3D printing

Despite the obstacles posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and persistent supply chain disruptions, the additive manufacturing market continues to find new applications and end-users. IDTechEx forecasts that 3D printing's continued innovation and meaningful adoption will lead the hardware and consumables market to surpass US$41 billion by 2033.

Open vs closed materials systems: In this article, IDTechEx Technology Analyst Sona Dadhania discusses how the dichotomy between "open" materials systems and "closed" materials systems (also known as platforms or architectures) affects the growth and utilization of materials for additive manufacturing.

To date, the commercialization of graphene has been more of a "material push" rather than a "market pull"; a solution looking for a problem. In this first phase, there were numerous technical and commercial barriers to overcome, which in materials science does not happen overnight. IDTechEx believes that this is changing, with graphene entering the next stage, the growth phase, of its commercial journey.

Thursday 21 July 2022 - Exploring the Dynamics of the $29.5 Billion 3D Printing Materials Market. Benchmarking relevant materials/players; identifying growth drivers and trends to watch for different classes of AM materials; examining key market activity; IDTechEx's market outlook for the industry

Nanomaterials remain a significant growth area with the potential to enable a wide range of next-generation technologies. This article will focus on CNT yarns and sheets before expanding on to high-aspect-ratio and hybrid materials; these are all at an earlier commercial stage than the main MWCNT market.

The growth potential for AM materials differs from printing equipment, as operational legacy printers continue to consume materials. Therefore, this segment of the 3D printing value chain represents a tremendous opportunity.

Perfectly imperfect - that is the technology landscape in metal 3D printing boiled down. Through an extensive benchmarking study, IDTechEx has asked the question: where are metal additive manufacturing technologies going, and where are the whitespaces for advancement in the metal AM landscape?

Commercializing a new material is not easy. Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) are the higher-performance variants of the carbon nanotube family, but unlike their multi-walled counterpart, they are still hunting for their killer application.

It is impossible to avoid headlines about the "graphene battery"; the concept of this Nobel Prize winning nanomaterial revolutionizing the energy storage market is naturally very enticing, but it is graphene's older sibling carbon nanotubes that have progressed beyond the hype and disillusionment phases of their commercial journey by finding a value-add high volume energy storage adoption.

Since 3D Systems commercialized stereolithography 30 years ago, 3D printer manufacturers who invented their own proprietary technology predominantly followed the same business strategy: selling their printers to customers. Until recently, it was the norm for established and rising 3D printing players, both in metal and polymer additive manufacturing, to follow the same path.