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The State Of 3D Printing, 2017

Louis Columbus
Former Contributor
Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.
This article is more than 6 years old.
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These and other insights are from the 3rd annual State of 3D Printing, 2017 (free, 31 pp., PDF, opt-in) study from Sculpteo. The majority of respondents are industry professionals who invent, innovate and produce products using 3D Printing. The respondent base includes companies competing in B2C, B2B industries, ranging from startups to global industrial groups. Respondents are from the Consumer Goods (17%), Industrial Goods (17%), High Tech (13%) Services (9%) and Healthcare sectors (7%).Please see page 3 of the study for additional details on the methodology and survey demographics.

Key takeaways from the study include the following:

  • 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.

  • 90% of companies using 3D Printing consider it a competitive advantage in their strategy. 72% predict their spending on additive manufacturing will increase in 2018. These and other factors are leading to the average budget for 3D Printing increasing from $6,132 in 2016 to $9,504 in 2017 while the market shows signs of maturing.

  • 95% of 3D Printing Power Users view the technology as a competitive advantage in their company’s strategies. They are also more likely to attain a positive ROI fo 3D Printing this year (47% to 57%). Also, 81% of Power Users believe that their competitors also use 3D Printing, versus 59 of total

  • 71% of Services firms attained a higher ROI this year compared to 2016, versus 47% of all respondents globally. 78% of Services businesses expect to increase their spending in 2017 versus 72% of the total Offering customized products and limited series products (34%) are the highest priority for Services businesses in 2017.

  • 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.

 

Louis Columbus
Louis Columbus