CROZET, Va., July 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- SmarTech Publishing, the leading provider of industry analysis and market forecasting data to the additive manufacturing industry, has released its latest annual market study on the polymer and plastic additive manufacturing market.  In the report the firm reports increasing industrialization efforts across various plastic printing technologies will result in $16B in industry revenues from the sale of printers and polymer-based print materials by 2027.

More details of the report including a table of contents and sample can be found at https://www.smartechpublishing.com/reports/ad...tics-2018/

SmarTech will be presenting data from this report as well as from other research programs at the firm’s upcoming Analyst Day event taking place on September 27, 2018 in the Metro Boston area.  See https://www.smartechpublishing.com/smartech-event/ for additional details. 

About the Report:

This latest edition of SmarTech Publishing’s ongoing coverage of polymer additive manufacturing features an all-encompassing, data-driven analysis of the historic, current, and future makeup of the industry and resulting primary revenue generating opportunities. The report provides deep-dive analysis into key polymer print technology segments in individual chapters, while also providing a cross-market analysis of opportunities and drivers present market-wide.

Technology coverage includes material extrusion, powder bed fusion, vat photopolymerization, material jetting, and binder jetting processes, with materials ranging from thermoplastic filaments, pellets, and powders, as well as photopolymers, thermoplastic composite materials, and more.

This report features a data-driven analysis, with expanded market data reporting capabilities from SmarTech’s advanced market models now integrated into every area of the report. Over 128 fully featured data exhibits are presented in categories ranging from printer installations, unit sales, revenues, pricing trends, and material data for shipments and revenues, split by print technology, printer class, material groups, end user industry, and more.

From the Report:

  • In the market for material extrusion-based polymer 3D printing, efforts to industrialize the classic extrusion printing concept are taking shape primarily in two areas –increasing the isotropic properties and Z-axis strength of parts, and improving the potential for high throughput manufacturing potential. Companies like BASF, Stratasys, BigRep, Essentium, and dozens more are working to redesign and improve filament extruders, develop thermoplastic composite materials, create multi-axis extrusion systems, and focus on high volume, swarm manufacturing using printer farms. SmarTech Publishing estimates that material extrusion 3D printing generated over 41 percent of all hardware revenues for polymer 3D printing in professional environments in 2017
  • In vat photopolymerization technology, the possibilities and scope of layer-free photopolymerization continue to expand to push the technology into new realms of direct end use part manufacturing using new more reactive resins resulting in strong, long-life plastic parts of modest sizes. Meanwhile, concurrent efforts to automate the pre-and-post processes associated with these technologies present attractive serial manufacturing capabilities for the near future. SmarTech Publishing estimates that within ten years, nearly 50 percent of vat photopolymerization machines sold will feature a layer-free printing architecture
  • Powder bed fusion technology for polymers continues to benefit greatly from efforts in metals additive manufacturing using similar processes, and polymer powder bed fusion systems are now reaping benefits of industrialization through parallelized machine design to increase productivity, high temperature processing for material expansion, and automated materials handling and post processing. SmarTech Publishing expects that shipments of powdered thermoplastic materials to support powder bed fusion markets will ultimately grow to nearly double that of the next closest polymer printing technology by 2027

About SmarTech Publishing: Since 2013 SmarTech Publishing has published reports on all the important revenue opportunities in the 3D printing/additive manufacturing sector and is considered the leading industry analyst firm providing coverage of this sector. SmarTech analysis and data drives strategy development in the additive industry and has been adopted and presented by many of the industry’s largest firms.

For more details on our company go to www.smartechpublishing.com

Media Contact: Robert Nolan SmarTech Publishing (804) 938-0030 rob@smartechpublishing.com

Sales: Missy Wade SmarTech Publishing missy@smartechpublishing.com

An infographic accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/Attachm...344b42ac7f