On October 30, 2026, People's Daily published a signed article by Lu Bingheng, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and director of the National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Center, and Li Dichen, professor at Xi'an Jiaotong University, systematically reviewing additive manufacturing's progress from a laboratory tool to a key industrial process. The article disclosed that the global 3D printing market was worth about US$24.2 billion in 2025; AVIMETAL used self-developed titanium alloy powder, drawing on bird bone and insect wing structures to topologically optimize parts, and formed a high-performance wing support component in one piece, reducing weight by 40% and increasing endurance by 26%; the Beijing Institute of Technology Chongqing Innovation Center used wire-arc 3D printing to make ship propellers, shortening delivery time from about three months with traditional casting to 10 days. In terms of technology routes, additive manufacturing has evolved from a single process into multiple routes including vat photopolymerization, binder jetting, and metal cladding. The article noted that SpaceX's Raptor series engines rely on 3D printing to consolidate hundreds of parts into just a few, significantly reducing manufacturing costs; the U.S. company Ampera has used 3D printing to produce the world's first full-scale nuclear reactor module, including a silicon carbide reactor core and pressure vessel, expected to operate continuously for 30 years. In space manufacturing, China this year for the first time successfully produced a complete metal component in a suborbital microgravity environment, and subsequently completed an in-orbit demonstration of space metal additive manufacturing at 600 km; a Xi'an Jiaotong University team has advanced metal wire direct writing suitable for the space environment, validation of non-metallic materials, and printing of simulated lunar regolith bricks. Metal additive manufacturing-related facts explicitly mentioned in the article include: AVIMETAL formed a wing support component in one piece using self-developed titanium alloy powder; wire-arc 3D printing was used to make ship propellers and greatly shorten delivery times; and the in-orbit demonstration of space metal additive manufacturing was completed, involving metal wire direct writing and the directions of in-orbit manufacturing and repair and the production of spare parts for space facilities. The article also pointed out that a major future direction for 3D printing is integrated manufacturing of multi-material functional structures, requiring further study of how materials, processes, and equipment affect the precision and performance of parts.