The 3D Pioneers Challenge (3DPC) is celebrating its tenth anniversary as part of the rapid.tech 3D trade fair, taking place in Erfurt from May 13 to 15, 2025. Since its inception, the competition has served as a central platform for developments in additive manufacturing and adjacent emerging technologies. The special 2025 edition features a curated exhibition that brings together projects from the past decade and highlights key technological milestones.
Simone and Christoph Völcker, the initiators of the 3DPC, reflect on ten years filled with technical and conceptual stimuli. Among the projects they particularly highlight are the first heart printed from stem cells in Israel and a jet-powered flight suit developed in the UK. These submissions exemplify the diversity of additive manufacturing—from biomedical research to new concepts in mobility.
A key element of this year’s edition is the Pioneer of the Decade award, presented by an interdisciplinary jury of more than 85 members. The selection is based on 33 finalists from various regions around the globe, including Europe, Africa, and Asia. All of them have explored new application scenarios and questioned existing technological paradigms through their work.
The exhibition also offers insights into the individual development paths of long-time participants such as MX3D from the Netherlands, known for their robotically manufactured metal structures. Also represented are Arthur Mamou-Mani with architectural approaches to decentralized production, Christophe Guberan with his liquid-based printing method, and the Italian company WASP, which experiments with simulated lunar dust as a building material. FashionTech concepts such as Danit Peleg’s AI-supported, blockchain-based collection further demonstrate how digital tools can be integrated into creative processes.
The 3D Pioneers Challenge 2025 is therefore not only a retrospective, but also a strategic marker for future technological directions.
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