The sheer volume of new 3D printing announcements gives the impression that the technology is evolving on a weekly, if not daily basis. Certainly if 2018 set the bar, 2019 has not disappointed to date, with the number of new printer processes commercialized indicating that 3D printing is continuing to gain momentum. Forthcoming reports from IDTechEx Research help to navigate this rapidly moving domain, with three new reports covering the key areas of technological innovation.

Emerging semiconductor laser technologies are revolutionising the industrial material processing and optical sensing markets. Automotive and electronics industries are benefiting greatly from advances in laser manufacturing, 3D sensing and imaging, lidar, and industrial machine vision.

The IDTechEx Show! at the Estrel Convention Centre in Berlin, Germany on 10 - 11 April is the leading global event for product innovators and technology scouts. Opening the event will be two Cornerstone presentations that will cover exciting developments across these technologies.

One of the key industries to have successfully leveraged the advantages of 3D printing is the medical and dental industry. 3D printing allows for the creation of personalized medical devices to be streamlined, and it has also been used to improve surgical outcomes and deliver personalized medicines. IDTechEx has forecasted that the market for 3D printing of medical devices and living tissues will be worth $8.1 billion by the year 2029.

IDTechEx Launchpad will showcase innovations from 20 start-up companies at the IDTechEx Show! held in Berlin, Germany on 10-11 April 2019. All winners will be showing a new working prototype or product, many for the first time.

3D printing is rapidly reaching industrial commercialisation in numerous sectors; IDTechEx forecast that the total market will be worth $22bn by 2028. A new 3D Printing commercial insight forum is being hosted at the Autodesk facilities in Boston, USA, May 8-9 2019. This event provides expert led sessions giving technical analysis, commercial understanding and market outlooks across key topic areas. Each session will be conducted by an IDTechEx analyst and include a high-profile industrial speaker to give their key findings and opinions.

IDTechEx will be hosting a free webinar on Tuesday 12 March 2019 titled Advancements in 3D Printing.

The IDTechEx Show! presents 3D Printing 2019 in Berlin, which offers the opportunity for key innovators and end users across several verticals to share their insights and expertise in the leading edge of additive manufacturing. IDTechEx forecasts the total market value of 3D printers, materials and services will be $22 billion by 2028.

The IDTechEx Show! on April 10-11 in Berlin brings together eight key disruptive technologies and their customers at one venue.

3D Printing of composites is becoming an increasingly explored commercial opportunity. Approaching this from two directions: the 3D Printing industry are looking for functional enhancements to assist industrial uptake and meanwhile the traditional composites industry is looking at ways to allow more design freedom, accelerate time to market, and reduce the costs for low-production volume.

3D printing is rapidly reaching industrial commercialisation in numerous sectors; IDTechEx forecast that the total market will be worth $22bn by 2028. One of the key features is the design freedom this technology enables where, alongside other functional advantages, a major opportunity is in lightweighting.

NEO Tech AMT GmbH is one of the leading companies developing systems for 3D Printed Electronics (3D PE). The company installed the first 5 axis 3D PE system in 2010. Rapid advances lead to the first commercial installation for mass production for printed 3D circuits in mobile communications devices in 2015.

Though activities in 3D bioprinting have been growing in leaps and bounds since 2015, the activity we have seen in 2018 has been truly remarkable for this fledgling field. Finally, governments, academic institutions and companies alike are beginning to understand the value that 3D bioprinting can bring and are working hard together to bring disruptive change through building tissues from scratch.

Advancements in material science and material processing will always play a central role in any technological progression. IDTechEx has been providing leading market analysis on a broad range of advanced materials and their technology analysts have given their pick of the key news stories from 2018.

At the IDTechEx Show! Callaghan Innovation showcased MicroMaker, a new type of 3D printing for microstructures. MicroMaker enables fast, easy and affordable fabrication of miniaturized structures for innumerable applications such as printed electronics, wearables, sensors and point of care devices.

Technology analyst Dr Bryony Core reports on her findings at the IDTechEx Show! Santa Clara 2018

Approximately 3,500 attendees from 42 countries attended the IDTechEx Show!, which featured 284 exhibiting organizations. The event, held in Santa Clara, California, is unique in bringing together eight key technologies with the organizations that seek to use them.

In this article we will consider the existing and emerging applications of IME, looking at the latest prototypes, commercial success, etc. We will briefly examine value chain.

With the end of the year in sight IDTechEx looks back and reviews what has been new in the world of printed electronics in the last 12 months.

From its humble beginnings in the late 1980s, through to the global force that it is today, the capabilities of 3D printing technology have expanded dramatically, to establish itself as an attractive manufacturing solution for prototyping and production.