Arridex Brings 3D Printing to Ghana Through New ADAM Network Node

A Nigerian Additive Firm Takes Its Network Across the Border

Arridex Group has opened a Ghana Node as part of its Africa Distributed Additive Manufacturing (ADAM) Network, partnering with Sodah Engineering and Logistics Limited to bring 3D printed parts to industries that currently wait months for replacements shipped from overseas. The company, rebranded from RusselSmith, runs metal and polymer additive operations out of its Lagos Omnifactory and already has approvals for polymer printed parts in oilfield applications.

The ADAM Network is ambitious. Arridex wants to connect up to fifteen countries and as many as twenty-five partners, positioning itself as the default additive manufacturing provider for the region. Few established additive OEMs have a serious Africa footprint, so the opportunity is real. Energy companies, mining operators, maritime firms, and defense departments across the continent all face the same problem Arridex was built to solve: legacy equipment breaks, the replacement part is on a container ship, and production stops.

Why Africa Is Ripe for Distributed Additive Manufacturing

The war in Ukraine made 3D printing a household name in defense circles. African defense organizations are watching closely. Additive manufacturing lets them repair existing equipment, adapt new hardware, and produce some components locally without building an entire supply chain from scratch. For energy operators like Equinor and Petrobras already active in the region, polymer and metal printed parts offer a faster path to operational resilience than traditional procurement.

Arridex has already tested this model at home. Its Lagos facility combines polymer systems with partnerships for metal LPBF via BLT and cold spray additive through Spee3D, plus digital inventory software from 3yourmind. The Ghana node is the first outward step.

What the Ghana Node Actually Means

Sodah Engineering will handle local outreach and training while connecting Ghanaian companies to Arridex's manufacturing capabilities in Lagos. The first outputs are likely to be replacement polymer parts and tooling for energy and mining equipment, with metal components following as the network matures. The ADAM approach is not just about printing parts; it is about building a regional service layer that most competitors have ignored.

Arridex Group CEO Kayode Adeleke put it plainly: 'Across Africa, industry does not stop for want of ambition or for want of talent; many times, it stops for want of a critical part in a piece of legacy equipment.' That is a fair description of the problem, and Arridex is one of the few firms actually trying to fix it at scale.