3D Printing TrendsQ1/2018

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TRENDS Q4 / 2017 3D HUBS

Introduction

Q1 in the 3D Printing Industry is starting 2018 with a great deal of optimism after a successful 2017 of unprece-dented innovation. This quarter we’ve added the first CNC data to the report showing the most popular materi-als and finishes currently being used in the industry. After the introduction of the 3D Hubs waiting list for suppli-ers, numbers in printer model and printer manufacturer distribution have slowed so they’ve been removed for this quarter. For those still interested you can find that data on the 3D Hubs blog.

3D Hubs 3D Printing Trends is a quarterly update using data from 6,000 active international service providers,who create more than 200,000 3D printed parts each quarter. It’s the only industry report based on hardnumbers and the most extensive overview of the latest trends in 3D printing.

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Title

Contents

Industrial Highest Rated industrial Printers

Most Used Industrial Printers

Desktop Highest Rated Desktop 3D Printers

Most Used Desktop Printers

Tech & Materials Most Used Technologies

7 Most Used Materials

8 FDM Color Distribution

9Geography Top Print Cities

10 Top Print Countries

11CNC Most Used Materials

12 Most Used Finishes

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TRENDS Q4 / 2017 3D HUBS

Highest Rated Industrial Printers

Industrial

Another quarter and another perfect Print Quality Rating for the iSLA-650 Pro in at #1, showing why engineers love to use industrial SLA. The Formiga P100 also had an exemplary quarter scoring 5.00 as the highest SLS rated machine in the list and joint top. The newer EOS machine, the Formiga P 110 rounds off the podium with a respectable 4.87 at #3 climbing up from #5 since Q4’s report.

SLS machines continue to dominate the Top 10 for Print Quality with 60% of machines listed using this technol-ogy. The sPro 230 has made a surprise entrance ranking #4, the older 3D systems machine continues to be a workhorse producing end-use parts.

These are the top 10 rated industrial printers out of 200 printer models listed on 3D Hubs, based on print quality ratings from customer review data. Only printers with more than 30 reviews in the quarter are included in these statistics.

Insights

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Printer Model

iSLA-650 Pro

Formiga P 100

Formiga P 110

sPro 230

EOSINT P 760

sPro 60

Objet Connex500

HP Jet Fusion 3D 4200

EOS P 396

Objet30 Prime

Technology

SLA

SLS

SLS

SLS

SLS

SLS

PolyJet

MJF

SLS

PolyJet

Printer Quality Rating

5.00

5.00

4.87

4.81

4.78

4.77

4.75

4.75

4.56

4.44

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TRENDS Q4 / 2017 3D HUBS

Most Used Industrial Printers

Industrial

The Most Used Industrial Printers for Q1 continues the trend set in Q4 with SLS again making up 70% of the list. HP’s Jet Fusion 3D 4200 continues its rise to the top, creating over 2,437 parts with the Formiga P 110 in #2 with a substantial gap of nearly 1,000 parts in it. The speed and price points of HP’s new machine makes it an attractive proposition for engineers.

It was a busier few months for PolyJet machines with both the Objet30 Pro and Objet Connex500 moving from #9/#10 to #5/#6 respectively.

These are the top 10 most used indsutrial printers out of 200 printer models listed on 3D Hubs. The data is based on customer prints from the previous quarter.

Insights

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Printer Model

HP Jet Fusion 3D 4200

Formiga P 110

SPro 230

sPro 60

Objet30 Pro

Objet30 Prime

EOS P 396

Formiga P 100

Projet 3500 HDMax

EOSINT P 760

Technology

MJF

SLS

SLS

SLS

PolyJet

PolyJet

SLS

SLS

Material Jetting

SLS

Prints

2,437

1,695

1,158

960

659

650

571

561

534

322

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TRENDS Q4 / 2017 3D HUBS

Highest Rated Desktop Printers

Desktop

Q4’s Highest Rated Desktop Printers has seen a complete change of landscape as the top 10 has seen a major shakeup at the top. The Makergear M2 has jumped from #6 to #1 in a surprise move, sporting a 4.89 print qual-ity rating. With less than 0.09 in it from #1 to #10, it’s a testament to the quality of the machines in the list and their users.

The Ultimaker 2+ has made an even bigger jump coming from #9 to #2, with an improved print quality rating of 4.88 compared to its 4.79 in Q4. Completing the top three is a familiar machine to regular readers of the report, the Original Prusa i3 MK2 has managed to achieve a 4.86 print quality rating with a staggering 813 reviews making all the more impressive.

These are the top 10 rated printers out of 700 printer models listed on our platform, based on print quality ratings from customer review data. Only printers with more than 140 reviews in the quarter are included in these statistics.

Insights

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Printer Model

Makergear M2

Ultimaker 2+

Original Prusa i3 MK2

Zortrax M200

Makerbot Replicator 2

ANET 3D - A8

Creality CR-10

Original Prusa i3 MK2S

Flashforge Creator Pro

Form 2

Technology

FDM

FDM

FDM

FDM

FDM

FDM

FDM

FDM

FDM

SLA

Reviews Print Quality Rating

133 4.89

261 4.88

813 4.86

269 4.85

123 4.85

142 4.84

170 4.84

310 4.83

391 4.83

729 4.80

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TRENDS Q4 / 2017 3D HUBS

Most Used Desktop Printers

Desktop

The Most Used Desktop Printer for Q1 is the Form 2 jumping from #2 to #1 to take back its spot as the busiest machine. The Form 2 created 12,023 parts and maintains itself as the only SLA machine for the past year, four reports. The Original Prusa i3 MK2 continues to showcase why it was named Best Workhorse printer in this years 3D Hubs printer guide, making 9,276 parts. The Flashforge Creator Pro maintains its spot at #3 creating 6,708 parts a marginal increase of 84 parts from Q4’s tally.

A real surprise entry is the Mankati Fullscale XT making the list for the first time with 3,848 parts made. The Chinese manufactured Mankati machine sports a dual extruder and 25 x 25 x 30 cm build volume.

These are the top 10 most used desktop printers out of 700 printer models listed on 3D Hubs. The data is based on customer prints from the previous quarter.

Insights

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Printer Model

Form 2

Original Prusa i3 MK2

FlashForge Creator Pro

Ultimaker 3

Ultimaker 2+

Mankati Fullscale XT

Original Prusa i3 MK2S

Ultimaker 2

Zortrax M200

PowerSpec Ultra 3D

Technology

SLA

FDM

FDM

FDM

FDM

FDM

FDM

FDM

FDM

FDM

Prints

12.023

9,276

6,708

6,173

5,394

3,848

3,830

3,537

3,381

3,346

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TRENDS Q4 / 2017 3D HUBS

Most Used Technologies

Tech & Materials

The most popular technology is FDM increasing its share up from 61% to 66%. SLA + DLP took back #2 spot from SLS (incl. MJF) maintaining the same percentage as Q4 with SLS (incl. MJF) dropping from 17% to 12%. The decrease in SLS use comes as a surprise when looking at the most used machines for Q4 with the technology making up 70% of the list. This could be down to the high output of desktop SLA machines such as the Form 2 which produced more parts than the entire industrial list put together.

CFF, Metal Sintering and Material Jetting kept the same percentage with little to no movement as the top three technologies fight it out for percentage points.

The data displayed shows the breakdown in revenue as a percentage for each technology.

Insights

66%

15%

12%

4%

2%

1%

1. FDM

2. SLA + DLP

3. SLS (incl. MJF)

4. Material Jetting (incl. PolyJet)

5. CFF

6. Metal Sintering (SLM + DMLS)

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TRENDS Q4 / 2017 3D HUBS

Most Used Materials

Tech & Materials

With FDM taking up 66% of the technologies used in the industry, its materials also take up a large proportion in terms of usage. PLA continues its rises moving 2% to 34% market share at #1, ABS continues chase also moving up 2% to 16% at #2 and standard resin also moved up to 2% to 10% at #3.

PA 12, the favoured material when using SLS takes up #4 with 9%, showing its the predominant material being used with the technology. PETG moves up to #5 and ASA makes its debut at #7. Both materials make great alternatives to ABS, PETG thanks to its ease of printing and ASA due to its chemical/weather resistance.

The data displayed shows the breakdown in revenue as a percentage for each material.

Insights

34%

16%

10%

9%

4%

3%

2%

1%

1%

19%

1. PLA

2. ABS

3. Standard Resin

4. PA 12

5. PETG

6. FDM Nylon

7. ASA

8. TPU

9. Vero (Rigid Opaque)

10. Other

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TRENDS Q4 / 2017 3D HUBS

FDM Color Distribution

Tech & Materials

The FDM Color Distribution remains largely unchanged but is still an excellent indicator of the what color mate-rials engineers/designers are using around the world. Black and white continue their dominance, the neutrality of the color makes them perfect for inconspicuous end-parts or for visual prototypes for review. White has closed the gap by 3%, moving to 21% as Black drops to 35%.

The data displayed shows the most popular colors this quarter, analysing the colors of submitted prints.

Insights

35%

21%

4%

4%

4%

2%

2%

2%

1%

24%

1. Black

2. White

3. Blue

4. Red

5. Grey

6. Orange

7. Silver

8. Transparent

9. Green

10. Other

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TRENDS Q4 / 2017 3D HUBS

Top Print Cities

Geography

New York has regained the thrown in Q1, becoming the #1 Print City in the world with 2.7% market share. London has dropped to #2 with 1.9% and San Francisco moves from #10 to #3 to complete the top 3.

The U.S is the most widely represented nation on the list with 7 out of the top 10 situated there. California as a state is the busiest in terms of 3D printing, with four cities included (San Francisco, Los Angeles, Berkeley and San Jose). Toronto completes the list in at #10 as the sole representative from Canada.

Insights

The data displayed shows the number of prints ordered last quarter per city as a percentage of the total. Other has been omitted to empha-sise the difference in the top ten cities.

2.7%

1.9%

1.6%

1.2%

1.1%

0.7%

0.7%

0.6%

0.6%

0.6%

1. New York

2. London

3. San Francisco

4. Amsterdam

5. Los Angeles

6. Washington

7. San Jose

8. Berkeley

9. Houston

10. Toronto

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TRENDS Q4 / 2017 3D HUBS

Top Print Countries

Geography

The Top Print Countries sees the top two unchanged, the USA keep exactly the same market share of 39.6%, and the UK has dropped 1% to 11.1% since Q4 in at #2. Canada has had an incredibly busy quarter rising from #6 to #3, even though it was only present in 1 city (Toronto) in the top cities list. This is down to the wide distribu-tion of orders across the nation as a whole.

Insights

The data displayed shows the number of prints ordered last quarter per country as a percentage of the total. Other has been omitted to emphasise the difference in the top ten countries.

39.6%

11.1%

7.4%

6.8%

6.3%

5.5%

3.6%

3.0%

1.8%

1.4%

1. United States of America

2. United Kingdom

3. Canada

4. Australia

5. Netherlands

6. Germany

7. France

8. Singapore

9. Italy

10. Belgium

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TRENDS Q4 / 2017 3D HUBS

Most Used Materials

CNC

After launching 3D Hubs CNC six months ago to expand our range of digital manufacturing technologies, data is now available to be reported on this technology. Aluminum 6061 is the most used material with 55.5% of all orders completed using this material. The striking lead at the top for Aluminum is down to the price point at which it’s available, the material properties it offers and its ability to be machined easily.

Those looking to create parts with higher stiffness used Stainless steel 304, which came a distant #2 with 12.6% and interestingly Other came #3 with 9.6%. Other can range from POM to PVC. Familiar to many 3D printer users, ABS came #4 with 8% as the highest used polymer in the top 8.

The data displayed shows the most popular materials this quarter, analysing the materials of submitted parts. Other denotes a material not specified in the materials listed and various indicated an order was made up of various parts containing a variety of materials.

Insights

55.5%

12.6%

9.6%

8%

4.6%

3.5%

3.4%

2.6%

1. Aluminum 6061

2. Stainless steel 304

3. Other

4. ABS

5. Various

6. Polycarbonate

7. Brass C360000ASA

8. Nylon1

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TRENDS Q4 / 2017 3D HUBS

Most Used Finishes

CNC

Due to the subtractive nature of CNC, minor tool marks will be visible on the surface of the part after machining. A number of post-processing and finishing methods can be applied to improve the surface roughness, visual properties and wear resistance of the CNC machined parts.

The most common selected finish with 78.5% is leaving the part as machined, this is likely down to the price of finishing adding to the total cost of the part and if it’s not needed. Bead blasting is #2, the process adds a uniform matte or satin surface on the part removing any tool markets. Completing the top 3 is Anodizing type II, which mainly used to produce parts with a smooth surface and provides good corrosion resistance. Learn more about surface finishes and post-processing CNC parts in this article.

Insights

78.5%

7.5%

3.3%

2.6%

2.2%

1.6%

1.6%

1.5%

0.5%

0.5%

0.3%

1. As machined

2. Bead blasting

3. Anodizing type II

4. Other

5. Various

6. Anodized color

7. Anodizing type III

8. Powder coating

9. Anodized clear

10. Anodized hardcoat

11. Silk screening

The data displayed shows the most popular finishes this quarter, analysing the finishes chosen for submitted parts. Other denotes a materi-al not specified in the materials listed and various indicated an order was made up of various parts containing a variety of materials.

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