Wohlers Report

Wohlers Report 2012

Additive Manufacturing and 3D Printing State of the Industry
Annual Worldwide Progress Report ISBN 0-9754429-8-8

Order form, information, contributors, and press release
Available Now. Order your copy today!

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
About the principal authors

PART 1: BACKGROUND

  • Focus of this report
  • Introduction to additive manufacturing and 3D printing
  • History of additive manufacturing
    • May 2011 through October 2011
    • November 2011 to May 2012
  • Industries and regions benefiting from AM processes
    • How companies are applying AM processes
    • Installations by country

PART 2: APPLICATIONS

  • Prototyping
    • Visual aids and presentation models
    • Fit, function, and assembly
  • Tooling
    • Pattern-based tooling
    • Direct tooling
    • High-performance tooling
    • Alternatives to tooling
    • Manufacturing and assembly tools
  • Patterns and molds for metal casting
  • Architectural modeling
  • Medical applications
    • Anatomical and surgical models
    • Medical imaging options
    • Medical image-processing software
    • Materials for medical modeling
    • AM methods for medical modeling
    • Regulatory clearances of AM products
    • Custom, personalized instruments
  • Direct part production
    • Aerospace
    • Automotive and motorsports
    • Machinery
    • Medical
    • Avatars and figurines
    • Furniture, home, and office accessories
    • Musical instruments
    • Consumer-created products
    • Art and jewelry
    • Gifts, trophies, and memorials
    • Marketing and advertising
    • Museum displays
    • Fashion products
  • Future applications

PART 3: PROCESSES AND MATERIALS

  • Processes
    • Material extrusion
    • Material jetting
    • Binder jetting
    • Sheet lamination
    • Vat photopolymerization
    • Powder bed fusion
    • Directed energy deposition
  • Materials
    • Plastics
    • New plastics
    • Metals
    • New metals
    • Composites and hybrid materials
    • Materials for metal casting processes
    • Ceramics and other materials
    • Materials testing and international standards
  • Process/material matrix

PART 4: SYSTEM MANUFACTURERS

  • Arcam
  • Asiga
  • Bits from Bytes
  • Concept Laser
  • Delta Micro Factory Corp.
  • DWS
  • Envisiontec
  • EOS
    • Metal materials and process
    • Polymer materials and process
    • DMLS molds
    • New developments
  • Essential Dynamics
  • ExOne
  • Fab@Home
  • Fabbster
  • Fabrisonic
  • Irepa Laser
  • MakerBot Industries
  • Matsuura
  • Mcor
  • Objet
    • Merger with Stratasys
    • New Connex printer
    • New materials
  • Optomec
  • Phenix Systems
  • POM
  • ReaLizer
  • Renishaw plc
  • RepRap
    • Machine improvements
    • Materials
    • Standalone RepRap printers
    • Moving to production lines
  • Sciaky
  • SLM Solutions
  • Solidscape
  • Stratasys
    • Merger with Objet
    • New Mojo printer
    • Other developments
  • 3D Systems
    • Acquisitions
    • New products
    • Personal, professional, and production 3D printers
    • Other business
  • Voxeljet
  • Emerging developments
    • High speed sintering
    • Ion fusion formation
    • Printoptical technology
    • Selective laser printing
    • Sintermask

PART 5: INDUSTRY GROWTH

  • Revenue from AM worldwide
    • Products and services
    • Growth percentages
    • Average selling price
    • Material sales
    • Service providers
    • Secondary market
    • Other services
  • Market opportunity and forecast
  • Industrial system unit sales
    • Unit sales growth percentages
    • Market shares
    • Systems sold by region
    • Market shares by manufacturer
    • Unit sales by manufacturer and year
    • Forecast
  • Personal systems
  • Investor update
    • Revenues and earnings
    • Outlook
  • Service providers
    • Industry survey
    • Economic recovery
    • The future

PART 6: GLOBAL REPORTS

  • Asia/Pacific
    • AM producers and users
    • Chinese machines
    • Korean machines
  • Japan
    • New material jetting machine
    • Stereolithography
    • FDM
    • Laser sintering
    • Service providers
    • AM for end-use part production
  • Australasia
    • Australia
    • New Zealand
  • Europe
    • Germany
    • United Kingdom
    • Italy
    • France
    • Spain
    • Sweden
    • The Netherlands
    • Denmark
    • Finland
    • Belgium
    • Portugal
    • Slovenia
    • Austria
    • Russia
  • Other regions
    • South Africa
    • Brazil
    • Groups and associations

PART 7: DIRECT PART PRODUCTION

  • Changing the way you manufacture
  • Why use AM for production?
    • Customer satisfaction
    • Reduction of tooling
    • Part consolidation
    • Part quality
    • Industry standards
  • Design for additive manufacturing
    • A new way of thinking
    • Consumer design
  • Cost analysis and economics
  • Environmental considerations
    • Design freedom
    • Raw material use
    • Sustainability implications
    • Distribution and logistics
    • Consumer and home production
    • Disposal and recycling
    • Environmental assessment tools
    • Looking ahead
  • Intellectural property implications
    • Limited applicability of IP
    • Contributory liability for patent infringement
    • Increased importantce of trademark
    • Coming to terms with copyright
  • Product liability implications
  • Required research and development
    • Processes
    • Materials and related considerations
    • Organization, management, and supply chain issues

PART 8: FRONT AND BACK-END CONSIDERATIONS

  • CAD solid modeling
    • PTC replacement for Pro/Engineer progresses slowly
    • GrabCAD creates a design community
    • Digital thread makes interoperability inroads
    • CAD/PLM revenues return to pre-recession levels
    • Seat count estimates more art than science
  • 3D scanning and reverse engineering
    • 3D-scanning applications
    • 3D-scanning hardware
    • Hardware limitations
    • Processing software
  • Co-design/co-creation
  • 3D content and on-demand services
  • AM software tools
    • STL/AMF file review and repair
    • Lattice structures
    • KARMA
  • Post-processing
    • Removing material
    • Adding material
    • Changing material properties
    • Options that work for AM
    • Non-technical post-processing

PART 9: RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

  • Patents
  • Technology development
  • Consortia and collaborations
    • Additive Manufacturing Consortium
    • Direct Manufacturing Research Center
    • National Network for Manufacturing Innovation
    • U.S. government interagency group
    • ASTM International Committee F42
    • RapidTech and MatEd
  • U.S. government-sponsored R&D
    • National Science Foundation
    • Tools needed to enable new AM business models
    • Meso, micro, and nano scale technology
    • Basic research on existing AM technology
    • Educational research
    • National Institutes of Health
    • Department of Defense
    • Department of Energy
  • Academic activities and capabilities
    • AM educational activities
    • Research innovations
    • Institutions with AM capabilities
    • Future trends and contributions

PART 10: TRENDS AND THE FUTURE

  • Current trends
    • Serious manufacturing
    • New industry standards
    • Advances in metals
    • Lightweight, strong parts
    • New design tools
    • DIY maker community
    • Personal 3D printers
    • Explosion of new businesses
    • Labs with 3D printers
    • Expiration of key patents
    • New types of machines
    • Tooling from AM
    • Mainstream press
    • U.S. government
  • Future directions
    • Far more demanding applications
    • Printed batteries and electronics
    • Legal issues
    • Workflow management
    • 3D printers for children
  • Summary
  • Where to learn more

APPENDICES

  • Appendix A: Glossary of terms
  • Appendix B: System and material manufacturers
    • Austria
    • China
    • England
    • France
    • Germany
    • Ireland
    • Israel
    • Italy
    • Japan
    • Korea
    • Sweden
    • United States
  • Appendix C: U.S. system specifications
  • Appendix D: Systems manufactured outside the U.S.
  • Appendix E: Material properties
  • Appendix F: Direct metal AM comparison matrix
  • Appendix G: 3D scanning systems
  • Appendix H: 3D scan-processing software