories. Its NanoParticle Jetting technology offers a different manufacturing route for complex parts with fine features. According to the manufacturer’s specifications, the machine has a 500 × 280 mm build area and a layer thickness of 7–10 microns.

A ceramic vase and supporting literature at the BJ-TECH booth illustrated powder bonding and binder jetting. DEW also presented binder jetting applications. These approaches give metal and ceramic parts a wider range of process options, with coordination between equipment, materials, and sintering playing a particularly important role.

For fine structures, accessories, ceramic components, and small, complex parts, process evaluation needs to consider feature size, surface quality, sintering shrinkage, support removal, and final cost together.

The displays highlighted the growing range of options for producing complex metal and ceramic parts. However, each process’s suitability still depends on the final application, production requirements, and cost.

Thermal Management, Electronics, and Robotics Drive Industrial Applications

Several exhibitors showed how metal AM addresses specific manufacturing challenges, particularly in thermal management, consumer electronics, and robotics.

ADDIREEN displayed pure-copper parts for optical modules and copper-alloy lattice components. G-Light presented an AlSi10Mg heat exchanger with an internal triply periodic minimal surface (TPMS) structure.

Thermal management offers a concrete way to understand the value of metal additive manufacturing. Part development must balance heat-transfer performance with flow resistance, pressure resistance, powder removal, and manufacturing cost. TCT Shenzhen’s pre-show materials also identified thermal management and electronics manufacturing as important forum topics, including high-performance copper alloys, TPMS structures, and liquid-cooling products.

Consumer electronics and robotics were two further application areas. AmPro displayed smartwatch frames labeled as TC4 titanium alloy, as well as structural components for humanoid robots. AVIMETAL AM also featured application displays for embodied robotics and consumer electronics.

These exhibits connected weight reduction, manufacturing complex structures as a single piece, and product appearance with specific components. The opportunities they suggest will need further development through assembly, performance, and cost validation.

While the displays demonstrated potential applications, broader adoption will depend on whether manufacturers can deliver the required performance, repeatability, and cost at production scale.

3D Printed Footwear Moves Further Toward Finished Products

Flexible footwear was a prominent theme on the opening day. Himalaya, Inely Tech, YIDIMU, and Douchuan 3D displayed shoes in different styles, flexible products, and related equipment. Douchuan 3D also presented its DC4588 DLP system, specifically for digital footwear manufacturing.

Carbon demonstrated additive manufacturing applications in products worn against the body and in sports equipment, with lattice cushioning structures in athletic shoe midsoles, bicycle saddles, helmets, and backpack suspension systems.

These products connect material elasticity, geometry, and the user experience. With the same material, designers can explore different lattice cell sizes, densities, and regional designs to achieve different levels of support and cushioning, giving them room to differentiate their products.

Foot scanning systems were also on display, linking body-measurement capture to the demand for personalized footwear. Scanning, design, materials, printing, and post-processing are coming together into a more complete application workflow.

The next stage will require continued attention to product questions such as durability, comfort, cleaning, delivery efficiency, and selling price.

The range of finished footwear and sports products on display suggested that companies are increasingly competing on product design, comfort, and usability, rather than printing technology alone.

AI Tools Focus on Editable, Manufacturable 3D Models

Booths from Meshy, Hyper3D, Hi3D, V2Fun, and N4D made AI and 3D content generation an important part of the show.

V2Fun presented an all-in-one platform for AI-powered 3D content creation, covering tasks such as model and texture generation. N4D’s Coala solution brought conversational generation, CAD parameter adjustments, and file export into a single workflow, emphasizing functional design and further editing.

Software displays including FLOW-3D and Yunrong Zhisuan (云融智算), together with live 3D scanning demonstrations, connected data capture and modeling at the start of the design process with analysis and validation before manufacturing.

These demonstrations showed how AI-based design tools are moving beyond generating 3D shapes toward models that can be edited, adjusted, and prepared for manufacturing. For engineering parts, wall thickness, assembly tolerances, loads, and process constraints still need validation. For consumer creations, model repair, color separation, and compatibility with slicing software also affect the finished product.

The challenge for these platforms will be making AI-generated designs useful beyond the initial concept, particularly in workflows where dimensions, tolerances, and manufacturing requirements matter.

Multicolor Printing and Desktop Tools Expand Consumer Applications

Booths focused on printing materials and consumer creation brought a wide range of color combinations, transparency, surface textures, lighting effects, and finished pieces ready for display.

Lamps, decorative objects, and multicolor works at materials booths such as Polymaker’s showed how materials serve both manufacturing and visual expression. Silk finishes, gradients, transparency, and different surface textures give designers and small studios more possibilities for product development.

Snapmaker and Phaetus presented the Liber U1 high-flow hotend solution, illustrating the relationship between the extrusion system and the printer’s overall capabilities.

Texture printing, desktop CNC machines, and laser engraving equipment were also on display. Together, they form a set of fabrication tools for creators, combining model making, surface decoration, precision machining, and personalization in a more compact workspace.

For desktop users and small businesses, the focus is shifting beyond printer specifications to include material options, ease of use, and finished-product quality.

From Trade Show Displays to Commercial Production

TCT Shenzhen 2026 offered concrete reference points for the industry: copper printing for thermal management, metal structural parts for robotics and consumer electronics, flexible materials for footwear and sports equipment, and AI and digital tools connecting design with manufacturing.

What stood out across the show was the focus on practical applications. Whether developing copper heat exchangers, lightweight robot components, flexible footwear, or AI-assisted design tools, exhibitors were showing how additive manufacturing could address specific product and manufacturing needs.

The next challenge is turning those demonstrations into reliable, cost-effective production. For many of the technologies on display, performance, consistency, and commercial demand will determine how far they move beyond the exhibition floor.

Text and photographs by Xu Fanglei. Original report dated October 19, 2026. Republished here at the author’s request.

Photograph gallery — captions in display order
All photographs by Xu Fanglei, reproduced with the author’s permission. Images have been converted to JPEG and resized without changing their content.

1. AmPro SP450CU copper 3D printing system.
2. The SnowX booth
3. Polymaker booth.
4. Lighting designs displayed by Polymaker.
5. The Formlabs booth.
6. A silicone soft robotic gripper.
7. Precision ceramic parts displayed by XJet
8. A ceramic vase displayed by BJ-TECH.
9. A heat exchanger displayed by G-Light.
10. AmPro displayed Titanium alloy smartwatch frames.
11. An embodied robotics application display at AVIMETAL AM.
12. Footwear printed as a single piece under Himalaya’s own NATUYA brand.
13. Athletic footwear displayed by Carbon.
14. N4D’s conversational CAD demonstration.
15. The popular Snapmaker U1 multicolor 3D printer.
16. Desktop CNC and laser engraving equipment.