In what has been a relatively slow year for acquisitions in the additive manufacturing (AM) industry, one exception to the trend has been the healthy interest buyers are demonstrating in AM companies focused on tooling applications. Over the summer, for instance, Stratasys snapped up Nexa3D, which excelled at tooling for injection molding, and Anzu Partners purchased voxeljet and ExOne, ultimately consolidating the two acquisitions into one company that could have a big impact on the growing market for 3D printed sand molds.

In the most recent case, San Francisco-based Mantle, which produces extrusion-based, hybrid metal 3D printers designed specifically for the tooling market, has been acquired by Angstrom Automotive Group, headquartered in Michigan. Angstrom is a Tier 1 supplier, meaning it sells components directly to automakers.

In Mantle’s most recent funding round, in the summer of 2024, the company landed $20 million in a Series C led by Boston’s Schooner Capital. Prior to acquiring Mantle, Angstrom’s most recent acquisition was in 2022, when the Tier 1 supplier bought Chinese auto electronics manufacturer Henan Tianhai Electric Appliance.

While the ongoing tariffs negotiations between the U.S. and all of its major trading partners have been sending mixed messages all year concerning manufacturing demand — especially when it comes to reshoring — the auto sector is one area where major producers have shown an urgency to localize and generally reshape their supply chains. In this context, 3D printed tooling appears poised to benefit, owing in large part to its high level of technical maturity: for example, back in September, Joris Peels reported that BMW Group is 3D printing 4,000 sand cores a day.

In a press release about Angstrom Automotive Group’s acquisition of Mantle, the CEO of Mantle, Ted Sorom, said, “This is a very exciting day for Mantle and our customers. The Angstrom Group has a stellar reputation in the manufacturing industry, and by combining forces, Mantle will be able to further our mission of revolutionizing toolmaking for plastic parts manufacturers globally. Toolmakers should expect to see continued innovation and efficiency as Mantle’s TrueShape technology is further advanced and expanded with the full backing of the Angstrom Group.”

Naresh Palakurthi, founder and CEO of Angstrom Group, said, “With Mantle now part of the Angstrom family, our goal is clear — to industrialize this breakthrough metal [AM] technology and make it broadly accessible. By offering financing solutions and integrated tool design services, we will help customers adopt and benefit from advanced metal 3D printing — transforming manufacturing at scale.”

Rendering of a tooling insert that Mantle customer Westminster Tool printed with the company’s system

This acquisition should be fascinating to watch unfold, in part because of what I already noted about the broader pattern it fits into, but also because there are so many possible directions it could take. For one thing, while Angstrom specializes in automotive parts, it also serves a wide variety of other industries, many of which depend on injection molding. So it could certainly benefit from leveraging Mantle’s technology for its own purposes.

Yet it also appears that Angstrom is, at least at the moment, committed to selling Mantle printers, which makes this acquisition highly unique; the closest comparison that jumps to mind is GE Aerospace’s acquisitions of Concept Laser and Arcam. Those acquisitions preceded steady growth in aerospace adoption of metal 3D printing that has continued ever since.

Combined with all the other 2025 activity related to automotive tooling, Angstrom’s purchase of Mantle could be signaling that the AM market for automotive is headed for its own steady expansion. Angstrom has a chance to be integral to such a growth trajectory: with its positioning between automakers and the rest of the auto supply chain, Angstrom could help significantly increase AM adoption by small and medium enterprises (SMEs), especially in the U.S.

Angstrom is the kind of parent company that can single-handedly make an impact on lowering barrier-to-entry for precisely the market that needs it most. With almost two months left in Q4, everyone in the AM industry should be on the lookout to see if a couple more big deals happen before the year is over.

Images courtesy of Mantle