Global additive manufacturing market worth US$3.5M by 2017

Additive manufacturing (AM) is an automatic process used to create rapid prototypes and functional end-use parts. It takes virtual designs from Computer Aided Design (CAD) software, and transforms them into thin, virtual, horizontal layer-wise cross-sections, until the model is complete. Various synonyms generally used for AM are additive fabrication, additive processes, additive techniques, additive layer manufacturing, layer manufacturing, and freeform fabrication. The market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 13.5% from 2012 to 2017 to reach $3,471.9 million by 2017. It involves various industries, namely, motor vehicles, consumer products, business machines, medical, academic, aerospace, government/military, and others (architecture, paleontology, and forensic pathology).

The global additive manufacturing for medical devices market is fragmented into different categories based on its materials, products, application, and technology. The materials segment comprises of homogeneous and heterogeneous, whereas, the product category includes surgical equipment, prosthetics & implants, and tissue engineering. The global additive manufacturing market, by technology, comprises of electron beam melting, laser beam melting, photopolymerization, Droplet Deposition (DD) or Extrusion-based technologies, and Three Dimensional Printing (3DP) or Adhesion Bonding, while the application segment includes, orthopedic, dental, cranio-maxillofacial, and bio-engineering.

A large number of technological innovations in additive manufacturing procedures have been witnessed in the past years, with newer technologies coming up with rapid and accurate development of products in a cost-effective manner contributing to encourage widespread adoption of the additive manufacturing procedures by manufactures worldwide.

New and improved technologies, financial support from governments, large application area, rapid product development at a low cost, and ease of development of custom products are the major drivers that are slated to propel this market. However, a few pivotal factors restraining the growth of this market are regulatory hurdles in different countries, material characterization during development, and process control and understanding.