Additive manufacturing shifts toward production: Wohlers Report 2022

By Bruce Geiselman 

Revenue from additive manufacturing (AM) products and services grew worldwide by 19.5 percent in 2021 to more than $15.2 billion, according to the Wohlers Report 2022. 

This is an increase from 7.5 percent growth in 2020, which was impacted greatly by the pandemic. 

“As expected, the industry has returned to a period of advancement and investment,” said Terry Wohlers, head of advisory services and market intelligence at Wohlers Associates, powered by ASTM International. “This expansion cuts across aerospace, health care, automotive, consumer products, energy and other sectors.” 

The report shows that AM increasingly is being used for production parts. Traditional applications have included prototypes, cosmetic models, tooling, jigs and fixtures. However, through surveying companies involved in 3D printing, Wohlers Associates found that producing final parts now represents 33.7 percent of all AM applications. 

Another sign of the growth in custom products and series production is the use of polymer powder in 2021, which increased by 43.3 percent to overtake photopolymers as the most-used AM material, the report said. 

Powder-bed fusion systems tend to be used more for end-use parts production than vat photopolymerization, Noah Mostow, market intelligence and analytics manager at Wohlers Associates, told Plastics Machinery & Manufacturing. 

AM is best suited for short-run production using polymers, composites, metals, ceramics and biomaterials, according to the report. The process typically is more expensive for serial part production than traditional manufacturing methods, such as injection molding, but costs have been coming down and, in certain situations, AM may be preferable.  

3D printing may offer enhanced performance, such as for parts with complex shapes that are either impossible or expensive to produce using traditional methods.  

“Examples are tools with conformal cooling channels, topology-optimized parts, and parts with internal cellular or lattice structures,” the Wohlers Report said. 

It also may be preferable for short production runs, or when the shape of each part is unique in some way, such as products customized for a specific user’s needs or body type.  

Tooling associated with formative manufacturing can be expensive and the cost increases with complexity. When the costs of tooling are spread over the production of many identical parts, formative manufacturing, such as injection molding, may be the most cost-effective option. However, AM eliminates tooling costs when production runs are small. 

“As engineers, designers and management get to understand the technology better, we’re beginning to understand more of where it makes sense,” Mostow said. “It really is dependent on many factors. It might be the material used in the past, the quantities that are going to be produced, and how much you can improve the design … I use the example all the time, if you’re going to go and 3D print a cup, and you need a million of them, don’t, because it doesn’t make sense. You can create a mold; you can create tooling. But if you’re creating this complex, intricate design, like a manifold, or vents for an aircraft, and you can lose weight, and you can increase air efficiency, then you begin to create a business case to use 3D printing.” 

The ability to consolidate parts also can justify the additional expense. 

“It’s good for complex parts, which perhaps you couldn’t, or it would be very difficult, to injection mold,” Mostow said. “If you can reduce assembly by consolidating a lot of parts into one using 3D printing, that’s another situation where it makes sense to use 3D printing.” 

Complex lattice structures that can only be accomplished through 3D printing also are commonly used in end-use products. For example, shoe manufacturer Hilos is creating lattice-structured insoles for women’s shoes using 3D printing to give superior cushioning, Mostow said. In addition, Carbon has been working with sporting goods companies to produce football helmets and gloves using lattice structures for flexibility and cushioning that otherwise would be difficult or impossible to achieve. 

AM also can speed product development and improve product quality.  

AM is best suited for producing small parts. Printing large parts can be time consuming, which lowers production rates and can drive up costs.  

The technology also allows manufacturers to reduce inventory by consolidating parts and through on-demand manufacturing, which reduces the need for storage and warehousing. Reducing inventory frees up capital, while reducing the number of parts in an assembly reduces cost and time associated with documentation and inspection. It can also reduce labor costs.  

Overall, Wohlers Associates believes that creating end-use parts will become the largest and most significant application of AM. The introduction of new types of machines, materials, applications and software products will help fuel the growth. 

The industries in which Mostow expects the most significant growth are aerospace, medical devices and consumer products. 

“The aerospace industry is definitely one that is looking at this because if you can reduce the weight [of a part] by even a few grams, over the lifespan of the plane, it can save you hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars, depending on how much you save just on gas alone,” Mostow said. 

In the medical industry, manufacturers of dental aligners have been 3D printing molds customized for patients that are then used to vacuum form polymer aligners. However, in 2021, two companies, LuxCreo Inc. and Graphy Inc., introduced 3D printed dental aligners using vat photopolymerization printing, Mostow said. The medical industry is interested in expanding the 3D printing of devices because of the need for personalization. 

In the consumer products sector, Mostow pointed to the Cell Alpha Triphonic speaker from Syng Inc. as a recent example. The speaker can precisely project sound to a desired location within a room using a circular array produced using HP’s Multi Jet Fusion printers. 

The automotive industry, which has been using AM primarily to produce jigs and fixtures, is beginning to embrace printing of end-use parts, Mostow said. For example, Carbon and Italian manufacturer Lamborghini are working together to produce parts for luxury sports cars. 

“Currently, we’re more on that high-end scale,” Mostow said. “I do think with time as the cost comes down, we’ll see it get more into the cars that I could buy, but I think it’s going to take time.” 

The Wohlers Report 2022 was based on input from 260 companies, including printing service providers, manufacturers of AM systems and producers of third-party materials. In November, ASTM International, a global standards development organization, purchased Wohlers Associates. 

Bruce Geiselman, senior staff reporter

Contact: 

Wohlers Associates, powered by ASTM International, Fort Collins, Colo., 970-225-0086, www.wohlersassociates.com