In 2017, 3D printing industry revenue exceeded 7 billion US dollars. Independent service providers contributed more than 40%.
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Every spring, the Wohlers Report publishes a 3D printing and additive manufacturing (commonly known as 3D printing) industry report. In the past few years, I have reported the overall growth of the industry through analysis.
As always, I also analyzed the Wallace 2018 report this year: the 3D printer industry revenue grew 21% to more than $7 billion. A large part of the growth is due to the “service provider” category, and these companies have made a considerable contribution to this upward trend, so I would like to spend some time to delve into this important and profitable area.
Additive Manufacturing Service Provider
According to the Wallace 2018 report, global independent service providers received approximately $2.955 billion in revenue through the sale of parts manufactured by the additive manufacturing system in 2017. This is a 36% increase over the 2016 report of $2.173 billion. It is important to remember that this is contributed by an independent service provider.
The Warres 2018 report on the additive manufacturing / 3D printing service provider:
1. Additive manufacturing service providers have become very popular, varying in size
2. The most installed technology in 2017 is stereo photography of 3D systems.
3. People began to buy less mainstream additive manufacturing systems
The most installed system is a 3D printing printer. When asked what they think is the most profitable system, the company says it is stereo photography, which is not surprising. If they plan to expand their additive manufacturing capacity, which system is most likely to be purchased next? The most popular response is “EOS Metal Powder Layer Fusion Technology”. The fact that more companies want to install metal systems indicates the overall trend in the market.
1. Many service providers (48.8% of them) still only offer polymer services
2. 28% of companies offer both metal and polymer services
3. 23.2% of companies only provide metal services
One of the biggest paradigm shifts in additive manufacturing began when system manufacturers decided to enter the field and compete with their own customers and service providers. This may be part of a service provider's decision to reduce the purchase or change from a veteran or mainstream vendor such as Stratasys, EOS or 3D systems.
Of the 202 machines purchased in 2017, 82 were non-mainstream machines, an increase of 40.6% over 2016. Popular non-mainstream machines are metal systems with laser technology and HP's multi-jet molten 3D printer. However, non-mainstream does not necessarily mean cheap.
When you start thinking about "non-mainstream" or newer systems, the gap between mainstream and non-mainstream is shrinking. When you use a desktop 3D printer, the boundaries between the two begin to blur. These desktop machines are of high quality and, more importantly, they are smaller, easier and faster to install (in some cases) and cost less than $5,000.
The Wallace 2018 report shared the opinions of service providers; I found out what these people are helping to understand about the front line (especially involving desktop 3D printers):
“Many customers have purchased their own 3D printers, mostly low-cost versions. After testing these machines, most of them found that the part quality is not what they need, but they must use them now. This is a dilemma, it will Reduce our business."
“2017 is a year of strong demand, but sales have declined as customers purchase their own additive manufacturing equipment for internal use.”
However, the trend seems to be that although many companies buy their own equipment to make parts, this will not seriously damage the service provider's business as some people fear. Parts made by less experienced people on some machines can result in lower quality 3D printing. In addition, many times, it is not worthwhile for a busy engineer or inventor to spend time with a 3D printer – just outsource it to a local 3D printing supplier.
Overall, the additive manufacturing market achieved good growth in 2017. As the basic income increased by 23.8% compared with 2016, secondary income (for example, tools) increased by 14.4%, and the additive manufacturing service industry was in a fairly good position.