Additive Manufacturing and Materials Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2022 - 2027)

Additive Manufacturing and Materials Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2022 - 2027)

The Global Additive Manufacturing and Materials Market was valued at USD 16.6 million in 2020 and expected to reach USD 70.92 million by 2026 and grow at a CAGR of 27.5% over the forecast period (2021 - 2026). Since the rapid technological rise of additive manufacturing technology within the past few years, professional technologies have been rapidly maturing in multiple applications, globally. The recent advancements in machinery, materials, and software have made this technology accessible to a broader range of businesses, which enables more organizations to use tools that were previously limited to a few high-tech industries.

Key Highlights

• Moreover, the decreased prices of additive manufacturing-based machines, coupled with growing awareness among several end-user industries, have increased the availability of this technology. Newer and advanced fused deposition modeling methods have enabled the use of diverse materials, thereby, boosting a widespread adoption across various industries, over the recent years.
• According to Essentium’s survey in March 2019, the number of manufacturers using additive manufacturing for full-scale production doubled in 2019, as compared to 2018. Wider adoption of this technology was observed across multiple sectors, as an increased number of industrial solutions were brought to market by manufacturers.
• Multiple industries, including healthcare, automotive, and aerospace and defense, are experiencing an impactful production and business transformations in the critical areas of their businesses, owing to the maturity of additive technologies and material supply-chains. For example, interior aircraft parts, like ducting, vents, and airflow systems, which are created with additive manufacturing, enable designers to trim weight, reduce the number of components in the assemblies, and conform to tight cabin interiors. Moreover, additive provides design freedom to experiment with more effective and efficient part shapes, with fewer potential points of failure.
• Furthermore, additive manufacturing hardware and materials are advancing rapidly, and cost per part is continuing to fall, opening a more comprehensive range of low- to mid-volume applications. Leading manufacturers are leveraging additive manufacturing to save money, shorten the lead times, solve complex problems, and improve processes from prototyping to production. For instance, in April 2020, Italian 3D printing company, BEAMIT, collaborated with power company TEMA Energy, primarily to develop 3D printed gas turbine components.
• Various professional additive manufacturing providers, makers, and designers in the industrial community have begun to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, by volunteering their skills to ease the pressure on supply chains and governments. The application in printing components of the PPE, Ventilators, masks, and other protective gear can be of critical support in addressing the need of the protective gears for the frontline healthcare professionals, creating an expedited opportunity in the healthcare sector of the market.
• April 2020, in response to the rapidly increasing need for more COVID-19 testing kits, Stratasys Inc. and Origin signed an agreement, in which Stratasys will market and promote Origin’s 3D-printed nasopharyngeal swabs to healthcare providers and other testing centers in the United States. A consortium comprised of HP, Seat, Navantia, and Airbus, working with the Zona Franca Consortium (CZFB) and led by the Leitat Technology Center, has developed a production-ready respirator.

Key Market TrendsAutomotive to is expected Hold a Significant Share

• Moreover, among the industries adopting AM, automotive is one of the fastest-growing sectors. There are various projects and initiatives aimed at bringing the advantages of this technology to automotive applications. One such promising project is the 'Industrialization and Digitization of Additive Manufacturing for Automotive Series Processes' project (IDAM). Launched by BMW Group, this project aims to provide at least 50,000 components per year in mass production using AM, and over 10,000 individual and spare parts.
• HP is working with Volkswagen, which is one of the major German automotive companies to 3D print parts on a large scale. Volkswagen installed 90 HP 3D printers in its factories and produced 10,000 parts in a few weeks. However, Volkswagen has set a goal to print 50,000 to 100,000 functional portions the size of a football per year. Such instances are indicative of the fact that these technologies are being widely adopted across various sectors, globally.
• Ford Motor Company is one of the earliest adopters of 3D printing, having purchased the third 3D printer ever made some 30 years ago. In December 2018, Ford invested USD 45 million to open its Advanced Manufacturing Center to take steps to integrate 3D printing into its product development cycle, and the company is looking to use the technology for manufacturing applications. Its latest vehicle, the 2020 Shelby GT500, is one example of this. The car which went on sale at the end of 2019, the 2020 Shelby GT500, is reportedly the most aerodynamically advanced Mustang to date.
• Additive manufacturing with 3D printers is helping to speed up the design and development process of EV's, electric vehicles and it's possible to design cars that look very different from those which we are used to driving every day. This means electric vehicles (EV) can be designed to be smaller, more compact, and friendlier on the environment. In 2018, Italy's XEV announced a partnership with a Chinese 3D printing firm Polymaker to produce a small, inexpensive electric city runabout called the YoYo. The company aimed to raise EUR 500,000 by February 6, 2020 and plans to start production in August 2020.

Asia Pacific is expected to witness significant growth rate

• Asia-Pacific (APAC) is transforming into the fastest-growing 3D printing market. Until recently, the region has been lagging in 3D printing’s adoption, in comparison with North America and Europe. However, growing interest from Asia Pacific manufacturing companies and the introduction of many government-led strategies and policies have helped several countries within the region to succeed in creating a sustainable AM ecosystem.
• China is perhaps the most significant force behind 3D printing growth in Asia, in light of the considerable government support to promote the industry. The Chinese government aims to implement the ‘Additive Manufacturing Industry Development Action Plan,’ looking to make a national AM industry worth USD 3 billion by 2020. To achieve these goals, China is funding promising and growing AM companies, supporting standardization for the Chinese AM industry and investing in 3D printing workforce development
• The Action Plan, which forms a substantial part of ‘Made in China 2025’ strategic roadmap for the development of the country’s manufacturing sector, provides the long-term ambitions and development goals to make China one of the major 3D printing nations and one of the highlights of the plan is a goal to introduce over 100 Additive Manufacturing pilot projects across ten key industries, including the medical, cultural, educational, and Internet sectors.
• In addition to establishing the national Additive Manufacturing strategy, Korea’s government invests heavily in AM technology development. In 2019, the funding was increased to USD 52.7 million and Korea is integrating AM into its economy for the benefit of manufacturers and its overall national production. Singapore has placed great emphasis in terms of development related to the domestic 3D printing industry and to support the growth and competitiveness of the federal manufacturing sector, Singapore’s government has established the Research, Innovation, and Enterprise (RIE) 2020 plan, which identified AM as an essential enabler.

Competitive Landscape

The additive manufacturing and materials market is quite competitive and consists of major players such as Stratasys, ExOne, and 3D Systems Corporation. However, in terms of market share, few of the major players dominate the market. Some of the companies in the market specialize in building machines that produce objects. In contrast, others concentrate on the materials, which is one of the critical areas of innovation for this technology.

• February 2020 - Stratasys launched the J826 3D Printer at 3DEXPERIENCE World. The J826 combines part realism and productivity, which is available at about half the price of other J8-series PolyJet printers, including full PANTONE -Validated color and multi-material 3D printing. The J826 is suitable for enterprises with mid-volume modeling requirements in industries such as consumer goods and electronics, automotive, and educational institutions.
• April 2020 - EnvisionTEC announced that they had completed a clinical trial in the usage of the EnvisionTEC 3D printed Nasopharyngeal (NP) Swabs for COVID-19 testing. EnvisionTEC, as well as a significant number of their Envision One cDLM customers who have also registered with the FDA to take part in this initiative, have the mass production capabilities to produce up to a million of the desperately needed swabs per day.

Additional Benefits:

• The market estimate (ME) sheet in Excel format
• 3 months of analyst support

Companies Mentioned

IBM Corporation
Oracle Corporation
Internap Corporation
Packet Inc. (An Equinix Inc. Company)
Scaleway Inc.
Amazon Web Services Inc
Rackspace Inc.
CenturyLink, Inc.
LightEdge Solutions, Inc

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