3D printing market overview Automatic translate

In the first quarter of 2013, the 3D printing and rapid prototyping sector is gaining more and more popularity. Designers of many large brands are actively using new technologies. Nike recently unveiled its first football boots, partially consisting of elements printed on a 3D printer - the sole was made using laser powder sintering technology.

3D printer dress

Another of the significant projects to which the last half a year has riveted the attention of the community of 3D modellers, Formlabs. He raised a record $ 3 million at the KickStarter startup funding site. This team of specialists in the field of 3D printing has developed a unique high-resolution 3D printer. Its cost is about $ 3,200, the dimensions of the printer’s working area are 125x125x165mm, and the minimum layer thickness is 25 microns. The company has received a huge number of pre-orders and has not yet cope with such a volume. Employees do not have time to assemble components and monitor the quality of Form 1 3d printers, but they plan to ship the first shipments in April.

Another leading company in the field of 3D printing and bioengineering, Materialize, announced on March 15 a new high-performance material called TPU 92A-1. The material can be used by designers in 3D printers, it is durable and flexible, has a high resistance to abrasion, the operating temperature range is from -20 to +80 degrees Celsius. In January, a dress created from TPU 92A-1 by Dutch clothing designer Iris Van Herpen made her debut on one of the models at Paris Fashion Week.

The great demand for 3d printers is forcing their developers to use the latest trends in the development of electronics and supplies. According to experts, in the coming years, the market for 3d printing devices will expand most actively in the field of architecture, engineering and medicine.

There is no doubt that 3D printing is the technology of the future, hundreds of thousands of developments of both large companies and private researchers confirm this. The situation can be compared with the period of the 90s, when laser printers began to develop. The only question is which manufacturers can withstand high competition, and whose products will sink into oblivion.

Closely interconnected with printers are 3d scanners with which you can copy objects. But the devices that are currently on the market have many drawbacks and for inexperienced users are essentially useless gadgets. The user must know and be able to work in CAD environments to adjust the resulting 3d models. While a system like “scanned - received a 3d model - printed on a 3d printer” is a utopian dream, although some manufacturers are taking steps in this direction. MakerBot introduced the prototype 3d scanner Desktop 3D Scanner. Of course, the product is still quite crude and far from its mass production, but the step can be called successful, and in the future, we hope, let us make 3d printing even simpler.