In the heart of Somerville, a sleek, humming machine quietly shapes the future of manufacturing.
It belongs to Formlabs, a 3D printing company whose products power industries from automotive to dental to consumer electronics, including parts for giants like Apple and Tesla.
Founded by CEO Max Lobovsky, Formlabs designs, builds, and sells 3D printers.
But behind the company’s technological innovation lies a persistent challenge: global trade tensions.
“We cannot do long-term planning”
“It discourages long-term planning. Long-term planning, long-term investment, that is what grows the economy for everybody,” said Lobovsky. “But we cannot do long-term planning right now because everything is changing constantly.”
The crux of the issue is that Formlabs manufactures its machines in China. That has placed the company directly in the crosshairs of the ongoing U.S.-China trade war.
However, there’s a temporary reprieve. This week, the White House announced a 90-day rollback of certain tariffs as part of an agreement with China.
“The talks in Geneva were very friendly, the relationship is very good,” said President Donald Trump in a press conference on Monday. “We’re not looking to hurt China. China was being hurt very badly. They were closing up factories. They were having a lot of unrest, and they were very happy to be able to do something with us.”
For business leaders like Lobovsky, the development offers cautious optimism, but little certainty.
Possibility of moving manufacturing
“If the tariffs stay as they were prior to this this morning, then it would be a significant hit to our cost of goods sold,” he said. “We probably would move some manufacturing to different locations. I’m not sure that it would result in more manufacturing coming back to the U.S.”
The future of Formlabs and other companies in a similar situation may depend not just on engineering breakthroughs, but on geopolitical stability.
As policy continues to shift, the biggest hurdle is not technology or competition but planning for a future in which the rules keep changing.
