Wohlers Associates

Industry Briefing
November 2005

Worldwide Appetite of Additive Fabrication

Each year, Wohlers Associates estimates the number of additive fabrication systems sold and installed in all countries around the world. Among the countries with a sizeable installed base of systems, the U.S. lost the most ground, dropping from 43% to 37.3%. Its share was expected to decline as China and other countries modernize product development methods and embrace additive processes. Germany increased its share worldwide by 1.8% while the UK increased its share by 1.6%.

The largest gain (4.4%) was in the “other” category, which consists of a large of countries that has been mostly off the "radar screen" in the past. South Africa, for example, grew from two systems sold in 2003 to 15 sold last year. Mexico grew from five to 26, and Russia grew from nine to 29. Meanwhile, Canada grew by an impressive 4.4 times, according to estimates from Wohlers Associates.

These estimates represent 14,144 of the 14,381 systems that have been sold and installed worldwide through the end of last year. Used system sales have been excluded from the totals so that the same machine is not counted more than once. The manufacturers of additive systems contributed most of the data used to produce the estimates.

The previous information was taken from Wohlers Report 2005, a 256-page global market study. The report's table of contents, as well as additional information on the market and industry, are available at http://wohlersassociates.com.

Wohlers Talk: Always Room for Improvement

In recent weeks, I attended the Stratasys and Z Corp. user conferences in Florida and New Hampshire, respectively. Both were excellent. One of the most interesting sessions at the two events was the formation of the "wish list" by the customers in attendance. In case you are not familiar with wish lists, they are a chance for users to voice what they would like to see added or changed in their products.

The customers at both user conferences created lengthy lists of problems that they hope will be solved. One might wonder why these lists are so long after 10-15 years of development. (Stratasys introduced its first machine in 1991, while Z Corp. introduced its first in 1996.) While this may seem puzzling on the surface, there's a good reason. As new generation products are introduced, and as customers expand the range of applications, new problems (and opportunities) develop. The best system manufacturers seek customer input to assist with revision and refinement of their products to make them as good as they can possibly be.

I could not help but think that at least a few of the employees of these two companies were a little uncomfortable having an industry consultant and analyst witness live and unpredictable customer input. What I found was that they were completely open to new ideas and advice and were not afraid to have others hear it like it is. It sent a strong message to me that both companies are serious about customer satisfaction and the future of this industry, even if it means exposing some dirty laundry.

Note: Wohlers Talk is a blog that offers views, perspective, and commentary related to rapid product development and other topics of interest. Seventy-seven commentaries have been published since February 2003. To view them, visit http://wohlersassociates.com and click "Wohlers Talk."