Big Picture - August 2017 - 26
3 D PR I N T I N G I N 2 0 17
A Service
OPPORTUNITY
BY TIM GREENE
Why today's print service providers should consider
breaking into the 3D printing market.
3D
printing is currently in a very
interesting phase. Some of the
industry leaders, the companies that
have made the market what it is
today, are being challenged by new
Hardware Forecast
US 3D PRINTING SYSTEM SHIPMENTS
200,000
180,000
160,000
140,000
August 2017
120,000
100,000
80,000
BIG PICTURE
60,000
26
40,000
20,000
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
players, and distributors are trying to figure out what key
technologies they should stake. The types of companies
buying the systems are changing as well, making it important
for traditional PSPs to understand the new service providers
that are emerging to offer 3D printing services.
2021
While the 3D printing market has existed for 30-plus years, it
has almost all been in prototyping. Now, though, many
developments indicate that 3D printing is at the threshold of
wider adoption and utilization in production and manufacturing environments. One of these is the emergence of production configurations that "gang up" multiple 3D printers to
increase capacity and automate some of the pre- and
post-processing requirements. To date, 3D Systems, Stratasys,
Formlabs, and Carbon have all introduced or announced
some type of production configuration based on existing 3D
printer models. This is an important point because customers
(those who buy the 3D builds) have a set of expectations
around materials, quality, rigidity, and other performance metrics and they've become accustomed to the current technology. This dynamic, which is designed to address one of the
biggest obstacles to growth in 3D printing - speed - is
expected to expand the installed base. Companies will adopt
multiple devices, adding capacity instead of replacing one
device with another. IDC expects the hardware market for 3D
printers in the US to grow at a 14-percent CAGR from 2016 to
2021, from almost 100,000 in 2016 to over 190,000 printers
sold annually by 2021.
This forecast builds in a lot of assumptions; one of the
biggest is the launch of new systems with substantially lower
initial investment points, even as the performance of the
technology improves. There are some real game-changing
technologies on the horizon that will dramatically increase
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Big Picture - August 2017
Big Picture - August 2017
Contents
Insight
Wide Angle
Upfront
Business + Management
Dynamic Signage
Changing the Channel
3D Printing in 2017: A Service Opportunity
R+D
Explorer
Big Picture - August 2017 - Big Picture - August 2017
Big Picture - August 2017 - Cover2
Big Picture - August 2017 - Contents
Big Picture - August 2017 - Insight
Big Picture - August 2017 - 3
Big Picture - August 2017 - Wide Angle
Big Picture - August 2017 - 5
Big Picture - August 2017 - Upfront
Big Picture - August 2017 - 7
Big Picture - August 2017 - 8
Big Picture - August 2017 - 9
Big Picture - August 2017 - 10
Big Picture - August 2017 - 11
Big Picture - August 2017 - Business + Management
Big Picture - August 2017 - 13
Big Picture - August 2017 - Dynamic Signage
Big Picture - August 2017 - 15
Big Picture - August 2017 - Changing the Channel
Big Picture - August 2017 - 17
Big Picture - August 2017 - 18
Big Picture - August 2017 - 19
Big Picture - August 2017 - 20
Big Picture - August 2017 - 21
Big Picture - August 2017 - 22
Big Picture - August 2017 - 23
Big Picture - August 2017 - 24
Big Picture - August 2017 - 25
Big Picture - August 2017 - 3D Printing in 2017: A Service Opportunity
Big Picture - August 2017 - 27
Big Picture - August 2017 - 28
Big Picture - August 2017 - 29
Big Picture - August 2017 - R+D
Big Picture - August 2017 - 31
Big Picture - August 2017 - 32
Big Picture - August 2017 - 33
Big Picture - August 2017 - 34
Big Picture - August 2017 - 35
Big Picture - August 2017 - Explorer
Big Picture - August 2017 - Cover3
Big Picture - August 2017 - Cover4
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