Volumetric printing by reverse tomography: a new paradigm in additive manufacturing

Volumetric printing by reverse tomography—commonly referred to as tomographic volumetric additive manufacturing (TVAM), or simply VAM—is a layerless 3D printing approach that creates solid objects by projecting sequences of light patterns into a rotating photosensitive resin. The cumulative energy deposition leads to localized photopolymerization, enabling the fabrication of complex 3D structures within seconds. Since its first demonstration in 2019, TVAM has rapidly gained attention and has been extended to a wide range of materials, including polymers, hydrogels, ceramics, metals, and glass. Despite these advances, several fundamental challenges remain: expanding the achievable build volume, improving resolution toward that of two-photon polymerization, and extending the method to non-transparent or composite resins. Beyond these technical hurdles, TVAM also opens unique opportunities not accessible to traditional additive manufacturing techniques—for example, the ability to fabricate directly around existing structures. This talk will review the progress of the field, highlight key developments, and explore emerging strategies to address current limitations while pointing toward new application domains.