Merit3D

09/02/2026

When these pens hit the cure chamber, the whole rack glows.

We printed them as our own giveaways, then learned something that stuck with us: at the time, a promotional pen had not been made in the United States in over 15 years. The whole category went offshore one tooling quote at a time.

Additive changes that math. 400 pens per build, no tooling line item, and the machines sit in Price, Utah.

If a mold quote ever pushed one of your parts overseas, run the numbers again: https://merit3d.com/instant-estimate?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=gallery-merit-pens-usa

09/01/2026

Sixty of these come off one build plate, threads included.

The Crown Master by EZ Level lets a finish carpenter cut crown molding right side up instead of upside down and backwards. We print every one in Utah, and the threads are printed straight into the part. No tapping, no inserts, no second operation.

That is the quiet advantage of additive: features that used to be assembly steps become geometry, and the printer does not charge extra for complexity.

Got a part that needs a second op today? See what it costs printed: https://merit3d.com/instant-estimate?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=gallery-crown-master-jig

08/31/2026

Over one million of these little clips have shipped out of our Price, Utah shop.

It is an epoxy hanger, a simple part with one job. Injection molding wanted tooling money up front and a long wait. Instead we print 400 per build plate, day after day, and no mold was ever cut.

3D printing earned its reputation on prototypes. The real story now is parts exactly like this: simple geometry, real volume, and a unit price that stands up to molding.

Curious what your part would cost at 1,000 or 100,000 units? Two minutes gets you a real number: https://merit3d.com/instant-estimate?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=gallery-epoxy-hanger-1m

08/28/2026

Two parts. One was injection molded. One came off a 3D printer.

Can you tell which is which?

We hung weight off both until something gave. The molded one broke first — the printed part outlasted it.

Resins have caught up over the last few years. For a lot of load-bearing parts, printed now matches or beats molded, without the tooling bill or the lead time.

Guesses in the comments.

Made in Price, Utah.

Ballpark your part → https://zurl.co/fg6eO

08/28/2026

That's a printed screw, sitting on a fingertip.

The threads are small enough you'd walk right past them. They engage.

Fine features like this used to mean CNC machining, or a mold with draft angles fighting you the whole way. Printing them directly opens up small assemblies where a custom micro-fastener was a non-starter on cost.

Made in Price, Utah.

Ballpark your part → https://zurl.co/Ui3Po

08/28/2026

Amaero is expanding titanium and refractory alloy powder production in Tennessee, aimed at US defense and aerospace.

Powder plants don't photograph well. Nobody films the atomizer. The printer gets the tour and the press release.

Feedstock is where reshoring quietly succeeds or fails. A domestic printer running imported powder has moved the supply chain by exactly one step. If the powder ships from somewhere else, so does your lead time and your risk.

We're on the polymer side — different material, same dependency. Resin and nylon powder carry the same question: who makes it, and how far away.

The unglamorous things are sometimes the ones worth watching.

08/28/2026

60,000 parts. Four hours of printing. $0 spent on tooling.

That pile is a binocular tether component we ran for Alaska Guide Creations, printed on our Photocentric Magna line in a rigid ABS-like black resin.

Our production manager is the one face-down on the table. They'd earned it.

At peak we were pulling parts off the machines at roughly 2.5 per second. No mold, no overseas minimum, no eight-week wait on tooling.

Made in Price, Utah.

Ballpark your own part → https://zurl.co/k4MwQ

08/23/2026

An overseas quote can beat ours on unit price and still cost more by the time parts are on your shelf.

Freight. Duties. Broker fees. The eight-week gap where your cash is sitting in a container. The reorder you place early because you can't risk running out, and the inventory that then sits. The revision you skip because the tooling is already cut.

None of that lands on the quote. All of it lands in the P&L.

We wrote up how to run the real number:

A part that quotes cheaper overseas often costs more once it lands. How to compare total landed cost — freight, tariffs, carrying, MOQs — not just unit price.

08/13/2026

Behind the scenes at our Price, Utah shop.

That's the Fuse Sift running at 11pm on a Wednesday — SLS post-print, powder cartridge loaded, cabinet vibrating, and a whole build's worth of PA12 nylon parts slowly rising out of the surrounding loose powder as the mesh sifts it back to the recovery hopper.

Instant estimate: https://zurl.co/JtKHI

07/29/2026

Some projects arrive as a worn part in a zip-top bag: no CAD, no drawings, and the company that made it long gone. The new post covers how those parts get manufactured again, including what the modeling really costs. https://zurl.co/rt7JJ

No CAD file for your part? How manufacturing actually starts from a sample or sketch: modeling hours, real costs, and the three kinds of projects we see.