Mark Pinder, CEO of FIG3D, believes the 3D printing industry has a big problem – a problem that is compounded by social media, specifically LinkedIn. “You’ll see half-a-million to a million-pound machines sometimes idle,” he says. “The utilisation rate might be 20%. I think that’s bloody sad.” Tackling the underutilisation of capital equipment is just one part of the goal to make additive “fit for purpose.” The co-pilot and CTO on this mission is Andrew Allshorn, a 30-year veteran of the additive manufacturing sector.
“We’re not here to buy another bleeding machine and put it all over LinkedIn,” stated Pinder.
FIG3D is the trading name of Forging Innovation Group; it comprises three business units: Pivot, Shift 3D, and the broader FIG3D alliance itself. The company operates in both consultancy and contract manufacturing (via manufacturing partnerships), but the real added value comes from agnostically matching technology to applications. “We’re allowing businesses to effectively adopt additive manufacturing without the complexities and without the risk,” said Pinder.
Rather than focus solely on technology sales, the group positions itself as a bridge between innovation and commercialisation. Pivot handles new product introduction and strategy, drawing on Pinder’s background in market access and scaling; Shift 3D acts as the technical centre, accessing a network of manufacturing partners who handle production once the optimal approach is defined.
One recent example involves an oil and gas customer with a highly specialised component needed in low volumes. “There’s only about 10 units a year,” says Pinder. “Bringing Andy and the team in technically allows us to then appraise what the best solution is, and then deliver that through our contract manufacturing alliance.”
While some clients remain with FIG3D for ongoing production, others are handed off to OEMs once feasibility is established. The goal is not to lock customers in, but to provide enough early-stage support that adoption decisions are based on validated outcomes and hard cost-benefit analysis. As Pinder puts it, “Our purpose is to help businesses grow and save money and enhance production efficiency.”
Application-Led Thinking
For FIG3D, applications drive everything. “It all begins with a challenge,” said Pinder, summarising the firm’s guiding principle. The group’s customer base spans multiple industries. FIG3D is involved in reverse engineering for obsolete components or product development from scratch. As of yet, there is no typical customer profile; instead, FIG3D acts as a kind of manufacturing sherpa for complex or unconventional production challenges.
The partnership between Pinder and CTO Andrew Allshorn has helped accelerate long-gestating ideas into a commercial structure. “Every ten years, we go through the same loop of hype, and then it knocks us back,” Allshorn laments. “I’m just tired of it. So now all I do is push the technology, find new materials, get things working in machines that nobody’s done before.”
Their strategy bypasses vendor-led sales approaches, sometimes associated with hype and misaligned incentives. Allshorn recounts one case where the customer avoided supplier pitches altogether and engaged him to filter the market. “I just needed to know the temperature involved, the materials, the real ones. Then I narrowed it down to four machines,” he explains. “The customer wanted a proper dossier. How much did it cost, how was it set up, and how much would it cost to own? One supplier refused the job until they realised who the client was, too late.”
This impartial, technically grounded filtering process is now embedded in FIG3D’s operations. Allshorn acts as a hands-on technical lead, supporting customer projects once Pinder has scoped a commercial or functional challenge. “If it’s an EOS machine, great. If it’s a Bambu Lab desktop printer, fine. The point is: what works best for the actual need.” In one case, a bio-compatible part just 0.3mm thick, destined for internal use in the body, was made using a resin more expensive than the printer it ran on.
Some of the most significant technical breakthroughs have come from this approach. In one case, an unnamed hypercar OEM sought to redesign a fuse box from aluminum to polymer. Pinder proposed using an SLS nylon lid with thermal barrier spray and a potting resin typically reserved for electronics to function as a heat sink. “The result was a 30% weight reduction and a part that’s cheaper to make,” he says. The component, which includes SLA-printed molds for casting, is now entering its second phase of B-series testing for a production run of up to 5,000 vehicles per year.
In another case, a UK drone company supporting Ukrainian efforts replaced a CNC-machined aluminum enclosure with a 3D printed equivalent, coated with an EMC-rated spray to ensure electromagnetic compatibility. The change yielded a 30% weight saving, a 70% reduction in lead time, and a 50% cost saving. “Battery life went up, and production times dropped dramatically,” says Pinder.
The early-stage traction is promising for a company only incorporated in January 2025. Much of the work has involved converting relationships into structured projects under the FIG3D umbrella.
FIG3D Pushes Back Against Additive Manufacturing’s “Elitist” Supply Chains
FIG3D is not in the business of selling hype. With just six people, a modest base in the UK’s Retford, and no plans to build a warehouse with idle machinery, the company is instead targeting a problem it believes some in the additive manufacturing sector prefer to ignore: equipment underutilization and an overly centralized, vendor-controlled ecosystem. “There’s a sheer load [of machines] out there, right? And they’re not being used. So I’m here, and Andy’s here, to actually get these damn things used.”
This approach defines FIG3D’s philosophy: use what exists, educate end-users, and push back against a vendor landscape that, Pinder argues, has become “elitist.” “Our technical roadmap is clear: don’t add to the fragmentation,” says Pinder. “Just increase utilisation of what’s already out there. That improves profitability, which improves adoption, which drives real growth, machine sales, material sales, everything.”
The company has recently taken office space and is investing in a small number of 3D printers for prototyping and training, but remains firmly opposed to equipment hoarding. Instead, their attention is on building relationships and deploying knowledge to close what they see as a critical gap in the UK AM ecosystem: the disconnect between equipment and application.
A large part of FIG3D’s mission is focused on countering what Pinder calls a “fear sell” perpetuated by OEMs. “The big players are threatening users: if you don’t use our materials, you’re out of warranty,” he says. “That’s a monopoly, and it’s strangling the sector.”
The firm’s answer is strategic partnerships with alternative material suppliers and open-platform machine vendors. Exclusive supply agreements allow FIG3D to offer support outside the constraints of vertically integrated OEM ecosystems, where material prices are high and maintenance contracts are restrictive. Pinder gives the example of a large OEM that “has pulled its support network from the UK almost entirely.” The FIG3D CEO believes “companies are left with machines they can’t maintain. We’re trying to fix that.”
These constraints aren’t just operational; they’re philosophical. “The narrative is too controlled,” says Pinder. “You have to fit into their model. But we believe in opening that up—materials, machines, services—all of it.”
Allshorn sees the damage up close. “I’ve sat with F1 teams who’ve bought machines based on what a sales guy promised,” he says. “Then I get the call, ‘why can’t the machine do what they said?’ Because they lied. The sales guy’s moved on, and I’m the one fixing the mess. That’s not sustainable.”
For both Allshorn and Pinder, the focus is long-term growth driven by integrity and technical literacy. “I’ve never cared about being the one shouting about my business,” Allshorn says. “If you do it properly, if you’re honest, if you care about the customer, people come to you. They come back. That’s how this industry will grow. Not through flashy machines. Through substance.”
Calls for Industry Reset as Additive Manufacturing Faces Short-Termism and Overpromising
For FIG3D, success isn’t measured by revenue milestones or flashy LinkedIn announcements, but by whether additive manufacturing can finally move past the cycles of hype, underdelivery, and failed adoption that have plagued the sector for decades.
“If it says on my gravestone that I made a difference in this industry and more people used it, fine,” says CTO Andrew Allshorn. “I get frustrated when I see people pushing themselves instead of the industry.”
CEO Mark Pinder, echoes the sentiment, “Success is about customer solutions. If we focus on that, the numbers will come. Not the other way around.”
Both speak with weariness about an industry defined too often by short-term commercial metrics rather than sustainable adoption. In their view, the reliance on quarterly performance targets, inflated investor expectations, and rigid supply-side control has created a brittle ecosystem. “It’s all been about ROI and hype,” says Pinder. “Now AI is the new sexy trend, and AM risks being pushed aside by its own failures to deliver on overinflated promises.”
Allshorn points to a systemic issue: companies prioritising fast sales over long-term capability. “I trained service engineers so they don’t need me day-to-day. They still call when it’s serious, but they can handle the basics,” he explains. “That’s how we scale sustainably, by educating users, not selling dependency.”
He recounts a situation where a customer paid £450,000 for a metal AM system only to discover the machine couldn’t meet their application needs. “I asked what they were making. They said aircraft parts, on a system with a 250mm build area,” he says, visibly exasperated. “You could’ve done that with resin and casting. They bought the wrong machine.”
On the current wave of negativity surrounding the industry, particularly from within, Allshorn remains blunt. “Every summer someone writes about the death of 3D printing. Now it’s not even tech journalists, it’s insiders,” he says. “It’s not dead. It just needs to be sold properly so people buy the right machine for the right job.”
Short-term opportunism has long frustrated Allshorn argues that the AM industry has been warped by two corroding influences: cyclical hype and a lack of technical rigour. “If you can’t do something, say so,” he adds. “Work with the customer to figure it out. Don’t just sell them something that’s not fit for purpose.”
One area where this manifests acutely is in material specifications. Allshorn describes a project where he was helping a team test a ceramic-filled resin for structural applications. During mechanical testing, he discovered that the published tensile strength on the material’s datasheet was only valid seven days after the part had been 3D printed, an important step but not accounted for in real-world use. “Most people build the part, ship it out in two or three days, [the customer is] not getting what’s on the datasheet,” he says.
Additive Manufacturing Myth Busting
What are the most persistent myths or misconceptions in additive manufacturing? “Everyone says additive is too expensive,” said Pinder. “That’s because they’re looking at the problem the wrong way: zoomed out, not in. Start breaking it down, and you’ll see it’s not the material or machine cost that’s the issue. It’s the way the ecosystem functions.”
Before founding FIG3D, Pinder spent years in the commoditised aluminium powder market, supplying AlSi10Mg to some of AM’s most prominent early adopters. He recalls how materials like 20–45 micron cut aluminium silicate were specified for performance, but carried a 70–80% waste stream, an unsustainable overhead that was rarely acknowledged.
“We were charging £20 a kilo for something we bought for a couple of quid,” he says. “The margins were great, but it wasn’t sustainable. I didn’t like the dynamic. The industry was trying to drive material prices down without solving the bigger issue—how the material is used, recovered, and repurposed.”
This focus on cost per kilo, he argues, ignores how process optimisations—layer thickness, reusability, machine throughput—can lower total cost per part. “Larger powder cuts can still deliver fine resolution, but at twice the build rate. Reusability’s another lever. Material Solutions were sitting on 60 tonnes of scrap powder, and someone thought they could resell it for £3 a kilo. It’s unusable. That’s not a circular model.”
Pinder has built a secondary material stream into FIG3D’s operations, buying and repurposing AM waste (including scrap parts and expired powders) for industrial applications.
FIG3D Calls for Manufacturing Reform and Honest Dialogue in 2025
For Pinder and Allshorn, success depends on three things: treating AM as just another manufacturing tool, improving utilisation of existing infrastructure, and creating genuine educational and industrial pathways to adoption.
Allshorn’s vision is straightforward. “If I could change one thing this year, it would be for additive to be seen as just another machine. Not metal versus resin. Not additive versus CNC. Just a tool.” He argues that the industry’s fragmented, tribal narrative—often pitting technologies or formats against one another, continues to stunt adoption. “If we can drop the word ‘additive’ and just become part of manufacturing, we’ll start using it properly.”
For Pinder, a more fundamental restructuring of the UK’s industrial base is required. “Our manufacturing strategy is weak. There’s no manufacturing minister, no real conduit to government.”
Pinder is calling for direct policy interventions, not just for AM, but for manufacturing as a whole, to prevent the sector from missing its window to adopt next-generation tools. “You’ve got companies just trying to survive. They don’t have time for new tech, even if it would help them. We need better support structures to give manufacturers the breathing room to innovate.”
Time, not technology, is the key constraint, he argues. “People are too busy keeping the lights on to step back and look at what AM can really do.”
Inside the industry, both men are blunt in their criticism of performative behaviour, technical gatekeeping, and what they see as a self-serving marketing culture. “There’s a lot of bullshit out there,” says Pinder. “Trendy trainers and LinkedIn PR. Grow up. This is manufacturing. Take it seriously.”
Their proposed fix: cut through posturing with blunt, honest dialogue and a “thinker-doer” mindset. “We’re not pessimists,” says Pinder. “We’re just straight-talking. We’re not here for PR. We’re here because we care.”
And occasionally, that approach leads to unexpected innovation. Allshorn recently prototyped a modular horseshoe system—lightweight, user-replaceable, and designed to be swapped out for different terrains. “It’s like running shoes. You don’t run in dress shoes. Why should a horse?”
His son-in-law, a professional farrier, was sceptical at first. “People have been trying to do that for 20 years,” he told Allshorn. By the following day, Allshorn had a viable working prototype.
For Allshorn, it was just another problem to solve. For the 3D printing industry, perhaps a useful metaphor: strip away the noise, focus on the user, and move faster than anyone expects.
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Featured image shows a 3D printed tool for producing silicone parts. Photo via FIG3D.
