Industry Briefing
February 2010

Direct Part Production from AM

Additive manufacturing (AM) technology is having a profound impact on the way some companies manufacture products. These organizations—some very small—are successfully applying the technology to the production of finished goods. Wohlers Associates believes that this practice will grow to become the most significant application of the technology. In the future, many organizations will use AM to manufacture a wide range of custom and limited-edition products and replacement parts. Companies will use AM for short-run and series production in part quantities ranging from one to thousands.

For the first time, a large and impressive number of consumer products from AM are available for purchase from multiple sources. For example, FigurePrints, a company founded by former Microsoft vice president Ed Fries, produced 1,700 custom products using AM for players of World of Warcraft in October 2008. This came only 10 months after the company launched the manufacturing service. 

Metaltec Innovations, a division of ProMetal (an Ex One company), uses AM to produce custom pulls, knobs, and knockers for doors. The company also manufactures metal sculptures for homes and businesses, as well as custom decorative tile that includes special themes and intricate detail.

The MGX division of Materialise of Belgium (Materialise.MGX) was launched in 2004. The group applies methods of additive manufacturing to the production of limited-edition lighting designs, furniture, and other home and office accessories. The complexity of most of the designs in the collection makes it impossible to produce them any other way. The MGX business was about $2 million in 2009, the majority coming from selling around 1,500 lamps. So far, about 10,000 MGX lamps have been sold worldwide.

Companies in the additive-manufacturing business are optimistic about the future growth of AM for part production applications. Organizations representing thousands of users and customers of AM technology from around the world responded to a survey on the subject. They believe that AM part production will represent 35.9% of their business in five years, as shown in the graph. In 10 years, the same companies believe it will represent more than half (50.5%) of their business. The survey respondents said that AM part production was 15.6% of their business in 2008.

Note: Much of the previous information was taken from Wohlers Report 2009, a 250-page global study that focuses on the advances in additive manufacturing worldwide. A detailed overview of the report, as well as additional information on the market and industry, are available at http://wohlersassociates.com. 


Wohlers Talk: James Cameron Uses 3D Printing

About a year ago, entertainer Jay Leno presented the use of laser scanning and 3D printing in a video clip on the Jay Leno’s Garage website. I learned last week that it has become the most popular video on the website. Perhaps it will take celebrities, such as Leno, to help create the awareness that these technologies deserve to become more broadly adopted.

On Tuesday of last week, I listened to inspiring anecdotes from film maker James Cameron, the producer of Avatar, at SolidWorks World 2010 in Anaheim, California. SolidWorks co-founder Jon Hirschtick interviewed him in front of more than 5,000 engineers, designers, and others interested in SolidWorks. I was surprised and glad to hear him say that he uses 3D printing to help bring some of his creations to life. What’s more, he envisions a day when the technology will be used to print parts and products on Mars rather than transporting them from earth. 

I was one of the lucky few to meet Cameron and have a short conversation with him. We talked about 3D printing and he agreed that there’s indeed a future market for an ultra-inexpensive version targeted at children for entertainment. I said to him, “You and I grew up with the Creepy Crawler Thing Maker, but the 21st Century “thing maker” will be an inexpensive 3D printer.” He responded by saying, “Absolutely,” with enthusiasm, although maybe he was only being kind. I gave him my business card, mildly hinting that it’s a project we could work on together, knowing clearly that the odds of it are slim, at best.

I found Cameron to be a nice guy and very down to earth. It’s no secret that he started his career as a machinist. He’s a hands-on guy that fully understands the value of getting your hands dirty and making stuff. During his interview with Hirschtick, he explained how he and his team designed and built a 12.7 kg (28 lb) stereoscopic camera used to shoot much of Avatar. Previous generation stereoscopic cameras were as large and heavy as refrigerators. Cameron surprised many by discussing everything from the use of tools for finite element analysis and computational fluid dynamics to deep sea exploration and space travel.

Avatar has received nine Academy Award nominations and broke box office records. Cameron also produced Titanic, the Terminator movies, Rambo: First Blood Part II, Aliens, The Abyss, True Lies, and many television documentaries. It’s good to know that people like Leno and Cameron are not only familiar with 3D printing, but they’re also using it and telling others about it.

Note: Wohlers Talk is a blog that offers views, perspective, and commentary on rapid product development and a wide range of other topics. More than 190 commentaries have been published since 2003. To view them, visit http://wohlersassociates.com/blog.

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