What is the Drone Dominance Program? The Drone Dominance Program is a two-year, $1.1 billion US Department of War program to buy small, low-cost attack drones from American manufacturers. It carries out Executive Order 14307, “Unleashing American Drone Dominance,” signed in June 2025. The Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) and the Test Resource Management Center run…
Section 849 Takes Effect December 18: What It Means for DoD 3D Printing and How Pivot AM Can Help On December 18, 2026, Section 849 of the FY2026 National Defense Authorization Act takes effect. From that date, the Department of Defense can no longer procure additive manufacturing machines, related equipment, or associated services from companies…
Case Study: Rent vs Buy, Scaling ULTEM™ 9085 Production The Challenge A customer faced a time-sensitive production requirement: manufacturing hundreds of parts using ULTEM 9085 within a nine-month window. At the time, they were operating two Stratasys Fortus 400mc systems. However, to meet volume and delivery deadlines, they estimated needing six machines running concurrently. Purchasing…
How the NDAA Is Forcing Defense Contractors to Replace Chinese 3D Printers Earlier this year, a previous Pivot AM blog post discussed how the U.S. National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) now places restrictions on additive manufacturing equipment used by defense contractors. Under new provisions published in January, U.S. military organizations and Department of Defense (DoD)…
Does anyone else find it ironic or disingenuous that Stratasys is now offering refurbished Fortus 360mc and 400mc machines? For two years the OEM was telling their customers these platforms would no longer be serviced and were being declared End of Life, ostensibly to garner trade ins and sell a new “upgraded” machine. Now the…
Pivot AM Service is offering Maintenance on: Fortus 360mc, 400mc, 900mc for another 5 years, until January 2029. Don’t End the life, Extend the Life. Refurbished Fortus 360mc, 400mc, 900mc machines available – add capacity for less than an upgrade and keep your trade in thereby doubling capacity.
There was a time when 3D printers were accessible to only a limited group of people, but that’s not the case anymore. We can see the use of 3D printers in schools, homes, and libraries because it has become more affordable than before, but still, they are not cheap enough that anyone and everyone can…