3D Printing: Research Brief
The global market for 3d printing is protected to reach US$16.8 million by 2022,driven by declining printer prices,new materials and ever expanding applications.Future growth prospects remain bullish supported by continuous technology advancements;robust demand for precision machined components in a broad range of industries;growing manufacturers focus on product quality and ensuring rise of customized component designing services.Revolutionizing benefits of the technology poised to drive adoption rates include faster time-to-market,cost savings,risk mitigation of faulty design,ability to mass customize component solutions,reduced complexity and higher design freedom.The United States represents the largest market worldwide supported by the growing competitiveness of the domestic manufacturing sector,undivided focus on achieving manufacturing renaissance and the ensuring robust investments in leading edge technologies.Asia-Pacific ranks as the fastest growing market with a projected CAGR of 24.5% over the analysis period,led by factors such as emergence of low cost Asian countries as global hubs for manufacturing;rapid expansion of manufacturing scale to achieve economies of scale and reduced costs;increased competitive pressure to invest in R&D and innovation;and a strong appetite for advanced and emerging manufacturing technologies.
3D Printing technology is mainly used to accelerate product development (28%), offer customized products (16%) and to increase production flexibility (13%). Additional uses include enabling co-creation with customers (9%), reducing tooling investment (9%), optimizing demo product expenses (6%) and improving spare parts management (4%). The following graphic compares top priorities for 3D Printing in 2017 versus the study’s prediction in 2022.
Proof of concept (34%) and prototyping (23%) together dominate 3D Printing applications today. 57% of all 3D Printing work done is in the first phases of new product development, underscoring 3D Printing’s contribution to reducing time-to-market for new products. 22% of respondents are relying on 3D Printing as part of their production processes. Americans use 3D Printing mainly for design and production (23% and 17% versus 18% and 14% for Europe), while Europe uses it mainly for R&D (26% versus 18%). On average, respondents from both Europe and America quote more than one main benefit they can see from 3D Printing.
Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) is the most used technology (36%), followed by Selective Laser Sintering (33%) and Stereolithography (SLA) (25%). Last year, SLS was the most used technology (38%), followed by FDM and SLA. The three new technologies of SLM, CLIP and Fusion Jet are included for the first time this year. The shifting distribution of 3D Printing technology adoption reflects the continuing maturity of the market.
