Why Additive Manufacturing Could Be the Future of Production

Additive manufacturing and 3D printing mean the same thing. Software slices a 3D model into thin cross-sections, and the printer builds the object from them. Desktop printers extrude melted plastic filament through a fine nozzle, a process called fused filament fabrication (FFF, also known as FDM); industrial machines also cure liquid resin with light or fuse metal and polymer powders with a laser.

Since there is no mold or tool to make first, a printer can produce one object or a series, and each piece can be different.

The market points the same way. Wohlers Report 2026 puts the global additive manufacturing market at $24.2 billion in 2025, up 10.9% on 2024, with printing services growing 15.5%. Growth is fastest at the entry level: CONTEXT counted 26% more entry-level printers shipped in 2025 than in 2024, and Bambu Lab shipped the most.

In traditional manufacturing, parts are made in large runs, stored in warehouses and shipped to where they are used. With 3D printing, the warehouse can become a library of files: a spare part, a fitting or a product is printed when someone needs it, close to where it will be used. That shortens the time between needing a part and having it, and it reduces the stock a business has to hold.

Local production makes the most sense where printers are already in place and items are needed in small numbers or in many variations. That is the model we follow at Leora: you download a lamp and print it on your own printer, so the design reaches you as data and the lamp is made where it will be used.

Medicine already works this way at scale. Align Technology reports that more than 22 million people have been treated with Invisalign aligners, which are formed over 3D printed models of each patient's teeth, and custom in-the-ear hearing aids are made digitally for each wearer.

Design can be personal too. In our Studio, you shape a lamp in your browser, from its pattern and proportions to its colours and your own logo, and the file you download is ready to print.

Injection molding and other mass production methods start with a mold or tool that must be designed, made and paid for before the first part exists. Spread over hundreds of thousands of parts, that cost becomes a small share of each piece. For a few dozen or a few hundred parts, or for a design that keeps changing, the tooling dominates the cost, and printing is usually the better choice.

The two methods complement each other. Many products are developed with printed parts, made in small series while demand is uncertain, and moved to molding once the volumes justify the tooling.

PLA, one of the most common filaments, is made from plant sugars, from sources such as corn starch and sugarcane, and certified PLA products can be composted in industrial composting facilities.

PHA is made by microorganisms, and some PHA grades have been certified to biodegrade in home compost, in soil and in seawater. Our guide to PHA filament explains how it prints.

Recycled filaments turn production waste into new material: Prusament PLA Recycled, for example, is made entirely from Prusa's own production waste.

Making parts close to their final shape also saves material, which matters most with costly metals that machining would turn largely into chips.

Entry-level printers have improved quickly. Many now calibrate themselves and print several colours with an automatic material system. Bambu Lab's A2L, for example, launched in June 2026 at $469, with a 330 × 320 mm bed and room for up to 19 colours. Our review of the Bambu Lab A1 describes two years of everyday use.

Free model libraries, and print-ready designs such as the lamps in our Studio, mean your first print can be a finished design.

On the desktop, the biggest change is multi-material printing with short tool changes. Bambu Lab's H2C moves between up to six hotends with its Vortek system, Snapmaker's U1 swaps between four toolheads in about five seconds, and Prusa and Bondtech's INDX adds up to eight materials to the Prusa CORE One. Bambu Lab's H3C, launched on 3 November 2026, carries nine tools, each with its own filament path and heater, and Bambu Lab says it can switch between them in as little as six seconds.

In industry, metal printing has moved into production. GE's printed LEAP fuel nozzle replaced 20 parts with one, which is 25% lighter and five times more durable.

Buildings are being printed too: ICON and Lennar have completed 100 3D printed homes at Wolf Ranch in Georgetown, Texas.

Our lamps are generated by algorithms that you control in the Studio: the branches of a Coral, the falling walls of a Gravity, the sand of a Dune. Each download is a print-ready project with every setting in place, printed on your own printer in the material and colours you choose.

• The Studio: design free in your browser, and see every lamp in 3D before you print.
• Print-ready downloads: 3MF projects for Bambu Studio and OrcaSlicer, STL files for any other slicer, and 3D printing instructions.
• Plans: Plus ($99 a year) for personal use, with every lamp in the Studio and our 3D assets library; Pro ($299 a year) with a commercial license to print and sell lamps worldwide.
• A free Starter lamp, to try a Leora print first.

With the Pro plan, you can print and sell Leora lamps in small batches on your own printers. Leora's lamps have been exhibited at Dutch Design Week 2025 in Eindhoven and in the Light Selection of Venice Design Week 2026.

Read about the Gravity lamp and how to make a Coral lamp, or open the Studio and start designing.