LEGO makes roughly the most precise injection molded plastic parts on Earth. Their molds hold tolerances so tight that a brick made today clicks onto one made decades ago. So when a company like that opens its first dedicated global manufacturing innovation centre and puts an Additive Manufacturing Centre right at the heart of it, the rest of us should pay attention. On June 24, 2026, the LEGO Group officially opened Kornmarken Campus in Billund, Denmark, and 3D printing got a permanent seat at the table of the world's most famous plastics operation.
Inside Kornmarken Campus: a 47,000 m² bet on what comes next
According to LEGO's announcement, Kornmarken Campus sits next to the company's legacy Billund factory, and together they form a 100,000 m² facility where around 1,800 engineers, quality specialists, and manufacturing staff will develop, test, and scale new production technologies. The campus houses a Test & Innovation Centre for molds, molding, processing, and packaging; a Materials Lab researching alternatives to fossil fuel based plastics; a Training Academy for the next generation of plastic makers and tool makers; a Mould Manufacturing operation; and the piece we care most about: an Additive Manufacturing Centre for, in LEGO's words, "experimentation and development through advanced 3D manufacturing capabilities."
The building itself is a statement too: 22,000 m² of mass timber construction, a nearby 4 MW solar park, an ambition to hit LEED Platinum, and a 25 tonne red 2x4 brick sculpture in case anyone forgets whose house it is. CEO Niels B Christiansen said the campus lets the company "speed up how new ideas move from concept to reality." That phrase, concept to reality, is exactly the job 3D printing does best.
I need custom plastic parts but injection molding tooling costs a fortune. Is 3D printing a real alternative?
Yes: for prototypes, low volumes, and even many end-use parts, 3D printing delivers finished plastic components with zero tooling cost, which is exactly why even LEGO, the world's benchmark injection molder, runs a dedicated additive manufacturing operation alongside its molding lines. A production-grade steel mold can cost tens of thousands of dollars and take weeks or months to cut. That math only works when you need tens of thousands of identical parts. For everything before and below that threshold, additive wins: you go from CAD file to physical part in hours, iterate the design as many times as you need, and only pay for the parts you actually print. The two technologies are not rivals so much as teammates. Molding owns massive volume; printing owns speed, flexibility, and the long tail of parts nobody will ever order 10,000 of.
What LEGO's move signals about where manufacturing is heading
Companies do not put a technology inside their flagship innovation campus as decoration. Placing additive manufacturing beside the mold shop, the materials lab, and the training academy signals that 3D printing is now standard infrastructure for serious manufacturers, not a novelty in the corner. Across the industry, molders use additive to prototype new geometries before committing to steel, to produce jigs and fixtures for the production floor, and to explore part designs that molds simply cannot make.
The Materials Lab pairing is worth noting as well. LEGO is publicly hunting for more sustainable alternatives to fossil based plastics, and new materials need fast, cheap test parts before anyone retools a factory around them. Printing a candidate material into a functional test article in an afternoon beats cutting a trial mold every single time.
The same week LEGO's campus was making the rounds in industry news, ASTM International published a free strategic guide to certifying 3D printed parts for defense applications. Toy bricks and fighter jets landing in the same news cycle tells you how wide this technology's lane has become.
I only need 25 to 100 parts. Can a 3D printing shop actually handle small production runs?
Absolutely: small batch production is the sweet spot for a 3D printing shop, with no minimum order, no tooling charge, and per-part pricing that stays flat whether you order 5 or 500. This is the gap injection molding leaves wide open. If you are launching a product, replacing a discontinued component, or supplying a niche market, a print farm gets you sellable parts this week instead of next quarter. At DC Additive Pros we build and ship exactly these kinds of runs from our shop in Rockville, Maryland: upload your file, get a price, and we print and ship it. And if the part you need exists only as a physical object with no CAD file, our 3D scanning and reverse engineering service can digitize it and print you a fresh one.
For parts that need to survive heat, chemicals, or serious mechanical load, we also print engineering polymers like PEEK and ULTEM through our high-performance materials service. The gap between "toy plastic" and "aerospace plastic" is smaller than most people think, and both run through the same core technology LEGO just built a centre around.
One more note for the brands out there: if you make 3D printing hardware, filament, or accessories and want an honest hands-on review on this blog, we are open to testing gear. Reach us at info@dcadditivepros.com.
Frequently asked questions
Can 3D printed parts really replace injection molded parts?
Often, yes: for prototypes, low volumes, custom geometry, and replacement parts, 3D printed components do the job without any tooling investment, while injection molding remains the better choice once you need many thousands of identical units. Many products use both across their life cycle.
How much does it cost to 3D print a custom part compared to making a mold?
A 3D printed part typically costs a few dollars to a few hundred dollars with no setup fee, while an injection mold usually starts in the thousands and can run into six figures before the first part is made. For small quantities, printing is almost always the cheaper path.
I have an old part with no CAD file. Can someone scan it and 3D print a replacement?
Yes: a shop with 3D scanning and reverse engineering capability can capture the original part's geometry, rebuild it as a CAD model, and print a new one, even for discontinued or vintage components. This is one of the most common requests we handle at DC Additive Pros.
What materials can be 3D printed for high-heat or engineering applications?
Engineering thermoplastics like PEEK, ULTEM, PPSU, and carbon-fiber reinforced nylons can be 3D printed for parts that face high temperatures, chemicals, or structural loads, putting printed parts within reach of applications that once required machined metal or molded engineering resin.