Asia's Additive Manufacturing Market Had a Busy Second Half of July

The second half of July was anything but quiet in Asia's additive manufacturing sector. India put a privately built rocket with 3D printed engines into orbit, a Chinese cold-spray specialist changed hands for $140 million, and HeyGears passed $7 million on Kickstarter for a machine that claims to do both full-color 3D printing and UV finishing.

Skyroot Aerospace launched Vikram-1 from Sriharikota on July 18, becoming the first private Indian company to reach orbit. The rocket's upper stage runs on Skyroot's 3D printed Raman engines, and the debut mission carried two CubeSats. For India's space ecosystem, the flight is a proof point for domestically produced rocket hardware.

In China, Chaozhuo Aviation Technology agreed to sell a 26.58% controlling stake to Shanghai Taiyang Technology for RMB 1.02 billion. The company specializes in cold-spray additive manufacturing and aviation repair services, and the deal values it at roughly a 20% discount to its pre-suspension close.

HeyGears launched its G1 Series on Kickstarter on July 23, marketing it as a desktop full-color 3D and UV printer. The piezo-inkjet system promises more than 10 million colors alongside traditional 3D printing, with pricing starting at $1,999. The campaign quickly surpassed $7 million, suggesting strong demand for photorealistic color straight off the build plate.

Elsewhere, Bit Infinite closed back-to-back angel rounds totaling roughly RMB 45 million since April. Its Arko-T model, a 4-billion-parameter text-to-CAD system, powers the free Sparkoh.ai modeling tool. The company's valuation reportedly rose tenfold in three months.

Xihe Additive brought its second Jiangxi plant online, targeting 50 green-laser metal printers a month by the end of Q3. South Korea's AM Solutions earned the Korean Register's first certification for metal AM repair, opening classification-approved restoration work for ships and defense equipment. Japan's MadeHere delivered 3D printed vehicle parts to the country's defense procurement agency inside a two-week turnaround. Serendix unveiled a 3D printed military shelter concept at Farnborough, extending its work from printed homes into protective structures.

The through-line across all these stories is the same: additive manufacturing is no longer confined to prototyping labs. It is showing up in orbital launches, defense supply chains, consumer hardware, and workforce certification programs.