Manufacturers will have better tools and technology in 2026, and I couldn’t be more excited

I can’t predict the future, but I know that 2026 will be a great year for all manufacturers, especially in the 3D printing space. How do I know? I’ve been reviewing 3D printers and manufacturing tools for nearly a decade. The technology industry is becoming more and more mainstream with each passing day, opening up new areas of possibilities for makers, digital makers, hobbyists and DIY enthusiasts.

Over the years, I’ve seen a lot of trends endure and grow to new heights, while others fade away almost as soon as they arrive. Of course, with every bright step toward accessible, creative technology, there are bound to be some dark spots (you can probably guess what I’m going to say here). If you’re part of the maker community, here’s my list of predictions for what we’ll see in the coming year and what technology will have the biggest impact.

UV printers are going to be huge

In early 2025, EufyMake announced Kickstarter for UV printer That was amazing. The E1 lets you print color and textured ink on almost any hard surface. It instantly became one of the most funded Kickstarters projects of all time.

UV printing is a digital process that uses thin layers of white paint, dried very quickly using UV light, to build texture. This allows you to print durable, highly detailed designs and vibrant colors on unconventional surfaces. Essentially, it involves creating a 2D image with small amounts of 3D texture on any solid surface, such as wood, plastic, metal, or glass.

While reviewing it, I fell in love with the sheer number of products that can be produced from one device. Since then, the company has had some issues, much of it due to the overly successful nature of the Kickstarter, but a full retail product should be available in 2026.

However, EufyMake is just the beginning. This year, we will see a lot of other companies turning to UV printing and pushing the technology forward. We may even see a small consumer version of Mimaki 3D printer It uses the same technology to create full-color 3D models. Etsy is about to be inundated with UV printed artwork, for better or worse.

Accessible color 3D printing

The Bambu Lab A1 Combo was my favorite Best 3D printer For all of 2025, and for good reason. They’re cheap, work great, and are easy to set up and use. However, we are now seeing new printers that can match, if not exceed, the A1 in speed, quality and price.

the AD5X from Flashforge The Elegoo Carbon 2 is a good example of this, as is the newly announced Elegoo Carbon 2. Both are CoreXY printers that feature built-in color systems, and both fall in the $300-$500 price range that’s good for just about anyone.
We’ll see more companies, like Creality and Anycubic, continuing to improve their entry-level printers to give us more color options at no extra cost in 2026.

3D printers have a larger number of nozzles

Another way 3D printers are changing is the number of nozzles they have. I recently did a review SnapMaker U1a 3D printer equipped with four separate print heads that can print in four colors without leaving a lot of plastic waste. An FDM 3D printer typically uses a hot tip to extrude molten plastic. A tool changer like the U1 uses four separate tool heads to quickly print four colors. The U1 is a really great product, and when it is Finally released Early next year, it will be worth your while to catch it.

However, it’s not just U1. both of them Bamboo factory and Prusa Recently released or announced Indx 3D printers. Indx systems — or Vortek, as Bambu calls them — use multiple nozzles instead of multiple tool heads to swap colors and materials in and out of your machine. Not only is it faster, but, like the U1, it reduces material waste by a large margin because you never have to remove color from the nozzle to switch it.

Currently, Indx systems are expensive, and 2026 will be a year of process improvement before we see these costs drop significantly. But if you’re into cutting-edge technology, Indx is where you want to be.

More accessible lasers

Laser engraving and laser engraving — using high-powered lasers to burn materials in a pattern — is one of the fastest growing sectors for Etsy and hobbyists. Nowadays, you can spend thousands on a huge laser device xTool P3which is shaping up to be my new one Best laser engraver Once the testing was completed, however, we started to see more affordable options. There have always been inexpensive lasers, but they tend to be giant patterns with no real safety features. 2026 will bring us more cost-effective laser engraving machines without sacrificing safety.

News that Glowforge – one of the biggest names in home lasers – has applied for… Assignment for the benefit of creditors (ABC) The company’s restructuring to save it from bankruptcy is worrying. These large laser machines are not always the best solution, as is the case with cheaper lasers xTool M1 They are paving the way for usable machines for less than a thousand dollars.

Expect more from artificial intelligence

Every new laser engraver, DTF printer, UV printer and even 3D printer in 2026 will have somewhere in the software to spend your hard-earned money to create AI-generated works of art for you to use as you see fit. Almost all of it will be what we call AI regression, and as AI image generators improve, it will be nearly impossible to distinguish them from human-created works of art.

Caitlin Shedrawi, an artificial intelligence expert at CNET, said in a statement Nano banana review That the program “…erases the line between reality and artificial intelligence. That is worst This model will absolutely be like that.” This should scare all of us who love creating art with our hands.

I wish I could say that 2026 will be the year this bubble bursts, but I don’t see the decline of AI going away anytime soon. Be on the lookout for local farmers markets that are filled with variations on a theme designed for stolen art and computer logic. What we may see in 2026 is more regulations from places like Etsy about which AI products can be sold and which are still considered “handmade” enough to be sold there.

CNC mills have arrived home

The final piece of the manufacturing puzzle that has yet to reach people’s homes is CNC milling. It can be difficult to set up, requires a lot of different tools, and can be very messy. Like laser engraving, CNC mills remove material to create a pattern, unlike UV or 3D printing, which add material. Snapmaker originally tried this using Snap Maker 2but the implementation was clumsy and the software was substandard.

Makera has been bringing small CNC machines to your home for a while, and although their current small machine, carvera airline, Easier to use, the company is looking to release the easiest CNC ever in 2026. It is called z1 maker, It is set to be the simplest CNC on the market.

The final piece of the CNC puzzle is the software. Like a lot of manufacturing tools, the current crop of CNC software is very difficult to use and is geared toward commercial use rather than home use. 2026 will bring improved software in the form of Millmage, from the makers of Lightburn, one of the best laser engraving tools available. This combination of new software and more home-friendly machines will make 2026 the year to invest in a CNC mill.

I’m excited for 2026

Creating things with cool technology is my greatest passion. I recently started working with leather – because I needed more things to do with all my free time – and using a laser cutter to help me cut templates or cut the leather itself has been very satisfying. The tools I use to help me create get better every year, and with… Consumer Electronics Show 2026 Just around the corner, we’ll likely see even more cool new tools to help us create.

Despite the preponderance of artificial intelligence that may be created on these machines, I think UV printers will be the biggest craze of the next year. It’s something new and interesting, and while 3D printing will undergo some big changes, this new medium will make a big splash in 2026.