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3D Printing: Huge Growth: Market Size More Than Doubled in 2016
3D printers are moving forward in a big way. Gartner forecasts that the number of 3D printers to be sold in 2016 will be more than double the number sold in 2015. That’s an increase from 219,168 units in 2015 to an estimated 455,722 printers this year. Gartner estimates that by 2019 that 10 percent of people will own items printed by 3D printers.
The Gartner report found that “3D-printed personalized medical devices — hearing aids, dental implants and braces, and prosthetic limbs — are more common than many people know. So, too, are the uses of 3D printing to produce not only prototypes and finished goods, but also the tools, jigs and fixtures that are then used to make something else.”
Another area that has seen high adoption rates has been the defense industry. Pete Basiliere, research vice president at Gartner, said that “aircraft and aerospace manufacturers have been taking this approach for years, using 3D printers to produce low-volume parts and small lots of parts with complex designs,” he revealed. “Military organizations, whose equipment often has very long lives, are working with defense contractors to evaluate 3D printing of replacement and modified components on shore and at sea.”
Basiliere said, looking longer term, that “the technology evolution in 3D printing speed, in printhead flexibility (especially multiple microscaling orifices), and most important, in materials (especially new alloys and biosynthetic hybrids) will further augment the growth in this segment.”
