From possibility to production: Australia’s additive manufacturing opportunity comes into focus

Different voices. Different perspectives. Some big ideas for Australian additive manufacturing.

That was the spirit of the Additive Manufacturing Forum 2026, which brought more than 170 people from industry, research and government to Adelaide’s National Wine Centre to explore a central question: where are Australia’s real AM opportunities, and what will it take to turn capability into industrial impact?

With attendance up from around 120 at the inaugural Forum, the conversation reflected a growing appetite to move beyond what additive manufacturing can do and focus on where it can deliver real value.

Play to Australia’s Strengths

Following a welcome message from Minister for Industry and Innovation Tim Ayres and a reflection on AMCRC’s first year from Managing Director Simon Marriott, international AM expert and 3DPrint.com Editor Joris Peels challenged the room to think differently about Australia’s opportunity.

His message was direct: don’t simply chase the hype. Play to Australia’s strengths.

Drawing on examples from distributed manufacturing and AI to Directed Energy Deposition, microfactories and drones, Peels explored how AM could strengthen Australia’s manufacturing resilience by solving distinctly Australian problems and creating strategic or commercial advantage.

Explore Joris Peels’ Presentation

That thinking carried into a panel discussion with Laura Brooks (ASC), Mark Hutchinson (Adelaide University), Roy Green (UTS) and Mel Slater (Defence SA).

The discussion highlighted a familiar tension: Australia has a strong research base, but converting that strength into industrial outcomes requires clearer demand signals, stronger supply chains and businesses equipped to take innovation into production.

Mapping what Australia has

The question of how to translate capability into impact came to life in Australia Makes: From Possibility to Production, an interactive session led by Simon Bartlett and AMCRC’s Research Leads.

Through four short presentations aligned with their research programs, the team shared key findings from months of engagement with industry and research organisations, before opening the conversation to the room.

The picture emerging is encouraging: Australia has significant AM capability, but it is distributed and not always well connected. And the printer is only one part of the equation.

Associate Professor Shruti Sardeshmukh challenged familiar assumptions around AM sustainability, calling for stronger lifecycle evidence to demonstrate where additive delivers genuine value.

Distinguished Professor Milan Brandt captured another challenge neatly: “It’s the pathway, not the printer.” Printing a part is only one step. It still needs to be inspected, qualified and manufactured consistently, and ultimately there needs to be a customer for it.

Dr Daniel East unpacked the often-confused distinction between qualification and certification, while Associate Professor Andrew Ang explored the industry’s “valley of death”, where promising technology can stall between technical success and commercial adoption.

These insights are feeding into the Australian AM Capability Map, which is building a national picture of Australia’s expertise, infrastructure and capacity. The aim is not simply show what Australia has, but to connect organisations, identify gaps and match capability with industry needs.

The map is just the starting point. It is there for industry to explore, challenge and help shape it over the coming years.

Explore the Australian AM Capability Map

Pockets of Potential

Three rapid-fire Pockets of Potential presentations from GMA, Materialise and the Australian Additive Manufacturing Network shifted the conversation towards what could come next.

The presentations brought different opportunities to the stage but shared a common thread: the strongest case for additive starts with a problem worth solving and connects it with the right technology, expertise and partners.

Turning Conversation into Action

In the afternoon, the conversation moved from the stage to the room.

Participants broke into three industry-focused roundtables examining AM in aerospace, defence and healthcare, sectors where the case for AM can be particularly compelling, but where adoption still faces real technical, commercial and regulatory barriers.

The discussion focused on practical questions: What is holding adoption back? Where are the gaps? And where could collaboration make a difference?

Participants shared frontline experience and identified priorities that could help move Australian AM forward.

Capability is here. Now we need to activate it.

If one message connected the Forum, it was that Australia already has significant additive manufacturing capability. The opportunity now is to make more of it.

That means better connecting what we have, addressing critical gaps and focusing investment and collaboration where additive manufacturing can deliver genuine industry value.

The Forum was one day in a much bigger conversation, but the ideas and challenges raised in Adelaide will continue to shape AMCRC’s work with industry, researchers and government.

Thank you to everyone who made the Additive Manufacturing Forum 2026 possible, from our speakers, panellists, research leads to our roundtable contributors, partners and, most importantly, everyone who joined the conversation.

Australia’s opportunity in additive manufacturing will ultimately be shaped not simply by the technology we have, but by what we choose to do with it, together.