AMPOWER Report 2021

Additive
Manufacturing
Report

The independent market
and technology source
powered by AMPOWER

Download Management Summary Purchase the new AMPOWER Report 2021

AMPOWER Report 2021

Additive
Manufacturing
Report

The independent market
and technology source
powered by AMPOWER

Download Management Summary Purchase the new AMPOWER Report 2021

Selected references

AMPOWER Report

Market numbers and deep dives into all AM technologies

Market

A detailed analysis with more than 90 figures and diagrams describe the worldwide industrial metal and polymer Additive Manufacturing market of today and tomorrow. The data is based on primary research results with industry experts and representatives of the supply chain and user market.

Technology

Learn about the state of the art and maturity level of all known Additive Manufacturing technologies. Make a deep dive into supply chain, materials, design characteristics and cost. Access the extensive supplier and application database.

Go to Report METAL table of contents

Go to Report POLYMER table of contents

References

What our customers say

“The AMPOWER Report offers unique and transparent insights into the market from a supplier and user perspective. Going beyond the hype associated with 3D printing, the AMPOWER team delivers a comprehensive analysis, focusing on facts and unbiased market data. This supports us at BASF Forward AM in understanding market developments and technology trends – and to continuously make the right decisions.”

François Minec
Managing Director BASF 3D Printing Solutions GmbH

Why AMPOWER Report

Good reasons for the AMPOWER Report

The authors combine over 30 years of experience in Additive Manufacturing as well as over 150 international customer projects and trained more than 300 engineers worldwide. The report is the first of its kind, that combines direct personal interviews with users and suppliers of the industry. The system suppliers that contributed direct input for the AMPOWER report represent over 90 % of the worldwide installed base of Additive Manufacturing machines. The users, who contributed direct input for the report, represent over 10 % of the worldwide installed base.

Get full access to the report

Over 300 personal interviews
Responding system suppliers represent over 90% of installed base
Authors with more than 150 international AM projects
Complete independence and transparency
Reliable data with regular updates
Direct access to all data via report portal

Quick access

Dive into Additive Manufacturing

AMPOWER

Maturity of metal technologies

30. March 2021

As of now, 18 different working principles are known with over 140 OEMs supplying machines. The technologies have a different state in terms of technology and industrialization maturity. The AMPOWER Maturity Index provides an overview of the technologies.

AMPOWER

Maturity of polymer technologies

30. March 2021

As of today, 16 different working principles are known with over 160 OEMs supplying industrial machines. To successfully employ polymer Additive Manufacturing, the printing process and its properties must be understood. AMPOWER provides and overview of each technology principles regarding process chain, part and material properties and maturity

Polymer Additive Manufacturing history

30. March 2021

First experimental set-ups and early machine concept developments in Additive Manufacturing go back to the 60s and 70s of the 20th century. The Additive Manufacturing market landscape has changed over the last decades. It all started with the invention of the Stereolithography process by Charles Hull. This Invention can be declared as the point of origin for the polymer AM market as well as the entire AM market.

Material Jetting

26. March 2021

Material Jetting, sold under the brand name of PolyJet, allows high accuracy and detail. This process enables the combination of separate materials with different characteristics in one process.

AMPOWER

Pellet based Material Extrusion

26. March 2021

Pellet based Material Extrusion is a modification of Filament based Material Extrusion. The two technologies only differ regarding the used feedstock form and the extrusion principle. These differences also affect the potential uses of the technologies. While filament is generally used for small and medium size parts, Pellet based ME can output higher volumes of 10x or 100x or more to create large parts. But not only the higher throughput and speed are a decision factors, also the pellet feedstock is considerably lower in cost than filament.

Continuous Fiber Material Extrusion

26. March 2021

Continuous Fiber Material Extrusion is a modification of Filament Based Material Extrusion. In addition to the use of thermoplastic material a continuous fiber is used to increase the mechanical properties of the produced part. This technology nowadays supplied by several suppliers such as MARKFORGED, ANISOPRINT and DESKTOP METAL.

AMPOWER

Filament based Material Extrusion

26. March 2021

Material Extrusion, also known as Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) or Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF), was developed and patented by STRATASYS in the early days of Additive Manufacturing. After the patent expired in 2009, this technology played a major role in the development of the consumer 3D printing market as well as the expansive adoption of Additive Manufacturing in the industry.

AMPOWER

Area-wise Vat Polymerization

26. March 2021

Area-wise Vat Polymerization, known also as Digital Light Processing or DLP, is a modification of Vat Polymerization. Instead of selective curing of a photopolymer by laser, a UV projector is used that cures an entire layer at once. This technology was first introduced by ENVISIONTEC and its founder Al Siblani. Nowadays this process is especially popular in the medial sector. Dental aligners, hearing aids and other customized products are produced via this technology in high numbers and take advantage of the accuracy and speed of this technology.

AMPOWER

Vat Polymerization

26. March 2021

Vat Polymerization also known as Stereolithography (SLA) is the origin of the 3D printing technology. Variations of the process have been developed over the last 40 Years to increase the efficiency and the accuracy of the process. Especially the medical sector is taking advantage of the various polymerization processes.

AMPOWER

Thermal Powder Bed Fusion

26. March 2021

Thermal Powder Bed Fusion also known under the brand names of Multi Jet Fusion (MJF) or High-Speed Sintering (HSS) was patented by Neil Hopkinson in 2004. This technology stands out with its productivity and high production capabilities. Thermal Powder Bed Fusion was commercialized by HP as well as VOXELJET.

AMPOWER

Laser Powder Bed Fusion

26. March 2021

Laser Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF), also known by its brand name of Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) is a proven AM technology. This technology is well established in the market and is used to produce prototypes, end use parts as well as spare parts. Especially the development over the past years of high temperature material systems made this technology also relevant for industrial use within aviation and other high-performance industries.

Future polymer Additive Manufacturing technologies

26. March 2021

Many new Additive Manufacturing technologies that are currently in R&D state are promising superior speed or new materials. Every year, new Additive Manufacturing technologies are announced and it is expected that this development will continue through the next years. This report section introduces most of those future Additive Manufacturing technologies and evaluates their current maturity level.

Innovations in AM software 2021

26. March 2021

Additive Manufacturing experiences massive growth and is considered to be one of the key technologies on the path of digitalization and industry 4.0. The ability of manufacturing parts directly from a CAD file enables mass-customization and on-demand production. Software is the key in design generation and processing of production data.

Additive Manufacturing start-ups

30. April 2020

Additive Manufacturing is a highly dynamic and innovative industry. This leads to start-ups that form the technology landscape. Emerging mostly from university background, start-ups are most active in area of system development. Other fields include software, materials and applications.

Additive Manufacturing standards

22. April 2020

The first user and supplier of Additive Manufacturing had to develop internal Additive Manufacturing standards all by themselves. New Additive Manufacturing standards enable for a faster adoption of the technology and allow suppliers and users to develop new Additive Manufacturing applications much faster. In this report section, the ASTM is reporting the current status of Additive Manufacturing standardization.

Additive Manufacturing market by material

6. November 2019

The metal Additive Manufacturing material market is expected to almost tripple in feedstock use in the next five years. Regardless the high growth, the feedstock accounts for only a very small fraction of the worldwide metal material market. Most of the alloy consumption in AM is driven by high end applications in aviation and medical. Thus, high strength and high temperature alloys are taking large shares.

Metal Additive Manufacturing history

31. October 2019

First experimental set-ups and early machine concept developments in Additive Manufacturing go back to the 60s and 70s of the 20th century. However, the first commercial systems have only been available since the late 80s. Generally, Charles Hull is credited with the invention of the first commercialized AM technology Stereolithography (SLA) and was granted the first patent in Additive Manufacturing.

Additive Manufacturing market by industry

30. October 2019

Many different industries have successfully adopted metal Additive Manufacturing. Medical and dental can be regarded as pioneering industry with serial productions starting in the early 2000s. Other industries, especially aerospace continue to play a strong part in metal Additive Manufacturing.

Additive Manufacturing industrialization

29. October 2019

Over 18 different metal AM technologies are currently known, which are in highly different stages of maturity. Processes like Powder Bed Fusion or Powder Laser Deposition are well-established in multiple industries and used in qualified productions of serial parts. Other AM technologies have just been introduced into the market or are still in a phase of development.

Additive Manufacturing Market By Technology

29. October 2019

The metal Additive Manufacturing technology market will face large shifts in distribution and usage of AM principles due to new and upcoming technologies entering the market. Today, the large majority of machines sold and used are Laser Beam Powder Bed Fusion systems. However, technologies such as Binder Jetting or Wire Arc Deposition will significantly increase their market share over the next 5 years.

Additive Manufacturing Market by Region

29. October 2019

At the early days of metal Additive Manufacturing, Germany was the leading market region with its first movers in LB-PBF technology CONCEPT LASER (now GE), EOS, REALIZER (now DMG MORI) and SLM SOLUTIONS. Hence, many pioneering users were located in Germany and Europe. By now, however, the market share is more evenly distributed with suppliers and buyers from all over the major industrial regions.

Additive Manufacturing market size

25. October 2019

Additive Manufacturing is experiencing massive growth and is considered to be one of the key technologies on the path of digitalization and industry 4.0. The ability of manufacturing parts directly from a CAD file is creating high expectations in the market. Nevertheless, the metal Additive Manufacturing market size is still a niche compared to other manufacturing technologies.

Additive Manufacturing cost

14. October 2019

At the end all potential benefits of AM have to be expressed in one deciding factor: Cost. If during the evaluation and decision process Additive Manufacturing technology cannot show its cost-effectiveness or increase the margin, other means of productions will be employed. Thus, it is critical to understand how to derive Additive Manufacturing cost on component level, but also how to consider including secondary cost saving effects in the complete analysis.

Future Metal Additive Manufacturing Technologies

10. October 2019

Coldspray

8. October 2019

Coldspray is an Additive Manufacturing technology based on a traditional coating technology. Powder particles are bonded in solid state only by plastic deformation due to impact. This leads to extremely high productivity but the level of details and the data preparation are challenging.

Wire Arc Deposition

7. October 2019

Wire arc Additive Manufacturing is based on conventional wire based welding processes such as MIG, MAG and TIG welding. Due to its simplicity and low cost input material, the technology promises very high build rates at low cost. However to achieve the full flexibility that Additive Manufacturing claims, efforts in data preparation are still necessary.

Powder Laser Deposition

30. September 2019

Powder feed laser energy depositioning, also known as laser metal depositioning (LMD) is known as a welding technology since several years. Recently the technology is being adapted as an Additive Manufacturing technology by system integrators and off the shelf system providers. In this report section you learn about the background of LMD.

Binder Jetting

29. September 2019

The patents for Binder Jetting are as old as the ones from laser beam powder bed fusion. However in recent years, the technology is getting more attention due to several new players in the field who claim, Binder Jetting might enable large volume metal Additive Manufacturing production. In this report section, you learn everything about the background and state of the art of this technology.

Electron Beam Powder Bed Fusion

28. September 2019

In the shadow of LB-PBF, electron beam powder bed fusion (EB-PBF) developed as a major technology for certain applications like hip cups. Learn all about the state of the art of EB-PBF in this report section, the advantages of the technology and the further developments that are expected with nwe suppliers who are entering the market.

Laser Beam Powder Bed Fusion

27. September 2019

LB-PBF or laser beam powder bed fusion, also known as selective laser melting (SLM), is the most known metal Additive Manufacturing technology. With an installed base of over 7,000 systems, the technology is now wide spread with many public applications in production. This report section gives a broad overview of the state of the art of laser beam powder bed fusion.

Metal Additive Manufacturing Process Chain

14. September 2019

The 3D Printing process is only one step of the Additive Manufacturing process chain. In the past years, the focus of many Additive Manufacturing users shifted to the pre and post processes of Additive Manufacturing after the first step of the ideal AM design.

Metal Additive Manufacturing design

9. September 2019

Additive Manufacturing design is one of the major key success factors for the implementation of the technology. Today, most companies are familiar with the basics of the right design for Additive Manufacturing however new sinter based technologies have completely new process driven limitations and potentials.

Metal Additive Manufacturing materials

1. September 2019

The majority of available metal Additive Manufacturing materials is based on existing traditional alloys. Not all materials can be processed by the different AM technologies. This report section gives an overview of the available materials and their specific profiles.

Metal FDM

31. August 2018

Learn the background and state of the art of metal FDM. The process is based on the widely known polymer technology called fused depositioning modeling also known as FDM. Several variants are known and many new suppliers are currently going to market with either metal FDM system technology or Feedstock.

AMPOWER

Maturity of metal technologies

30. March 2021

AMPOWER

Maturity of polymer technologies

30. March 2021

Polymer Additive Manufacturing history

30. March 2021

Material Jetting

26. March 2021

Material Jetting, sold under the brand name of PolyJet, allows high accuracy and detail. This process enables the combination of separate materials with different characteristics in one process.

AMPOWER

Pellet based Material Extrusion

26. March 2021

Continuous Fiber Material Extrusion

26. March 2021

AMPOWER

Filament based Material Extrusion

26. March 2021

AMPOWER

Area-wise Vat Polymerization

26. March 2021

AMPOWER

Vat Polymerization

26. March 2021

AMPOWER

Thermal Powder Bed Fusion

26. March 2021

AMPOWER

Laser Powder Bed Fusion

26. March 2021

Future polymer Additive Manufacturing technologies

26. March 2021

Innovations in AM software 2021

26. March 2021

Additive Manufacturing start-ups

30. April 2020

Additive Manufacturing standards

22. April 2020

Additive Manufacturing market by material

6. November 2019

Metal Additive Manufacturing history

31. October 2019

Additive Manufacturing market by industry

30. October 2019

Additive Manufacturing industrialization

29. October 2019

Additive Manufacturing Market By Technology

29. October 2019

Additive Manufacturing Market by Region

29. October 2019

Additive Manufacturing market size

25. October 2019

Additive Manufacturing cost

14. October 2019

Future Metal Additive Manufacturing Technologies

10. October 2019

Coldspray

8. October 2019

Wire Arc Deposition

7. October 2019

Powder Laser Deposition

30. September 2019

Binder Jetting

29. September 2019

Electron Beam Powder Bed Fusion

28. September 2019

Laser Beam Powder Bed Fusion

27. September 2019

Metal Additive Manufacturing Process Chain

14. September 2019

Metal Additive Manufacturing design

9. September 2019

Metal Additive Manufacturing materials

1. September 2019

Metal FDM

31. August 2018

Additive Manufacturing market report

The industry on the verge of production

The AMPOWER Report 2021 values the Additive Manufacturing market at EUR 7.17 billion in 2020. While system sales revenues in polymer and metal Additive Manufacturing markets are at a similar level, material and part manufacturing services are much more developed for polymers resulting in a larger share of revenue. The metal AM market alone is valued at EUR 2.03 billion in 2020 with an expected CAGR of 29.2 % until 2025, while the polymer market will growth with 15.4 % annually starting at EUR 5.14 billion in 2020.

Overall, suppliers forecast an annual growth of 20.0 % for the total market and is thus projected to reach EUR 17.83 billion in 2025. The system suppliers, that faced a challenging year in 2020, expect overall the largest yearly gain of 24.3 % in the next 5 years. The material and part manufacturing suppliers for metal and polymers expect growth rates well in the double-digits with 18.9 % and 18.0 %, respectively.

Go to the market section

About the Data

What is the basis of the AMPOWER Report

The report data is based on personal interviews with system suppliers, material suppliers, service bureaus and users of Additive Manufacturing. For the AMPOWER Report 2021 we talked to over 300 international experts of the industry. This primary research is backed by project experience and several market and technology studies from the past 14 years.

Learn about our methodology

Download the management summary free of charge!

Additive Manufacturing technology report

Applications are driving technology diversity

The spectrum of Additive Manufacturing has become wide and is continuously increasing. In metal, there are 18 different AM principles known and each one has a different set of characteristics, advantages and process chain as well cost structure and AM Maturity Index. Just in the year 2019, three new metal AM principles were publicly introduced and will be subsequently be developed and commercialized. To successfully employ Additive Manufacturing, the printing process and its properties must be understood. Moreover, the design, process chain and cost structure have to be considered. AMPOWER provides in the technology report section insights into these topics.

Go to the Technology section

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AMPOWER Report 2021

Additive Manufacturing Report

AMPOWER Report 2021

Additive Manufacturing Report

Selected references

AMPOWER Report

Market numbers and deep dives into all AM technologies

Market

Technology

References

What our customers say

Why AMPOWER Report

Good reasons for the AMPOWER Report

Quick access

Dive into Additive Manufacturing

Additive Manufacturing market report

The industry on the verge of production

About the Data

What is the basis of the AMPOWER Report

Download the management summary free of charge!

Additive Manufacturing technology report

Applications are driving technology diversity

Purchase

Login

Additive
Manufacturing
Report

Additive
Manufacturing
Report