The following was published in the November/December 2007 issue of Time-Compression
Technologies
as a part of the special Service Provider Supplement.
The
Outgrowth of Service Providers
In the last
several years, a number of new materials for additive systems have been
developed that greatly increase the ability of parts to be used as
functional prototypes. As a consequence, the demand for functional
prototype parts is expected to increase and service providers will
likely fulfill the bulk of this demand.
Tom Mueller and Terry Wohlers
Editor’s Note: The following was
excerpted from Wohlers Report 2007, a global study on additive
fabrication for applications such as modeling, prototyping, pattern
making, replacement part manufacturing and custom and short-run
production. Details on the report are at http://wohlersassociates.com
.
Service providers, also referred to as
service bureaus, offer part-building services to design and
manufacturing organizations as an outsourced service. In addition to
part building, many service providers offer design, CAD/CAM/CAE, data
translation, tooling, urethane casting from silicone rubber molds,
reverse engineering and other engineering and manufacturing services.
Service providers have been a fixture in the
industry since the systems were first introduced, offering part-building
services to organizations that were reluctant to invest in a new
technology, could not afford the systems or could not justify the
purchase of a system.
Industry’s relentless pursuit of
time-to-market reduction stimulated the initial growth of service
providers. In the boom times of the 1990s, corporations operated on the
belief that first-to-market wins and all others languish. This drove the
demand for services.
Over the past few years, service providers
have had to contend with a business climate that places as much emphasis
on cost reduction as time to market. They have also faced the challenge
of delivering value to their clients in an environment of much lower
cost additive systems that are safe and easy to operate.
While service providers continue to play a
valuable role in the industry, the nature of that role is changing. Many
of the services provided in the 1990s by service providers, such as
concept models, are largely being done by in-house systems. Most service
providers have changed the types of services they provide to adapt to
changing demand.
Improving Conditions This year, 56 organizations in 16 countries
participated in the survey. Thirty were from the U.S., five from
Germany, three from India, two each from Australia, Belgium, England,
South Africa, and Turkey and one each from Brazil, Canada, Italy, Japan,
Malaysia, New Zealand, Sweden and Thailand.
While the industry went through a slump in
the early part of the decade, it is clear that there has been a positive
trend over the last three years. In fact, both the mean and median rates
of growth in the primary market (sales of additive fabrication services)
have steadily increased over the last three years, as shown in the
following chart. The top line represents the mean growth, while the
bottom line represents the median growth.
Possibly a better indicator of service
providers’ confidence in the market is whether they are adding
capacity to handle the increased business. If a provider does not feel
that increased demand will continue, it will be reluctant to invest
thousands of dollars in new equipment to handle the demand.
The following chart shows the percentage of
respondents that added additive fabrication capacity for each of the
last three years. Confidence is increasing with nearly two-thirds of
service providers expanding capacity in the recent past.
The Future In the last several years, a number of new
materials for additive systems have been developed that have greatly
increased the ability of parts to be used as functional prototypes. In
fact, it is now possible to reasonably simulate the characteristics of
most injection-molded plastics and actually draw conclusions about the
viability of a production part from testing the prototype. As a
consequence, the demand for functional prototype parts has increased.
Service providers will fulfill the bulk of this demand. Functional
prototypes typically require more costly systems, and to simulate a
range of plastics, a range of materials must be stocked. Most end users
will not want to deal with the additional cost and complexity, and will
outsource these needs.
An outgrowth of the service business has been
what might be called “indirect rapid manufacturing.” It is creating
an intermediate step in the manufacturing process to avoid the need to
create tooling. An example is using additive fabrication to create
patterns for investment casting. While it does not create an end-use
product directly, it allows castings to be made quickly without the use
of tooling. Such applications are growing quickly and now make up a
significant part of many service provider revenues. Such applications
are expected to grow significantly over the next few years.
A market for direct rapid manufacturing is
becoming a reality. While it has taken years to develop, it is expected
to grow steadily. Service providers will do a great deal of this work.
It represents only a small percentage of most service providers’
business, but that percentage is anticipated to grow steadily over the
next several years. TCT
Tom Mueller is partner and
co-founder of Express Pattern (Vernon Hills, IL), a supplier of rapid
prototyping services and a leading provider of patterns for investment
casting. For more information, visit expresspattern.com.
Terry Wohlers is president of Wohlers Associates (Fort Collins,
CO), an independent consulting firm that has provided assistance to more
than 150 organizations in 20 countries. For more information, visit http://wohlersassociates.com.
For many years, Wohlers Associates has conducted an informal survey of
service providers to gauge the state of the industry. In early 2005,
Wohlers Associates began a more formal survey of service providers to
determine the industry’s health. Participation is confidential and
completely voluntary. It is believed that companies who are doing well
are more likely to respond than those who have a bad year. Consequently,
there is a margin of error in the data gathered.
The demand for prototyping services, while growing, has changed
significantly since the heyday of the 1990s. The demand for concept
models is increasing significantly. However, the bulk of demand is now
being met by low cost systems owned by designers, not by service
providers.
