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Gartner Forecasts The 3D Printer Market Will Be $13.4B By 2018

This article is more than 9 years old.

Gartner ’s webinar, Why You Must Invest in 3D Printing Now delivered by Pete Basiliere, Research Vice President earlier today provided a wealth of insight into the current and future technologies and trends of the 3D printing market. Mr. Basiliere’s expertise in this area is evident in how well he explained the core technologies and market dynamics of 3D printing today.

One of the most valuable take-aways from this webinar is how quickly 3D printing is making it possible for enterprises, media companies, even movie producers to compete more effectively by creating new products, concepts and enhancing special effects in their films literally overnight.

3D printing provides manufacturers with the ability to compete by creating, and the opportunity to turn product development into a core strength. Pete Basiliere provided several excellent examples of how 3D printing is democratizing manufacturing that accentuated time-to-market and the opportunity to compete by creating products faster than competitors.  He stressed the need for investing in training and development of teams working with 3D printing, the need on the part of enterprises to continually stay current with 3D printing technologies, and the potential of 3D printing to manage product life cycles.

Key take-aways from his webinar given today include the following:

  • Gartner is forecasting a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 106.6% in worldwide unit shipments of 3D printers from 2012 to 2018, Gartner is forecasting a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 106.6% in worldwide unit shipments of 3D printers from 2012 to 2018, and revenue growth of 87.7% for the forecast period. The following graphic from the webinar shows the forecast.

  •  The webinar provided a great overview of 3D printing technologies and their respective cost points of 3D printers.  Mr. Basiliere shared how wide the cost variations are in 3D printers today, using the following comparison:

  •  3D printing's democratization of aerospace and defense manufacturing is evident in the examples provided from Airbus and and the rocket nose cone demonstration by Festo.  The A&D manufacturing industry is known for its high quality and compliance requirements, and with the advances in directed energy deposition, it's clear that more 3D printers will eventually be commonly used for Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul (MRO) of A&D assets.