As a result of research, the figure put on the 3D printing market has been estimated to be $7.3 billion in 2016. This is going to cover the machine, maintenance and all of the supplies needed, and will be 30% up on last year. This has been a regular occurrence since 2012. There has also been growth from the secondary market, and this includes castings, mouldings, and tooling.
68% of the market comes from Europe and North America, with the Asian Pacific accounting for a further 27%. Automotive and consumer electrics industry are both making up a large part of the usage as they are putting in 20% each. It is for the prototyping stage of the production process that they utilize this new technology. An example of this is the use of 3D printing by smartphone manufacturers as they are now constructing some of the parts this way.
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The third largest user is the medical device industry, and as they need to provide a large amount of individually manufactured items such as hearing aids, 3D printing has proved to be a cost-effective way to do it. It is believed that there are now 98% of hearing aids made this way.
It is considered that there is still a largely untapped market. According to Wohler’s and Associates, 5% of the manufacturing market will be produced by 3D marketing making it a $640 billion industry. Parts can be lighter although quality can be impacted upon as can durability.
