Stratasys is using this year's International Manufacturing Technology Show to make its case that additive manufacturing has moved past prototyping and into the production line, and it's bringing new materials to back that argument. According to a press release published by Stratasys on September 10, 2026, the company is introducing Somos Resolute Gray, a new stereolithography resin, alongside ASA Military Colors, a set of mission-specific color options for its Fortus FDM systems — both timed to debut at IMTS 2026, which runs September 14-19 in Chicago.

The announcement, issued jointly from Stratasys' Minnetonka, Minnesota and Rehovot, Israel offices, frames the launch around a single word the company repeats throughout: "production-proven." Rich Garrity, Stratasys' Chief Business Unit Officer, put it directly in the release: "Manufacturers are looking for proven solutions they can scale across production environments. At IMTS, we're showing the full picture: certified materials, production-grade hardware, qualified workflows and real results from manufacturers who have moved well beyond the pilot stage." That's a notably different pitch than the one AM vendors were making a decade ago, when the conversation centered on design freedom and rapid iteration rather than certification and scale.

What's New: Resin for Parts, Not Just Prototypes

Somos Resolute Gray is pitched squarely at industrial and automotive applications rather than at visual prototyping, which has historically been SLA's home turf. Stratasys describes the resin as delivering stiffness and dimensional stability, with a "production-ready surface finish straight off the printer" — language that suggests the company wants to cut down on the post-processing labor that has traditionally separated a good-looking SLA prototype from a part that can actually go into an assembly. Neither the Stratasys release nor the corroborating coverage from VoxelMatters publishes detailed mechanical property data (tensile strength, heat deflection temperature, or elongation figures), so makers evaluating the resin for load-bearing or dimensionally critical parts will want to wait for a formal datasheet before committing a project to it.

ASA Military Colors takes a different angle entirely. Rather than a new polymer chemistry, it's a curated set of color options for ASA — the UV- and weather-resistant thermoplastic Stratasys already sells for its Fortus FDM line — engineered to meet what the company calls the "visual and regulatory requirements" of fielded defense equipment. That phrasing matters: defense procurement often specifies exact color matches (think camouflage patterns, tactical gray, or branch-specific markings) as part of a contract's acceptance criteria, not as an aesthetic afterthought. A part that's mechanically identical but the wrong shade of green can fail inspection. By offering pre-qualified color options rather than leaving custom color-matching to end users, Stratasys is targeting a real friction point for shops that print end-use parts for military contracts.

The Rest of the IMTS Booth

The two new materials aren't traveling alone. VoxelMatters' preview of the show floor confirms Stratasys will also be showing its F870, a large-format FDM system with a 1-meter build length, integrated material drying, and support for carbon-fiber-reinforced FDM Nylon 12CF parts. Neither source detailed which applications Stratasys is targeting with that material, but pairing a big, dry-material-fed FDM platform with a new production-grade resin and a defense color line paints a consistent picture: Stratasys wants IMTS attendees walking away thinking about part production, not just prototyping. The company is backing that pitch with programming, too — the press release lists a technical session on drone production solutions on September 15 and a session on accuracy and precision in additive manufacturing on September 16, both scheduled on the show floor alongside the booth.

Software gets a mention too. The release and VoxelMatters both point to an Additive App Suite developed with trinckle, described as software that lets manufacturing teams design fixtures, trays, and tooling in minutes without CAD software, then print the result on any 3D printer. The pitch there is design accessibility — letting shops generate tooling and fixtures without needing in-house CAD expertise, which is a real bottleneck for smaller manufacturers who want to bring fixture design in-house rather than outsourcing it. Stratasys hasn't published specifics on which app modules are shipping first or what license tier they'll require, so the practical usefulness of the suite will depend on details that should surface once the show opens.

What It Means for Makers

For the hobbyist audience, none of this lands in a home workshop directly — Somos Resolute Gray is a resin for Stratasys' industrial SLA platforms, not something you'll be pouring into a desktop DLP tank, and ASA Military Colors is scoped to Fortus systems sold into defense-adjacent manufacturing. But the announcement is still worth watching for a few reasons.

First, it's a signal about where material R&D dollars are going industry-wide. When a major vendor spends its IMTS slot on "production-ready surface finish" and regulatory color compliance rather than faster print speeds or flashier demo parts, that's a read on what actual paying customers are asking for: fewer manual finishing steps and materials that pass inspection the first time. That trickles down eventually — desktop resin formulators have historically followed industrial SLA chemistry improvements with a multi-year lag.

Second, the ASA Military Colors move is a useful case study in how specialized end-use AM has become. A defense contractor printing a bracket or housing isn't just solving a geometry problem anymore; the color of the plastic is part of the spec. Any maker doing contract work — even outside defense, think automotive OEM color-matching or medical device housings — should take note that "the part fits" is no longer the only bar for end-use 3D printed components in regulated industries.

Third, keep expectations calibrated: this is a press-release preview ahead of a trade show, not a product launch with pricing, availability dates, or full datasheets. Mechanical properties for Somos Resolute Gray, the specific color palette for ASA Military Colors, and pricing for either haven't been published yet. FilamentFeed will follow up with hands-on details as they surface from the show floor at McCormick Place, Booth 338460, South Hall.

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