3D Printing Industry TrendsRich McComas is a Senior Editor and Research Director at Cellular 3D, an experienced journalist and opinion leader who has written, researched and covered the consumer and professional medical device industry for more than 20 years. Rich heads up all healthcare market and technology research projects at Cellular 3D, personally overseeing a number of dental and medical initiatives. Rich believes that 3D printing can help make a variety of medical devices more accessible to patients and practitioners throughout the world.
According to a IDTechEx market research reports, "Today, printers in the range $30k to $300k account for 64% of all 3D printing revenues. Over the next 10 years this will fall to 43% as the lowend prosumer and high-end metal 3D printing markets grow."
A recent search of the search term "3d printing" shows that international "english" searches of this term are occuring in greater frequency in international locals versus US searches.
Additive Manufacturing Strategies Summit will be taking place from 22-23rd January in Washington, D.C which will be offering most profitable opportunities to managers, entrepreneurs and investors in 3D Printed Medical and Dental applications. The summit, named “The Future of 3D Printing in Medicine and Dentistry: A Business & Investment Summit”, can be registered before 14th December for $995 and will feature over 30 expert speakers for the topic.
FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, MD, has recently released a statement on how the agency has been working newly developed 3D Printed Products, with already reviewing over 100 3D printed devices on the market, including patient-specific implants and knee replacements and the first 3D printed drug. Now, they have also issued new guidance in order to advise medical device manufacturers on the technical aspects of 3D printing, along with recommendations from agency that manufacturers are to include on their 3D printed medical device submissions.
Two doctors from Austin Hospital in Melbourne recently published a paper in the Medical Journal of Australia explaining the top five areas in which 3D printing technology has the potential to change the medical field. These fields were enumerated as: Bioprinting and Tissue Engineering, Pharmacology-surgical Rehearsal, Surgical Rehearsal, Customized Prosthetics and Distribution Production. The complete report explained how these 5 areas are already being innovated by 3D Printing.
Looking at a number of different factors, i.materialise compiled a list of the Top 25 most popular 3D modeling software tools used today, and blender ranks #1.
A McKensie report entititled "Disruptive technologies: Advances that will transform life, business, and the global economy" identified 3-D Printing as the #9 most disprutive technology forecasted for 2025. 3D printing has largely been used by product designers and hobbyists and for a few select manufacturing applications. However, the performance of additive manufacturing machinery is improving, the range of materials is expanding, and prices (for both printers and materials) are declining rapidly bringing 3D printing to a point where it could see rapid adoption by consumers and even for more manufacturing uses.
Stratasys Direct Manufacturing conducted a survey of 700 executives, engineers, designers and managers about the impact of additive processes on manufacturing, learning that most companies are making a strong shift from outsourced to In-house production, especially as technologies become more affordable.
If you’re still dipping your toe in the water, the results may serve as a wake-up call to take swifter action. Using 3D printing to manufacture products may just be emerging as a competitive advantage today, but companies that don’t initiate investment soon could quickly be at a considerable disadvantage.
3D Hubs produced their November 2016 trends report, based upon data from their community of more than 32,000 3D Printers available for outsourced printing work. Reporting the geographic distribution of over 32,000 printers globally, providing access to 3D printing in over 150 countries.
A keynote address at the Shop.org Digital Summit discussed the potential for 3D Printing in the retail environment. One presenter believes that less than 10% of 3D printing will happen in the home, and makes a comparison to 2D printing where in spite of the fact that every home has a printer, still the vast majority of all printing is done by businesses for internal use, and by large printers for commercial use.
This TED-talk like presentations and an interactive Q&A panel of digital retail’s rule breakers and disruptors share keen insights, important lessons and the inspiration required to remain relevant. Hear from Jon Nordmark Co-Founder of Iterate Studio, Julie Bornstein COO of Stitch Fix, John Hauer Co-Founder and CEO of 3DLT, and Maria Thomas Former Chief Consumer Officer of SmartThings.
Markets and Markets produced a new report entitled, "3D Printing Automotive Market by Technology (SLA, SLS, FDM, EBM, LOM, 3DIP), Materials (Metals, Polymers), Application (Prototyping & Tooling, R&D, Manufacturing), and by Region - Global Trends and Forecast to 2020" in which it forecasts dramatic growth in every region of the world in 3D automotive printing.
Factors that drive the 3D printing in automotive market are innovation in new printing materials for 3D printing, the development of new technologies, low cost of development, and expiration of key patents. However, regulatory hurdles in different countries, lack of availability and standardization of materials, process control standards, and limited awareness about the technology could hamper market growth.
The penetration of 3D printing is highest in North America as compared to other regions. Europe and Asia-pacific are in the early stages of adopting 3D printing technology. However, Europe is projected to lead the market, in terms of value, in the future, followed by Asia-Pacific, North America, and the rest of the world. The expiration of key patents has prompted manufacturers to enter the 3D printer market. The decline in the prices of 3D printers could also lead to a sudden spike in demand from the consumer segment.
Gartner forecasts that 3D printer unit shipments will grow at a CAGR of 121.3% through 2019, and that corresponding annual average spending will grow at 72.8% for the same period. Additionally, Gartner expects that sales will exceed $14.6 billion in 2019 as consumers, educational institutions and businesses ramp up their purchases.
“Why 2017?” you may ask. There are several key developments in the industry which all are scheduled to culminate around that time, as well as a few predictions I personally have regarding the industry over the next year or two.
3D-printed houses bought "off the shelf" will help alleviate the burden of overpopulation and inner city living-space shortages. This is how we will live 100 years from now -- if a panel of UK experts is to be believed.
A new retail analytics company, JeeQData, is offering nearly-real-time data on retail sales for just about anything that Amazon, Walmart and Best Buy sell, including 3d Printers. Their reporting, which costs as little as $1.99/month for a subscription, gives us a daily snapshot into how printer sales are trending in the three largest retail channels. The chart below is for the first week of May 2015.
A new report from our friends at Jon Peddie research indicates that after four years of limited growth, the CAD business is growing again hitting $8 billion dollars in sales in 2014. Jon Peddie Research estimates the CAD software market to be an $8 billion market with 5.15 million annual users. We expect the market to grow to $8.7 billion in 2017 at a CAGR of 4%.
A March 2013 report from Smart Tech Publishing predicts that the Precious metal 3D market could grow to more than four billion dollars in less than 10 years. The forecast involved data from leading companies directly involved in the metal printing segment including Argen, Asiga, Autodesk, 3D Systems, Concept Laser, Cooksongold, DWS, EnvisionTec, EOS, Hilderbrand, Legor, Materialise, Optomec, Progold, Realizer, Shapeways, Sculpteo, Solidscape, Tanaka Precious Metals, Voxel8, and Xerox.
3D Systems’ (NYSE:DDD), in their March 2015 investor presentation, indicated their sales into design and manufacturing increased 27% from 2013 to 2014, growing to $609.8M in sales. Sales into healthcare increased 80%, from $71.7M in 2013 to $129.3M in 2014. The consumer segment of 3D Systems’ business grew 26% in the last year, from $34.8M in 2013 to $43.8M in 2014.
The Cantech Letter compared several 3D printing market forecasts in their effort to evaluation adoption by the education market. Gartner projects the 3D printing market globally will grow from $1.6B in 2015 to $13.4B in 2018, attaining a 103.1% CAGR. Allied Market Research (AMR) projects the 3D printing market will grow from $2.3B in 2013 to $8.6B in 2020, attaining a CAGR of 20.6%.
A report from SmarTech Publishing finds that 3D printing in the automotive industry is poised to take off, and in a big way. According to that report–“Additive Manufacturing Opportunities in the Automotive Industry: A Ten-Year Forecast“–automotive applications of 3D printing will generate a combined $1.1 billion by 2019.
A late 2014 Gartner press release indicated that prototyping (24.5%), product development (16.1%) and innovation (11.1%) are the three most common reasons companies are pursuing 3D printing. Of those surveyed in a recent Gartner study, 37% had just one 3D printer within their organizations, with 18% owning 10 or more. The average number of printers per organization was 5.4
According to an October 2014 Gartner report, "Worldwide shipments of 3D printers will reach 217,350 units in 2015, up from 108,151 in 2014. 3D printer shipments will more than double every year between 2015 and 2018, by which time worldwide shipments are forecast to reach more than 2.3 million."
At one of the keynote addresses of the SIMT Additive Manufacturing Symposium, Deloitte partner, Dr. Mark J. Cotteleer, presented an overview of the industry and in spite of signficant advances, still predicted that 3D manufacturing adoption wont achieve full steam till the 2030 to 2050 timeframe.
Wholers presented an updated 3D printing forecast in August 2014 which represented nearly a doubling compared to their 2013 forecast. According to Wohlers Report 2014, the worldwide 3D printing industry is now expected to grow from $3.07B in revenue in 2013 to $12.8B by 2018, and exceed $21B in worldwide revenue by 2020. Wohlers Report 2013 had forecast the industry would grow to become a $10.8B industry by 2021.
The U.S. Postal Service (USPS), in their white paper, "If It Prints, It Ships: 3D Printing and the Postal Service" estimates turning postal processing centers into 3D printing hubs could generate an incremental $646M in commercial package revenue. These and many other fascinating insights into how the USPS could revolutionize their service model with 3D printing technologies are from the report.
The Research and Markets 2020 3D Printing Forecast estimates that the global 3D printing market was valued $2.3B in 2013 and is anticipated to reach $8.6B by 2020, attaining a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 20.6%.
A new free 55 page PwC Free Report estimates that 67% of manufacturers are already using 3D printing. Of these, 28.9% are experimenting to determine how 3D printing can be optimally integrated into their production processes. 24.6% are using 3D printing for prototyping.
The automotive industry’s adoption of 3D printing is projected to increase from $365.4M in 2015 to $1.8B in 2023, attaining a 19.51% CAGR. The aerospace industry’s adoption of 3D printing solutions is projected to increase from $723M in 2015 to $3.45B in 2023, attaining an 18.97% CAGR.
Watch the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aaKuEpJ14XY
A report from Smartech Markets Publishing indicated that Dental printing could see exponential growth.
The CSC Future of Manufacturing report created a roadmap of 3D printing adoption across seven industries including general manufacturing and supply chain management. The roadmap illustrates how 3D printing will revolutionize industry value chains over time.