Wohlers Associates

Wohlers Report 2001

Rapid Prototyping & Tooling State of the Industry
Annual Worldwide Progress Report

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Acknowledgments
About the author
Focus of this report
Introduction to rapid prototyping and tooling

History of RP systems
Industries being served
- How RP models are being used
- Installations by country
Applications
- Communication
- Engineering changes
- Good ideas and powerful proposals
- Concept models
- Verifying CAD databases
- Styling, ergonomic studies
- Functional testing
- Prototypes and prototype tooling
- Metal castings
- Early input from suppliers, toolmakers
- Quote requests
- Rapid manufacturing
- Unlimited potential

Moderate increase
- Challenges ahead
- Number of models being produced
Revenue growth
- Revenues from products and services
- Secondary market
- Revenues from service providers
- Revenues from other services
Unit sales
- 3D Systems retains the lead
- Systems sold by region
- Cumulative systems sold by region
- Units sold by U.S. manufacturers
- Units sold by Japanese manufacturers
- Recent unit sales by manufacturer
- Cumulative unit sales by manufacturer
- Unit sales by manufacturer and year
- 3D printer unit sales by manufacturer and year
Growth trends and sales forecasts
- Unit sales growth percentages
- Worldwide revenue estimates
- Annual revenue growth percentages
- Comparing growth of RP and machining markets
Service providers
- Growth and location
- Mix of machines
- Market segment continues to shrink
- Number of models produced annually
- Patterns for investment casting
- Working with service providers
- Changing times
- What is driving prices downward?
- Future challenges
- What lies ahead?

3D Systems
- Stereolithography
- DTM acquisition
- Other agreements
- 3D Keltool
Aaroflex
Beijing Yinhua
BMT
Cubital
DTM
- New materials
- Rapid manufacturing
- Acquisition
EOS
- EOS P 700
- DirectSteel 20-V1
- Other developments
F&S GmbH
Helisys
Kinergy
Objet
- Product features
- Unanswered questions
- Availability
Optomec
ProMetal
Röders
Sanders Design International
Schroff Development
Solidscape
Stratasys
- FDM Titan
- Prodigy
- FDM Maxum
Z Corp.
- Z406
- Z400
- Agreements with HP and Xerox
- Other developments
RP stocks
- Record earnings
- Factors influencing growth

Developments, patents
3D printers and concept modelers
- Solidimension
- BMT
- Speed Part
- Others
Fabrication of metal and ceramic parts
- POM
- AeroMet
- Arcam
- Solidica
- CAM-LEM
- SRI International
- Others
Small parts
- microTEC
- MICE
- Others
Large objects
- Generis
- University of Utah
MIT's 3DP technology
- Major areas of focus
- ProMetal
- Z Corp.
- Soligen
- Specific Surface
- Therics
- Pfaltzgraff
- MMCC
- TDK
U.S. government-sponsored R&D
- NSF funding
- DoD funding
- DoC funding
RP academic programs
- RP educational activities
- Basic research activities
- Applied research activities
- Future trends and contributions from academia

RP materials
- Stereolithography resins
- Materials for other RP processes
- 3D printers
Medical modeling
- Research areas in medical RP
- RP is impacting the lives of patients
- RP helps conjoined twins in Australia
Reverse engineering
- The technology
- 3D data collection
- Data modeling (a.k.a. creating surfaces)
- First article inspection
- Note to the wise

Bright future
- Technology adoption life cycle
- The chasm, bowling alley, and tornado
System manufacturers
- Large company explodes onto the market
- U.S. economy
- Formula for success
Future developments
Divergent paths
- 3D printing
- Rapid manufacturing
What to expect
- Last great barrier
- New rules
Where to learn more
- Internet mail list
- GARPA
- RPA/SME