Additive Industries, a Netherlands-based manufacturer of industrial metal 3D printing systems, has announced that K3D, a Dutch metal 3D printing service provider, has added two more of its MetalFab systems. The expansion brings the company’s total MetalFab installation to six asystems across two manufacturing sites, with a combined capacity of nine additive manufacturing cores. Materials run on those systems include Stainless Steel 316L, Aluminium AlSi10Mg, and Titanium Ti6Al4V.
Founded in 2016 as a subsidiary of Royal Kaak, a manufacturer of industrial bakery production lines formerly known as the Kaak Group, the Dutch service provider acquired its first Additive Industries system in the same year to produce specialized products for the food industry using metal additive manufacturing. Its customer base now spans aerospace, automotive, tooling, energy, including oil and gas, and defense.
Installed machine configurations now range from the single-core MetalFab 300 Flex to the fully automated MetalFab G2 Continuous Production system. K3D recently announced production of its one-millionth metal additive manufacturing part. The company says its operation combines metal 3D printing, post-processing, and technical consulting.
Rik Bakker, CEO of Additive Industries, said: “We are extremely proud to see K3D’s business continue to grow with our MetalFab technology, especially as a company local to us here in the Netherlands and as one of the earliest adopters of our system some 10 years ago. It is testament to the quality, productivity and consistency of our products that customers like K3D continue to place their confidence and future success of their business in the MetalFab hardware, with their first MetalFab system delivered back in 2016 still consistently producing production parts for their customers.”
Jaap Bulsink, CTO of K3D, stated: “We are very pleased to expand our additive manufacturing capacity with two additional MetalFab systems. These machines have proven to be highly reliable and are known for their robustness and high productivity, where our fully automated MetalFab has achieved utilization rates of up to 95% over the past few years. Ideal for large products, but also for series production of smaller parts, they are a perfect addition to our existing machines. With this expansion, K3D can serve its customers even better and is one of the largest players in the field of additive manufacturing for metals in Europe.”
Additive Industries is headquartered in Eindhoven and develops metal 3D printing systems for sectors including aerospace, automotive, high tech, and energy. K3D operates production facilities in the eastern Netherlands and in the Brainport region of Eindhoven, where it produces prototypes, small series, and serial applications for industries including food, high tech, automotive, robotics, tooling, aerospace, and oil and gas.
Metal AM Capacity Expands Around Production Constraints
Certified metal AM capacity is expanding in Europe, where qualification, throughput, and build size remain key constraints. Hypermetal, a Portuguese supplier operating under EN9100 and ISO 9001 standards, recently added a Nikon SLM Solutions NXG XII 600 system to increase production of aerospace and defense components. Built around twelve lasers and a 600 x 600 x 600 mm chamber, the platform was selected to remove earlier limits in build volume and output while supporting tighter process control for flight-critical parts. Its planned use in propulsion components, lightweight structures, and thermal-management systems shows how new machine installations are being tied to certified production requirements rather than general capacity growth.
Capacity additions are also becoming more specialized by part size, resolution, and turnaround time. In the United States, Azoth 3D adopted Incus lithography-based metal manufacturing technology to produce small, high-resolution metal parts in 5 to 7 days. The Hammer Lab35 system is being used with 316L stainless steel, 17-4 PH stainless steel, and titanium for medical manufacturing, aerospace, automotive tooling, and defense applications. That differs from large-frame powder bed expansion, but it points to the same shift: metal AM providers are adding equipment to address specific production limits, whether those limits involve certified throughput, geometric resolution, material requirements, or delivery speed.
3D Printing Industry is inviting speakers for its 2026 Additive Manufacturing Applications (AMA) series, covering Energy, Healthcare, Automotive and Mobility, Aerospace, Space and Defense, and Software. Each online event focuses on real production deployments, qualification, and supply chain integration. Practitioners interested in contributing can complete the call for speakers form here.
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Featured image shows Interior view of K3D’s production environment. Photo via Additive Industries.
