Inside 10 millimetres: how SYZMIK and Carbon rethought protective padding. Developing its X7C+ headband with Carbon allowed SYZMIK to tune impact protection and comfort within a constrained space, while avoiding tooling commitments that can discourage further improvement. SYZMIK Sports had approximately 10 millimetres in which to improve its protective padding. Making the headband substantially thicker risked undermining the reason athletes wore it. For flag football and seven-on-seven players, head protection is often optional, and a product that performs better in testing still has to earn a place on the field. "You have to make the athlete want to wear it," said Chris Perra, SYZMIK's chief operating officer and co-founder. That constraint led the company to develop the X7C+ with Carbon. The project replaced conventional foam padding with printed elastomeric lattices, giving SYZMIK more control over how the available thickness behaved. It also changed when the company had to stop designing: without a mould to commission, improvements could continue through development and potentially into the product's commercial life. The 3D printed component costs more, but Perra's justification rests on the performance it enables and the ability to keep refining it. SYZMIK's existing X7C used a lightweight EVA impact foam. Perra said the team had tested alternative foams and layered combinations, but struggled to achieve a substantial improvement while keeping thickness close to the original. More padding offered one route to better protection, but conflicted with the low-profile product athletes wanted. "We need freedom in 10 millimeters of thickness in these exact shapes," he said. The project therefore gave design freedom a specific purpose. The pad's external shape and thickness were largely constrained; its internal structure became the main variable. SYZMIK selected Carbon's EPU 45 elastomer, which Carbon describes as strain-rate sensitive: it stiffens when deformed rapidly, supporting energy absorption during impact. That material response works alongside the mechanical behaviour of the lattice. Selecting the resin establishes part of the response; arranging it into a structure provides further variables to tune. Perra described testing lattice configurations, wall thicknesses and densities using designs proposed by both companies and Carbon's lattice software. Development took roughly a year. The work included repeated tests, investigations when results differed, and revisions after the broad structure had been selected. An important change came when the team's improvements stalled short of its target under Virginia Tech testing. Carbon brought in additional materials expertise. Perra said a revised architecture allowed the pad to respond differently to rotational impacts and helped the design reach the intended score. Virginia Tech's flag football headgear methodology evaluates both linear and rotational head acceleration across 36 laboratory impacts. It calculates risk from those measurements and normalises the combined result against a bare-head baseline. The resulting score is a modelled assessment under specified impact conditions, rather than a count of injuries prevented in competition. Perra attributes a substantial improvement over SYZMIK's foam design to the development programme. The lattice also addresses a second problem within the same space. In SYZMIK's foam construction, the material taking the impact is also the material pressing against the wearer's head. A density selected for protection can feel too stiff in contact with the user. Perra described varying the printed structure through its thickness, allocating most of it to impact performance while making the portion against the head softer and more conforming. The functions can therefore be combined within one printed pad, instead of assembling separate foam layers. He characterised improvements in comfort and feel as subjective. Athletes from Team Mexico and some Team USA ambassadors wore the headband at the World Championships in Düsseldorf, providing early feedback. Other components had also been modified for flexibility and fit, so the response to the finished headband cannot be attributed entirely to the printed padding. For an engineering team, however, the implications extend beyond that first design. Perra said conventional development would have required a tooling commitment after proof-of-concept testing. Subsequent modifications would then have to justify changing the tool. "You're almost incentivized not to touch it sometimes," he said. Avoiding that commitment allowed refinement to continue. It also leaves open the possibility of modifying the pad after broader customer use identifies an improvement. A production revision would still need appropriate validation, but it would not necessarily require new tooling. This matters because flexibility in a CAD file has limited commercial value if the manufacturing route makes each revision expensive. In SYZMIK's account, printing changes the economics of continued engineering as well as the component itself. Manufacturing introduced its own constraints. Perra said the production team requested adjustments to make parts easier to manufacture at volume. SYZMIK accepted such changes provided they did not compromise impact performance. Pilot runs and supplier validation formed part of the preparation. Carbon took the lead with the manufacturing partner on that work, according to Perra. For SYZMIK, a design that could only be supplied in small demonstration batches would not meet the commercial brief. Actual output, yield and production capacity were not disclosed, so the planned ability to supply larger volumes should be distinguished from demonstrated recurring production. The financial decision remains candid. Asked whether the printed approach was expensive, Perra replied: "Do I wish it was cheaper? Yeah." SYZMIK considered the improvement worth the expense. Perra did not provide a unit-cost comparison or quantify tooling savings. The case he makes is that the resulting product warrants the manufacturing choice, rather than that printing delivers the cheapest replacement for foam. At the time of the interview, he expected general availability in early November, distinguishing that from the earlier athlete introduction. The next test is what wider use teaches the company. A fixed tool can make an otherwise useful improvement difficult to justify; a printed design removes that particular obstacle. SYZMIK will still have to establish that revisions preserve protection, manufacture consistently and warrant their cost. "I know we can improve this again with just 3D printing," Perra said. The commercial value of that possibility will depend on how effectively the company converts customer feedback into another tested, manufacturable design. Meet Carbon at Formnext 2026 and learn more about manufacturing solutions, visit Hall 12.1, booth F109. Vote now in the 2026 3D Printing Industry Awards. Explore the full Future of 3D Printing and Executive Survey series from 3D Printing Industry, featuring perspectives from CEOs, engineers, and industry leaders on the industrialization of additive manufacturing, 3D printing industry trends 2026, qualification, supply chains, and additive manufacturing industry analysis. Featured image via Carbon.

Arkema, Carbon expand partnership to advance 3d-printed consumer products. The companies are combining advanced materials and digital manufacturing technology to support customized footwear, sporting goods and other consumer applications Published: November 5, 2026 Author: Dustin Shrader A Carbon 3D printer produces footwear components using additive manufacturing technology. Carbon and Arkema are expanding their collaboration to advance materials and digital manufacturing applications for customized footwear and consumer products. Photo courtesy of Carbon Arkema and Carbon are strengthening their longstanding partnership to advance additive manufacturing technologies for footwear, sporting goods and other consumer products. The companies have collaborated for more than 13 years, combining Arkema's expertise in specialty materials with Carbon's digital manufacturing technology to develop high-performance 3D-printing applications. Carbon develops elastomeric resins for its Digital Light Synthesis (DLS) technology, drawing on Arkema's expertise in ultraviolet (UV)-curable specialty materials. Together, these technologies enable manufacturers to create complex lattice structures with customizable properties for cushioning, support and energy return. Advancing customized footwear production. The collaboration supports the development of footwear and other consumer products that can be tailored to individual performance and comfort requirements. One example is Vivobarefoot's custom 3D-printed sandal, which uses individual foot scans to create made-to-order footwear. The approach allows products to be tailored to individual consumers while potentially reducing excess inventory and material waste. "3D printing is becoming increasingly competitive with traditional manufacturing, giving brands greater freedom to rethink how products are designed and produced," said Jason Rolland, chief technology officer at Carbon. "Arkema's material science and expertise in scaling up give our team a reliable foundation, so we can focus on developing elastomers that unlock new levels of performance, comfort and customization," he added. Supporting material innovation and sustainability. Beyond footwear, the companies see opportunities to expand additive manufacturing into additional consumer markets where product performance, customization and production flexibility are increasingly important. The partnership also reflects growing interest in manufacturing methods that can support more personalized products without relying entirely on conventional mass-production processes. "As brands look for new ways to deliver greater performance and personalization while reducing waste, we see tremendous opportunity to rethink how consumer products are designed and brought to market," said Julie Haevermans, vice president of marketing at Arkema Coating Solutions. The companies plan to continue developing materials and manufacturing applications that support new product designs while emphasizing performance and sustainability. Posted in: News