Over the summer, Israeli metal and ceramic additive manufacturing (AM) original equipment manufacturer (OEM) XJet announced the sale of a Carmel 1400M metal 3D printer to Youngstown Business Incubator (YBI), a startup accelerator that works closely with America Makes. In announcing the sale, XJet also announced that it had established a strategic partnership with both YBI and Humtown Products, a Youngstown-area manufacturer of sand and mold cores, which is where the new Carmel 1400M will be housed.

In my post about that announcement, I noted that one outcome of the deal is that XJet’s technology is now available to a wider user-base: more customers can now access the Carmel 1400M’s capabilities without having to purchase the machine themselves. Now, XJet has made another announcement that pushes the company more in that direction of a lower barrier-to-entry, with the launch of the Carmel Pro.

The two standout features that make the Carmel Pro more accessible than other XJet platforms are size and cost. The Carmel Pro has a much smaller area than the 1400M, reducing the width by almost half, and is over 75 percent lighter than its predecessors. Just as significantly, XJet states that the cost-of-ownership of the Carmel Pro is 60-70 percent lower than previous models.

XJet plans to start shipping the Carmel Pro in Q2 of next year. Attendees of Formnext 2025 in Frankfurt  (November 18-21) can learn more about the Carmel Pro by attending the XJet booth (11.0-D11).

3D printed metal parts.

In a press release about the launch of the XJet Carmel Pro, the CEO of XJet, Guy Zimmerman, said, “The Carmel Pro represents a significant milestone in democratizing access to industrial, powderless and safe metal and ceramic [AM]. By delivering the same precision and material capabilities of our larger systems in a compact, cost-efficient format, we’re enabling a new generation of manufacturers, designers, and researchers to leverage the unique advantages of NanoParticle Jetting technology.

“We’ve seen incredible innovation happening in smaller organizations — startups developing breakthrough medical devices, university labs pushing the boundaries of materials science, and independent jewelry designers creating extraordinary pieces. These innovators have been locked out of advanced metal and ceramic 3D printing because of cost and complexity barriers. The Carmel Pro changes that equation entirely.”

The XJet Carmel Pro.

In general, I’m a big fan of this kind of launch — the same underlying technology at a more affordable price with a smaller footprint — and XJet has excellent timing with the Carmel Pro. While reshoring has been stalled this year amidst the limbo created by a still-uncertain tariffs situation, major U.S. corporations are still showing signs that they’re committed to revitalizing American manufacturing. The small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that XJet is targeting with the Carmel Pro are the companies that will be most critical to the success of reshoring.

Additionally, I think that targeting research institutions continues to be a great move for OEMs, even as everyone in the AM industry is trying to move beyond R&D. As I discussed in this post about the increasing number of advanced manufacturing programs at first-class U.S. research universities, one of the best ways to move beyond R&D in the long run might be to focus on R&D in the near-term: putting your equipment directly in the hands of the emerging U.S. manufacturing labor pool primes the pump for easier adoption down the road.

That is an especially smart strategy when you have an entry-level machine, as XJet now does. It’s now a much easier sell when trying to get your foot in the door with a university, for instance. Once you do, you’ve set yourself up for opportunities to sell the larger-format machines, as the customer grows more familiar with the process.

XJet has been making some smart moves lately. If the Carmel Pro is successful, the effects should give the entire brand a boost.

Images courtesy of XJet