Report outlines challenges facing 3D printing

It’s becoming increasingly difficult for companies to develop and execute on 3D printing strategies involving polymers, a new report said.

According to the report, from market research firm Additive Manufacturing Research (AMR), “there are almost too many options to explore as many manufacturers are deciding how they can expand on their rapid prototyping efforts into more strategic manufacturing applications using polymer printing.”

The AMR report points to several companies involved in the industry that have significant potential to shape the 3D printable polymer market. “For example, we are seeing a continued decline in hardware sales from both Stratasys and 3D Systems,” it said. “But we are also seeing the 3D printing of polymers continue to be buoyed by new entrants.”

As a result, AMR believes that through 2020, “we will see the 3DP polymer segment returning to historically established levels of around 20 per cent compound annual growth rate. This will be driven extensively by the polymer powder bed fusion and photopolymerization technology subsegments.”

On the materials side in polymers, AMR notes that mechanically superior composites are beginning to truly take centre stage.