Formlabs unveils $84,999 Fuse X1 for production SLS printing

Formlabs stopped talking about SLS like a niche lab tool and pushed the Fuse line straight at production work. The new Fuse X1 starts at $84,999, is available to order now, and is set to start shipping in Q4 2026. Formlabs also opened Form Now, a U.S.-only online service for ordering Fuse X1 parts, which is the clearest signal yet that it wants the machine to live in real shops, not just in demo rooms.

The hardware pitch is aimed at the pain points that keep SLS out of reach for smaller teams. The Fuse X1 brings a 330 × 330 × 565 mm build volume, more than 30% packing density, and a setup Formlabs says takes about an hour. It runs on single-phase power, fits through a standard door, and does not need specialized HVAC. Formlabs is also claiming up to 50% lower cost per part and 3x the throughput of comparable industrial powder bed fusion systems, which is the sort of promise that matters if you are deciding whether to keep outsourcing nylon parts or bring them in-house.

Under the hood, Formlabs added two pieces of software and thermal control that sound much less like marketing fluff than the usual launch slide deck. Adaptive Thermal Control manages 13 independent thermal zones and processes 700 times more thermal data per second than the Fuse 1+ 30W. Print Intelligence uses computer vision and thermal imaging to watch every layer and catch defects before they burn powder and machine time. The full ecosystem also stretches beyond the printer itself, with a modular Build Unit, the Fuse Sift X1 powder recovery system, a Fuse X1 Vacuum Conveyor, and a high-capacity Fuse Blast setup for blasting and polishing.

The business context is just as interesting as the machine. Formlabs said 2025 revenue topped $250 million, that it has been profitable for more than two years, and that customers have printed more than 500 million parts across its SLA and SLS platforms. The company also says the Fuse 1+ 30W is the world’s best-selling SLS 3D printer and that the Fuse family is used by more than half of SLS users worldwide. That installed base gives the Fuse X1 a real runway, especially if Formlabs can turn existing Fuse users into upsell buyers instead of forcing them to shop elsewhere.

Early-access customers had already printed more than 30,000 parts on Fuse X1 units before launch, with Tesla, Radio Flyer, and Autotiv Manufacturing among the names Formlabs put forward. Tesla Giga Nevada is printing 20,000 parts a month, and Radio Flyer said it used the machine to print an entire cargo ebike overnight and cut a process from two months to two weeks to a couple of days. That is the part makers should care about: if the Fuse X1 can keep that promise outside the keynote, it could drag SLS farther into everyday production and make the rest of the market cheaper to use.