Musk bets on PEEK, while a joint Chinese-Singaporean team takes a different approach: 3D-printed PPS paves the way for mass production and commercialization of humanoid robots.
2026-02-28
On February 11, 2026, the key materials project for humanoid robots—jointly developed by Fangdi Technology and Nanyang Technological University—received funding from Singapore’s national-level Additive Manufacturing Innovation Cluster (NAMIC). This project focuses on carbon-fiber-reinforced PPS composites and SLS selective laser sintering 3D printing, targeting core components for humanoid robot joints and transmission systems. Against the backdrop of the industry generally following the high-end PEEK route, this project charts a new technological path that is better suited for widespread adoption and boasts greater advantages in mass production, providing a practical solution for the industrialization and commercial deployment of humanoid robots.
One, It has become a consensus that humanoid robots should be lightweight, but the PEEK approach is facing cost bottlenecks.
In humanoid robot development, replacing metals with high-performance engineering plastics has become the industry’s mainstream trend. Tesla’s robot, under Musk’s leadership, is the first to take this approach. PEEK material Designed for joint structures, its lightweight characteristics effectively enhance both athletic performance and endurance, setting a technological benchmark for the industry and driving the industry trend toward "high-end plastics replacing metals."
However, PEEK itself is positioned as a high-end specialty engineering plastic, and it suffers from the drawbacks of relatively high costs and significant processing difficulties. This creates a clear misalignment with the long-term goal of making humanoid robots widely accessible to households. Under the future demand for mass production at the scale of millions of units, over-reliance on PEEK materials will keep overall system costs stubbornly high, making it difficult to break through the core bottleneck that hinders commercial adoption. The industry urgently needs an alternative material that matches PEEK in performance, offers more favorable costs, and is better suited for large-scale 3D printing production.
II. Carbon Fiber + PPS: Matching PEEK Performance, Suitable for Large-Scale Industrial Production Needs
The carbon fiber + polyphenylene sulfide (PPS) system jointly developed by Fangdi Technology and the Nanyang Technological University team has achieved a dual breakthrough—reducing costs and enabling mass production—while maintaining high-performance advantages, making it a pragmatic choice that closely aligns with the actual needs of the industry. Compared to PEEK, this material solution boasts four core advantages and is better suited for the industrial-scale development of humanoid robots:
Performance is comparable and suitable for core scenarios:
It also possesses key characteristics such as high strength, high-temperature resistance, wear resistance, corrosion resistance, and creep resistance, fully meeting the operational demands of robotic joints and transmission systems under long-term, heavy-load conditions. Its performance is comparable to that of PEEK.
More cost-effective and better aligned with mass-market positioning:
The materials and supply-chain system are more mature, with overall costs significantly lower than those of PEEK, making them better aligned with the development trend of “mass-market adoption” for humanoid robots and providing strong support for reducing the overall system cost. High-volume production efficiency enhances implementation effectiveness: By leveraging SLS 3D printing technology, the process delivers excellent dimensional consistency and a high yield rate, enabling the integrated molding of complex structures, drastically reducing the number of components, simplifying the assembly process, and shortening both product development and iteration cycles.
Lightweight design stands out, optimizing overall machine performance:
Its density is significantly lower than that of metals, which can substantially reduce joint loads and further enhance the motion response speed and endurance performance of humanoid robots, aligning with the trend toward lightweight design.
Bai Yuanbin, founder of Fangdi, said that the team shares Musk’s vision of using high-performance plastics to replace metals. However, for humanoid robots to truly achieve widespread commercial adoption, they must follow a path of cost-effective, scalable materials—and carbon fiber plus PPS happens to be the optimal solution that best aligns with industrial realities.
Three, China-Singaporean industry-academia-research collaboration joins forces, backed by a national-level platform to accelerate implementation.
This project is led by: Fangdi Technology, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore NAMIC Through tripartite collaboration, we have established a deeply integrated international model of industry-academia-research cooperation. Leveraging our robust technological capabilities and platform support, we are accelerating the pace of technology commercialization.
Fangdi Technology:
By Tsinghua x-lab and Singapore SMU Joint incubation focused on advanced materials and agile manufacturing, with core technological capabilities in composite material formulation, 3D printing process optimization, and engineering implementation. We achieve integrated innovation across materials, equipment, processes, and software.
Professor Zhou Kun’s research group at Nanyang Technological University:
Leveraging the Singapore 3D Printing Centre and the HP-Nanyang Technological University Joint Digital Manufacturing Laboratory, we are deeply committed to “integrated innovation in materials, structure, and processes.” We have accumulated profound technical expertise in polymer additive manufacturing, and our research findings can be directly aligned with industry needs. The project is led by Dr. Zhou Meixin, who has long been focused on SLS powder sintering technology and has established close collaborations with Arkema of France and Singapore. A*STAR Multiple industrialization collaboration experiences with institutions such as SIMTech ensure the practicality and feasibility of the technology.
Singapore NAMIC:
Singapore’s national-level additive manufacturing innovation hub, led by Singapore’s Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), has a core mission to promote... Additive manufacturing technology From the laboratory to industrial-scale production, by building a collaborative ecosystem involving industry, academia, and research institutions, we provide comprehensive support for projects—including technical validation and industry matchmaking—to accelerate the large-scale application of technologies.
The tripartite collaboration—from optimizing material formulations and fine-tuning 3D printing processes to refining structural designs and validating mass production—has established a complete technological closed loop. This approach directly tackles the most critical components of humanoid robots—the joints and transmission systems—and provides a solid foundation for the practical implementation of these technologies.
Four, Industry Value: 3D Printing + Composite Materials Empower the Robotics Industry to Achieve High-Quality Development
The advancement of this project has not only achieved optimization and upgrading of the core materials for humanoid robots but has also effectively refined and improved the robot manufacturing system, providing multiple forms of support for the industry’s development.
Break the reliance on high-end materials and provide the industry with scalable, low-cost, high-performance material solutions, enriching the technical selection for core components of humanoid robots.
Leveraging SLS 3D printing technology enables design freedom, supporting complex lattice structures and integrated joints—designs that are impossible to achieve with conventional manufacturing processes, thereby further enhancing the robot’s performance and reliability.
Streamline production processes, shorten development cycles, and reduce R&D costs to help companies launch market-ready products more quickly and accelerate the industrialization of humanoid robots.
The technology can be reused across multiple fields and, in the future, can be extended to high-precision manufacturing sectors such as industrial robotics, aerospace, and medical devices, further expanding its application value.
Conclusion, The humanoid robot competition has entered a stage of refined material competition.
Musk has set a development direction for lightweight humanoid robots by leveraging PEEK material, providing an important reference for the industry. Meanwhile, the joint Sino-Singaporean team—comprising Fangdi Technology and Nanyang Technological University—has addressed the practical needs of the industry by adopting a combined approach of carbon fiber plus PPS and SLS 3D printing, offering a solution that is more suitable for commercialization and large-scale implementation.
This approach not only preserves the core performance of high-end engineering plastics but also effectively addresses the industry’s longstanding pain points of high costs and difficulties in mass production. It holds great promise as the mainstream technological solution for the joints and transmission systems of future humanoid robots. As the project continues to advance, the materials-plus-manufacturing innovation ecosystem jointly developed by China and Singapore will further boost the high-quality development of the humanoid robotics industry and help secure a favorable position in the global robotics industry competition.
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