Revolutionizing Metal Manufacturing with 3D Print Farms

Today’s metal 3D printers resemble the mainframe computers that once dominated manufacturing—large, slow, and priced between $500 k and $1 M. Just as cloud data centers replaced mainframes, the industry is poised for a shift toward compact, low‑cost machines operating in parallel—print‑farms. Markforged’s Atomic Diffusion Additive Manufacturing (ADAM) process is the catalyst for this transformation, bringing metal parts production into a new era where prototyping and production merge seamlessly.

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The Keys to 3D Metal Print‑Farms

1. ADAM (Atomic Diffusion Additive Manufacturing)
Our end‑to‑end process scales cost and size by leveraging existing reinforced extrusion technology.

2. 3D Print Farm Platform
High‑precision, low‑cost printer instances empowered by smart sensors.

3. Fleet Management Software
Enterprise‑grade software that optimizes workflows, delivers predictive analytics, and provides real‑time monitoring and reporting across connected printers.

Markforged is advancing each technology to unlock scalable printed metal production within two years.

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Atomic Diffusion Additive Manufacturing

ADAM begins with metal powder, captured in a plastic binder for safe handling, and builds the part layer by layer. After printing, the part is sintered in a furnace, burning off the binder and fusing the powder into a fully dense metal part.

Printing the Form

The process builds on our proven carbon‑fiber reinforced extrusion technique, substituting 60% metal powder for carbon fibers. The Metal X—our first industrial‑quality ADAM machine—addresses core challenges: machine reliability, surface finish, dimensional accuracy, and repeatability, all designed to produce beautiful metal parts reliably.

Thermal Sintering

Thermal sintering is a standard in Metal Injection Molding (MIM) for medical, aerospace, and consumer components. The sintering step removes the plastic binder and causes the metal powder to diffuse into 99.7% dense metal. Sintering furnaces start under $30 k and finish parts overnight; a full‑stack production furnace runs $800 k and matches injection‑mold output, enabling a 500–1 000‑unit print‑farm.

Materials

ADAM utilizes well‑established MIM materials used in demanding end‑use applications. The first material we ship is 17‑4 stainless steel, with tool steels, titanium, aluminum, and Inconel in beta testing.

Eiger

Over the past four years we have built Eiger, a comprehensive cloud‑based fleet management platform. Thousands of Markforged printers worldwide run with full telemetry, error monitoring, feedback, and analytics—a true distributed print‑farm. Currently, Markforged operates over 100 printers in parallel: 50 produce parts for new printer development, 30 run long‑term cycle testing, and 20 manufacture sample parts—approximately 6.5 k parts per month.

Bringing Manufacturing into the Digital Age

Metal casting has been practiced for five millennia, but a digital approach is now within reach. Within two years, Markforged aims to deliver true digital metal manufacturing, mirroring the transformative impact of the digital age on music, photography, writing, and the internet. It’s time for mechanical engineering to catch up.

― Greg Mark, Founder & CEO