Wohlers Report 2012
Additive Manufacturing and 3D Printing State of the Industry
Annual Worldwide Progress Report    
ISBN 0-9754429-8-8

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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