State of 3D Printing – 2017
The State of 3D Printing – The Future Looks Bright for Additive Manufacturing & Rapid Prototyping
By: Dan Fernback
According to Forbes and the annual Wohlers Report, the 3D printing industry, worldwide surpassed the $5B mark this year. Many new changes are taking place in medical, dental, aerospace, automotive and tool and die are here today.
Industry stalwart, Terry Wohlers, Founder and President at Wohlers Associates, talks to TCT Group Editor, Daniel O’Connor about how the additive manufacturing industry has evolved, particularly in the last few years, from a tool for prototyping and modeling to facilitating full-scale production.
As a company like GE comes into the 3D printing space needing thousands of 3D printers over the next decade it begins to validate where the industry is heading as a whole. Companies, government, and all the right backing, with the proper momentum, are showing this to be true, as the technology advances so does adoption.
More than 278,000 desktop 3D printers (under $5,000) were sold worldwide last year, according to Wohlers Associates, publishers of the annual Wohlers Report. The report has a chart to illustrate and it looks like the proverbial hockey stick that you hear venture capitalists talk about: Growth that moves rapidly from horizontal to vertical (from 2010 to 2015 for desktop).
According to Wohlers Report 2016, the additive manufacturing (AM) industry grew 25.9% (CAGR – Corporate Annual Growth Rate) to $5.165 billion in 2015. Frequently called 3D printing by those outside of manufacturing circles, the industry growth consists of all AM products and services worldwide. The CAGR for the previous three years was 33.8%. Over the past 27 years, the CAGR for the industry is an impressive 26.2%. Clearly, this is not a market segment that is declining as you might otherwise read.
3D printing, often referred to as additive manufacturing or rapid prototyping is a growth industry. As the entire food chain of R&D occurs, printers are getting faster and more reliable. The types of materials are getting more sophisticated. In the case of JuggerBot 3D, founders of the Made For Engineers Community, an entire 3D printing ecosystem.
There’s a significant opportunity to leverage 3D printing in manufacturing today, especially for tool & die shops where implementing JuggerBot’s 3D printing solution presents an attractive ROI by reducing set up time and fixture costs for each job.
Like anything, the advancements in technology are starting to drive down the overall cost, making it a reality for these businesses to make purchases that can potentially save thousands of dollars on prototyping jobs. Tool & die shops will become more nimble, turning quotes and jobs around much more quickly due to the efficiencies that come with the use of a reliable 3D printer.
We are just scratching the surface; folks in the medical, aerospace, automotive, and academia industries are all looking towards 3D printing for advancement in their respective industries.
ABOUT Made For Engineers
Made For Engineers is an online community dedicated to educating, entertaining and helping engineers to engage in compelling, interesting content about all things in engineering today.
Juggerbot 3D is the founder of the Made For Engineers online community. JuggerBot 3D provides a 3D printing ecosystem to manufacturers that make them agile by providing employees, whose primary focus is not 3D printing, a means to print functional parts.
Specializing in a 3D printing ecosystem for additive manufacturing and rapid prototyping in tool and die shops and manufacturing, aerospace, automotive, medical device and healthcare and academics.