Inkjet research rigs are often built around one set of materials and one printhead, which makes changing either one a project in itself. Added, the University of Nottingham spinout formerly known as Added Scientific, is betting that this is the problem worth solving. According to TCT Magazine, the company will launch JetForge at Formnext, an open, modular materials-deposition platform for 2D and 3D inkjet and related processes, built around swappable, self-contained units it calls Blades. It comes in two variants: a two-Blade JetForge Go and a six-Blade JetForge Core.
One caveat before going further. We could not read a company-originated product page for this launch, so the details below come from TCT's report, which quotes two of Added's co-founders directly, plus earlier 3D Printing Industry coverage of the system's beta. Prices, build volumes, motion specifications and shipping dates were not part of the information available to us, and we haven't guessed at them.
The Blade Is the Product
The central idea in JetForge is the Blade. As TCT describes it, each Blade is a self-contained module incorporating a printing or peripheral device. Some hold inkjet printheads, others high-viscosity deposition devices such as jetting valves or paste extruders. Others provide the functions around deposition: curing, sintering, recoating, or drop watching, the practice of observing droplet formation at the nozzle.
The important part is what "self-contained" covers. For inkjet printheads, TCT says the Blade contains everything required to start work, including drive electronics, fluid management and recirculation, material supply and associated controls. Those are the subsystems that make swapping hardware slow. Changing a printhead usually means re-plumbing ink lines, matching driver boards and dealing with recirculation, which many modern heads need to keep particles in suspension and nozzles from drying out. If all of that comes with the module, changing materials or printheads becomes a hardware swap rather than a rebuild, and that is the claim Added makes: materials or printheads can be changed by simply swapping a Blade, without rebuilding the system.
TCT adds that Blades operate independently using common connections, and that Added says this lets different printheads, materials and deposition methods run side by side within a single JetForge system. Every Blade mounts and connects the same way in both the Go and the Core, so deposition, levelling and curing are all handled through a single interface.
It's the same logic as tool-changers on hobby FFF machines, applied much further down the stack. A tool-changer swaps a hotend and extruder. A Blade swaps the fluidic and electronic path that feeds a deposition head, and can also supply the curing or levelling steps that sit between passes.
Go and Core: Two Sizes, One Ecosystem
Added is splitting JetForge into two configurations aimed at different stages of materials work.
JetForge Go is the entry-level model and takes two Blades. TCT says it is suited to early-stage jetting, formulation work and printhead evaluation: the bench-level questions of whether a new ink jets cleanly and which head suits a given fluid. Two slots could plausibly hold a deposition Blade alongside, say, a drop-watching or curing Blade, though TCT doesn't spell out specific Go configurations.
JetForge Core takes six Blades. TCT gives two example setups: up to six materials in one build, or four printheads paired with planarisation and curing modules for 3D builds. The second setup pairs deposition with levelling and curing, the steps a layered inkjet build needs between passes. Added's stated idea is to "build the process around the material", pairing each material with the printhead or deposition method that suits it.
The two variants share much of their hardware. Richard Hague, a co-founder and director of Added, told TCT that most Blades are transferable between the Go and the Core and can also be purchased separately, making it easier to adapt the system as research requirements develop. A lab could, in principle, start on a Go to characterise a new formulation, then move Blades into a Core when it's time to build multi-material parts.
Materials Scope
TCT lists polymers, composites, conductive and dielectric materials, biomaterials and magnetic materials as compatible with the JetForge Core. Taken together, that covers most of what people mean by "functional" printing, the area where inkjet's precise, drop-by-drop placement pays off most: printed electronics with conductive traces and dielectric layers, biofabrication, and embedded magnetic structures. The earlier coverage of the beta system, from 3D Printing Industry, mentioned polymers, ceramics and functional materials, so the target market looks consistent even though the materials list reads differently at launch.
Where It Came From
JetForge's lineage helps explain the design. 3D Printing Industry reported that Added Scientific is a University of Nottingham spinout, associated with the Centre for Additive Manufacturing (CfAM) and founded by Professors Richard Hague, Chris Tuck and Ricky Wildman. It received strategic investment from Brent Stucker and David Leigh, who joined its board. At that point Jetforge was in beta, described as an open, modular benchtop inkjet system that could take multiple printheads and was aimed at materials research and process development.
Christopher Tuck, now Co-Founder and Director of the renamed Added, told TCT that "JetForge was born out of our contract research work." When the team couldn't find the capability and flexibility its clients' projects required, he said, they developed it themselves, and they now use the platform daily. That fits the modular design: a contract research group may face a different client's material, printhead and process from one project to the next, and a platform whose variable parts are modules suits that kind of work.
Seeing It at Formnext
The two variants are debuting in different places. According to TCT, JetForge Core premieres on Added's own Formnext stand, Hall 12.0, Stand F139. JetForge Go will be exhibited on the Ricoh stand, Hall 11.0, Stand E58. The available reporting doesn't say anything about the nature of the arrangement with Ricoh.
What It Means for Makers
To be clear about the audience: JetForge isn't a desktop printer, and nothing in the reporting suggests it's priced or packaged for home workshops. TCT describes it as a platform for researchers and manufacturers, and the earlier coverage pitched it at materials research and process development.
It's still worth watching for anyone interested in where multi-material printing is going. Many of the materials makers eventually get, such as new resins, conductive inks and functional composites, begin as formulations tested on exactly this kind of bench system. Tuck said that by making the platform available, Added hopes to support the development of more materials for inkjet and related deposition approaches. The "open" label also matters. Hague told TCT the system was designed to provide access to its full capabilities from day one, with no paid upgrades or locked features and a high degree of user control over functionality. That is a notable contrast with the closed bundles of printheads, inks and driver electronics that many industrial inkjet users deal with.
The open questions are the usual ones for a launch announcement: price, how open "open" turns out to be in practice (third-party heads, custom Blades, software access), and when systems actually ship. We'll follow up once Added publishes specifications.
